daveefarr

Hi all,

I am looking to buy a new Dell PC in the next two weeks and I'm going to hand down my OLD PC to our daughter, the current spec as follows:

Windows XP SP3
2.67GHz Intel Celeron Processor
Fujitsu Seimens Motherboard D2140
40Gb HDD (although I will plug in a 2nd HDD which is 250GB)
1Gb Ram
DVD/CD Rom

The current Graphics Card is the On Board one but I have just ordered an ATI Radeon 9000 256Mb Card off eBay to cope with the Sims2 Game she likes.

I have two questions really! Her Flatscreen TV has just packed up and the wife thinks it would be a great plan if I were to set the PC up so not only could she watch FREEVIEW through the computer (I;m assuming one of these £20 TV PCI Cards should do the trick?) but also have it set up so she could have the TV running on one monitor and Sims (or Facebook) on the other!

Great Plan but not confident in setting it up! Can I set up a Dual Monitor using the On Board Graphics and the ATI one? Or do I need to order another Graphics Card?

Are these TV Cards any good? I assume the reception would be just as good as using the FREEVIEW box?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Need to get this sorted for Christmas! Cheers Dave :0)

ebackhus

I don't recommend buying a Dell but that's your call.

As for the card, playing a game on one screen while running an application on the other MIGHT work. It depends on how the game will work with dual monitors. Essentially you just need a card with dual outputs.

emosun

When you install a gpu on a pc it automatically disables the onboard video , so you would need a card with dual outputs. Also , when you run full screen applications with dual monitors the second monitor basically becomes useless. It good for viewing system temps or cpu load , or web pages while gaming. But you cannot switch between the two without minimizing the game. The game would have to be run in window mode on one screen to achieve that.

daveefarr

Hi, okay that's good advice! Now the Video Card I just purchased, the ATI Radeon 9000 256Mb Card, has two connections on the back, DVI and the standard analogue serial port for the monitor, I'm assuming I cannot use it for two monitors though can I? Is there a specific make/model that I should be looking for to enable this setup? Is it "pricey"? Again, any advice greatly appreciated!

Dave :0)

emosun

If that specific radeon 9000 card supports dual monitors then it'll work fine. However some cards do have multiple outputs but only support one monitor.