Am I on the right track with this list?

Tronix · Post by **Tronix** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 6:28 pm

The old A7N8X motherboard in my current system has croaked so it's time for a new setup. This is my home desktop system, it's used for mostly basic stuff. Office, Quicken, web surfing, scanning, music server, and the (very) occasional game.

I hope to reuse my current case, power supply, 19" LCD monitor and other miscellaneous items. The case is an Antec SLK-3700BQE. After searching and reading the forums this is what I've come up with. Am I on the right track?

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L Motherboard
ASUS Radeon HD 3450 EAH3450/HTP/256M Fanless Video Card
Western Digital Caviar GP WD7500AACS 750GB Hard Drive
Thermalright Ultra-90(P4LGA-775) Heatsink
Thermalright LGA775 Retention Bracket

I still need to choose the RAM, 2GB should be plenty, and a fan for the cooler. I've always used RAM from Crucial. Any reasons not to?

Can I run 2 DVI monitors from this video card? I have another 19" LCD and it'd be cool to have a dual monitor setup. If not, are there any fanless video cards that will run dual DVI monitors?

Thanks for any and all input!!
Bruce

Immortals · Post by **Immortals** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 6:49 pm

Looks good to me. I'm assuming you've already bought the case. The Thermalright Ultra Extreme is probably a better heatsink although i assume you're getting the ultima 90 because the TRUE doesn't fit in your case. Other than that it's fine

oz_smurf · Post by **oz_smurf** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:53 am

Tronix wrote: ASUS Radeon HD 3450 EAH3450/HTP/256M Fanless Video Card

Can I run 2 DVI monitors from this video card? I have another 19" LCD and it'd be cool to have a dual monitor setup. If not, are there any fanless video cards that will run dual DVI monitors?

Thanks for any and all input!!
Bruce

Hi Bruce,

The video card you have listed only includes 1 DVI port, so you won't be able to run dual DVI monitors with it, unless you're happy to run one using a DSUB port?

There are a number of reasonably priced fanless video cards with dual DVI ports - try Newegg's advanced search feature to narrow down the list. I would paste the URL but as this is my first post, I'm being prevented from doing so!

A friend of mine has had the "MSI RX2600Pro-T2D256EZ/D2 Radeon HD 2600PRO 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Silent Heatpipe Video Card" for a couple of months and has been happy with it but the newer ATI 3xxx may be even better? I'm sure someone on this forum can shed more light on this but I hope this is a helpful start.

Good luck with the new machine!

Cheers,

Nick

Tronix · Post by **Tronix** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 5:59 am

Thanks for the feedback!

I chose the Ultra-90 cooler because it's half the price of the Ultra-120.

Nick, I'll look over the video card choices again. I see the MSI but some folks complain about it's size. Anyone know anything about the SAPPHIRE 100234L Radeon HD 3450? I'd like to keep costs low.

Hydrazine · Post by **Hydrazine** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:18 am

you could always buy one with 2 DVI ports and stick an AC S1 or S2 on it, but if i'm correct in most cases, it will void your warranty

tsmvengy · Post by **tsmvengy** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 4:48 am

Fanless cards w/ 2 DVI ports:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... rchInDesc=

Tronix · Post by **Tronix** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:55 am

Thanks!

I'm looking at this Asus card.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6814121237

Am I on the right track with this list?

Am I on the right track with this list?

Re: Am I on the right track with this list?