Question about best choice for a second video card and Audio Card.

[matthewc]

Hi I am a new member and this is my first post. I am a novice builder and put together a system for general web surfing, multi media and home entertainment, as well as light gaming.

Here are the details on my system:

Dell Precision 670 upgraded with the following:
-OS Win7 64-Bit OS
-2 x Dual Core 3.6GHz Intel(R) Xeon(TM) processores
-12 GB of RAM
-NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 1GB video card running twin 19" monitors
-Bluetooth Keyboard and mouse

I would like to add a good audio card and am open to suggestions, I listen to most of my music on this PC and watch movies on it as well.

I want to add a second video card so that I can feed my dual 19" monitors as well as a 50" and 42" Plasma at the same time. When I am hosting parties I would like to be able to V-JAY and be able to stream the videos into the three rooms that I have TV's/monitors in.

Thank you for any assistance,
Matthew

 

[its snoodles]

i would go with this one if you can afford it

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...sound_card_pci_express-_-29-132-010-_-Product



and this one if your budget is tight

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132013

and as for the grpahics card if your gunna keep the one you have your gunna have to get a second one of the same card unless you wana buy a set of new cards if you do i can help you with that.

 

[matthewc]

That first sound card looks really nice and is exactly what I am looking for!
Thank you for that suggestion.

As to the Video Card I really like the one I have right now and it has performed flawlessly for everything I have used it for. I know the Win7 Scoring system is not the end all but my current card does rate a 6.7 in Graphics and Gaming Graphics:
Display adapter type NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT
Total available graphics memory 4095 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 1024 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 3071 MB

I am pretty happy with it. Adding a second one of thoses would be absolutely perfect but the hang up is my motherboard only has one PCI Express X16 slot which is where my current card is located. My motherboard also has one PCI Express X8 slot(runs at X4 only), 1 PCI connector and, 3 PCIX Card connectors.

Like I said I am a bit of a novice when it comes to building so I am not quite sure where to go at this point to meet my requirements. I was looking at this card http://www1.sapphiretech.com/ca/products/products_overview.php?gpid=265 and it looked promising. But it is currently unavailable from newegg, Amazon, buy.com etc....

Hmm...here is a quick question, am I overthinking this whole process? I don't want to feed 4 independent monitors per se, I want to mirror my primary monitor to 2 other screens as I said to watch movies or streaming video, etc in multiple rooms. Is there a "splitter cable or controller box" that I can feed the DVI feed off of my #1 monitor feed on my current video card and then split it off to my other monitors? Just a quick thought.

 

[foothead]

Just google dvi splitter and you will find lots of what you jeed. They costa like $10.

And the 4850 x2 is a good card, but you will lose half its performance when more than two monitors are enabled. It would still beat your 9800 pretty handily though.

 

[its snoodles]

if the 1st PCI-E runs at x16 and the second at x4 your not gunna get that great performance boost out of a second card you will get a boost but not by much. yes the 4850 x2 would be a good card im not sure if it would be enough to run the tvs and the monitors, im not sure which would be the better bet 2 9800 GT or the 4850 x2.


edit: and like he said you can get the DVI splitter which would probaly be enough not sure though i have never used one

 

[matthewc]

Yeah I ran into problem trying to use spliters before because my monitors are older VGA monitors and I was already running DVI to VGA Adaptors. Time to swap those for something better I think. And I wont run into that issue, Im thinking pick up a pair of these 22" LCD Monitors:

http://www1.sapphiretech.com/ca/products/products_overview.php?gpid=265

I was also thinking about going with this rather than a mismatch of splitter cables and it would leave me another output if I decide to stream into my kids room as well:

http://www.amazon.com/Powered-Splitter-Support-Bandwidth-10-2Gbps/dp/B0033PUM9I

Lastly has anyone played with the Western Digital 1.5TB USB 2.0 External drives:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136505

I have a 200 plus DVD collection that I would like to Archive digitally so I can have ease of play back.

What do you all think?

Matt

 

[its snoodles]

yeah that splitter should do the job yet again not sure though since i have not used or set up something with so many screens being displayed.