Quiet Video Card - Dual VGA

mgarl10024 · Post by **mgarl10024** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 9:59 am

Hi all,

I'm building a new system (combining 2 into 1) and so will have two LCD monitors which I'd like to use at the same time - dual head.

I've been trying to find a video card that will support two monitors at once, however as soon as I filter by "dual" in ebuyer - every single card has a fan on it, and from past history these tend to be noisy.

The slight snag is that my LCDs only have VGA inputs, so even though these noisy monsters are "dual", they're "dual DVI".

But then I remembered when I was setting up my media center on the TV, I had cables plugged into both the DVI and VGA ports on my nothing-special cheapo video card http://www.ebuyer.com/product/116473 #Asus EN6200LE 64MB Turbocache supporting 256MB DDR DVI PCI-E Graphics Card, and could use Dual Head then.

This got me thinking then whether I could just buy a standard (passive) video card with both VGA and DVI and use an adapter like http://www.ebuyer.com/product/57627 to convert the DVI to a VGA - therefore supporting two VGA monitors off of one card.

What do people think? Has anyone done this? What success did you have?
Would really appreciate any stories of experiences in this area.

Thanks,

MG

Klusu · Post by **Klusu** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 10:17 am

Yes, you can. Just do not buy a card with digital only DVI connector. (I bought once one, GF6200. ASUS saved 5 cents).
I looked at your link - it says "1 x DVI-D - 24 pin digital DVI". You can not connect old VGA to DVI-D.

mgarl10024 · Post by **mgarl10024** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 2:07 pm

Hi Klusu,

Thanks for your reply.

As a result, I've done some reading around and have found that you are absolutely right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DVI_C ... _Types.svg shows the different types, and it needs to be capable of DVI-A for the little adapter I suggested to work.

So, as I understand it, as long as the card I get has DVI which is DVI-I (integrated) it'll be able to do both DVI-D and DVI-A (which is what I want).

Am I right?

Thanks,

MG

AMDforlife · Post by **AMDforlife** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 9:34 pm

Yes you want a video card with DVI-I output. This can be converted to VGA with the proper adapter (included with most video cards for the many years).

I have configured a lot of these setups at work. Dual, VGA-only LCDs having to be run from video cards without dual VGA outputs. Ha! The work around is easy enough though with those adapters.

Just make sure you get a good look at the DVI output, so it can indeed be converted to VGA.

dg100 · Post by **dg100** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 8:39 am

The Asus EN9600GT SILENT/2D/512MD3
has 2xDVI-I ports. Only one DVI-VGA converter is supplied but they are quite cheap and easy to get.

I was trying to post a direct link to the manufacturer page but apparently I need to have 3 posts to be allowed to do that.

add www dot asus dot com before this:
/product.aspx?P_ID=dPFp3RtncJ5vDNBV&templete=2

I have no personal experience with it but read some reviews, which were generally positive.

sonic6k · Post by **sonic6k** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:12 am

A bit older business oriented Quadros are sold on eBay for very cheap. Something like NVS 285 it has a DMS-59 connector, make sure you get the adapter for it to give you two VGA connectors directly. Makes much easier to configure dual screen setups. If I am not completely mistaken the NVS 285 is something like a GeForce 6600; not that old and does the job. All NVS series Quadro I have seen to date are passive cooled. The perfect solution?