Low watt cards?

regal196 · Post by **regal196** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:09 pm

I have two video card that I can use in a print server and maybe a firewall. I am wondering which video card would draw less energy, but be more dependable. I will be running windows 98 or some form of linux (haven't decided).

The two cards are:
1) S3 Virge (PCI)
or
2) TNT 2-VANTA (AGP card made by ASUS).

If there is anything else that needs to be posted, just tell me.

Thanks in advance,

-Pennell

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:19 pm

1) S3 Virge (PCI)

jojo4u · Post by **jojo4u** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 7:57 am

Any card with no heatsink should be fine.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 4:18 pm

i would run no vid card. go remote desktop style. I never used a vid card for any linux box.

its not like that thing could show any graphics with a pci... welll actually S3 is a nice company..... some great graphics cards they made.

going ultra low watt comp? give some specs, they are fun to make

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:47 pm

All motherboards I have tried booting without a graphics card has refused to POST. Is it possible to do that? It would be great.

hvengel · Post by **hvengel** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:23 pm

Linux boxes (and other Unix like systems) are often used as servers and are almost always run headless (IE, without video hardware). But you may need to search for a motherboard that will post without a video card. This should not be too difficult to find. You will likely need a vid card to get the system boot strapped but once it is configured you should be able to remove the video card. At that point you would use your regular workstation to bring up a terminal session via the network when you need to do work on the server. Normally most servers would only be setup for a character termainal but if you want to be really fancy you could install and run x.org and the you would be able to bring up remote GUI sessions.

I don't think you will be able to run Win98 headless. So this is only an option if you use Linux or some other unix like OS.

regal196 · Post by **regal196** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:26 pm

~El~Jefe~ wrote:i would run no vid card. go remote desktop style. I never used a vid card for any linux box.

its not like that thing could show any graphics with a pci... welll actually S3 is a nice company..... some great graphics cards they made.

going ultra low watt comp? give some specs, they are fun to make

It is using the mobo from a old (1998, i think) HP Pavillion with a PIII CPU, think it is a Slot 1 CPU. The mobo is a ASUS and it still has a ISA* slot. It has 128mb of RAM. If you want more info, just tell me.

The S3 is from an even older computer, a Micron Home MPC

All motherboards I have tried booting without a graphics card has refused to POST. Is it possible to do that? It would be great. Smile

yes, that would be cool, but i still would like ability to see what is going on

Link to other thread about this computer: viewtopic.php?t=38395[/quote]

jojo4u · Post by **jojo4u** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:28 am

Vicotnik wrote:All motherboards I have tried booting without a graphics card has refused to POST.

There is an BIOS option "halt on all errors". Have you tried to play with this?

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:48 pm

yeah thats a good idea. no halting. shrugs.

i have run pentium 1's headless, p2's, athlons and a pentium 4. never did it with a three. never had a problem with no vid card.

you see everything from a remote desktop type of thing, same thing as having a vid card.