jscottbell

Forgive me if I betray my ignorance

I have been researching upgrading my graphics card and this is what I have to work with;

My current system is an HP Media Center M7664x the only real upgrade per se is a second internal HD (Seagate 1TB Barracuda) and maxed RAM at 4MB.

My WinXP (SP3) MCE OS runs at 32 bits can only use 3.3 of the 4.0 MB (I find out after recently filling the last slot with another 1 MB card.

Mother Board: Asus A8M2N-LA (with integrated graphics/audio cards)

Dual Core Athlon 64 X2 (W) 4200+ 2.2 GHz

The Nvida 6510 LE supports dual monitor output but doesn't provide it without adding another card and it is integrated into the MB. Reportedly the internal PSU is only 200w.

So far my research indicates most of the mid to high end cards will require 400w-600w but a lot of the PCI Express articles and descriptions emphasis low power consumption ratings. I realize consumption levels and required power supply on tap are not equivalent however.

I'd prefer not to replace the internal power supply but adding an auxilary supply may work for me.

My main applications graphic card wise would be Digital Photography and some DVR use out to an HDTV (I'm not obsessed with cutting edge video quality). My priorities quality wise would lean more to the digital photography still photo application; DVR thats better than the S video out at least and I'm not a gamer. Basically I'm looking more for referance quality still imaging and not hyper indulgent blow your mind fast action updating desirable for gaming.

Any good options?

My main compatibility concern is the PSU - however one of the manufacturers comaptibility guides said any board running AMD dual core should be adequate and made no reference to minimum PSU requirements.

I'd prefer to stay under $100 but again I'm not going for cutting edge.

emosun

None of our team members are going to recommend any card on a 200w power supply. They put a 200w in the pc specifically to barely power the system as is. Oem companies usually do this to save costs.

As for your onboard 6150 it doesn't support dual monitors. Since you seem to only need a card for dual monitors to support another tv the only card I'll recommend on that power supply is a 6200le. Only because I've personally had the card and know it functions on bad power supplies due to it's low end gpu.

jscottbell

Thanks for the input.

The PC specs specifically claimed the 6150 LE "supported dual monitor applications" and the NVIDIA software has some options as such but the hardware does not support any form of dual monitor function? Somebody did some false advertising....

(To HP and not emosun) How is this then any kind of a Media Center HP?

The software is there and a coax in and out
-An S video out is supplied but apparantly non functional....Its hard wired to the 6150LE
The hook up guide and user manual say you should be able to just plug in the S video for this exact purpose and you are good to go with the PC as shipped.
-any replacement card will have its own PCI jack for connections supplied
- since you have to replace at least two pieces of hardware to get any Media Center function out of the software and a third one for decent audio I fail to see any usable media center function in this PC as is.....

If I am replacing the graphics card and by necessity the PSU what would be a good bang for the buck for a midline PCI Express graphics card for Win XP?

- Quality wise priorities would be for Digital Photography Editing (still frame over video)
- Decent output to an HD TV for DVR applications and using the PC online with wireless keyboard.

So output wise I need;
2 VGA outs Dsub 15 pin (one to main monitor and one to TV with VGA input)
1 DVI minimum (HDMI optional but my TV only has one HDMI and one DVI as is)
On board RAM for the graphics card (I'm assuming all decent mid level cards include this)

I will likely add an an audio card upgrade for light duty DAW recording/mixing with balanced input/output/MIDI.

I am usally pretty good at researching this stuff but I have wasted far too many hours trying to get the S video out working as advertised I'm too far behind and frustrated to start plan B from scratch when others know this stuff pretty much off the top of their heads.

The Amish lifestyle looks more apealing to me every day (except getting up so early LOL)

Phædrus2401

For just watching videos and such you don't need much at all, a GeForce 8400GS should work just fine.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130313
It has one VGA, one DVI, and one HDMI/S-video, which is about the best set of outputs you're going to find.

You will however need a better power supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817171036


If you plan to do any gaming at all then you'll need something more powerful, maybe a GeForce 8600GT/9500GT or greater, but for just video the 8400GS will work fine.