dell 5150 with extra video card

I just bought a Dell Dimension E510 Pentium D dual-core with ATI Radeon X600 256MB PCIe, almost identical configuration to Jeff's.

I'm now shopping for a second video card to support additional pair of monitors.

I intended to buy from Dell an identical card, but it cannot be ordered separately. I guess they only make it available as part of a configured system.

I tried to search for identical card and couldn't find one anywhere, not even at ATI web site.

The only video card that uses the same Radeon X600 chipset is made by Diamond Multimedia. That's what Dell recommended on the phone (after I had to tell her that YES....a computer can support more than 2 monitors....lol)

Furthermore, ATI web site ("where to shop" section) makes a link to the same Diamond Multimedia card

Should I go with this or choose a genuine ATI card as recommended above?

Should the second card be PCIe as well?

The same Dell tech rep told me to have the second video card with "dual-DVI", not 1xDVI and 1xVGA.....but this is confusing. I thought dual-DVI is only needed for huge resolutions, such as the 30" monitors.

Should both cards have 256MB or is this overkill?

Thanks in advance.
 
Options,

The 5150 only has one PCIe slot so the second card must be a PCI. I started having problems with my Radeon card locking up so I took it back and went with a pny geforce fx 5500 128mg from Best Buy for $70.00. It has two VGA outs on the back and has worked flawlessly. I hope that helps.

Jeff
 
Quote from jefftrader:

Options,

The 5150 only has one PCIe slot so the second card must be a PCI. I started having problems with my Radeon card locking up so I took it back and went with a pny geforce fx 5500 128mg from Best Buy for $70.00. It has two VGA outs on the back and has worked flawlessly. I hope that helps.

Jeff
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Thanks Jeff.

I talked again with Dell, this time with a manager who understands the issue and he promised me to research this and let me know what will work.
 
Quote from OptionsWizard:

Thanks Jeff.

I talked again with Dell, this time with a manager who understands the issue and he promised me to research this and let me know what will work.
More...

Dell never got back to me.
I went to a computer store, bought the same GeForce 5500 128MB as you did and had them install and test it.
They expected to have it done in 15min. Took them 5 hours, but it's working.

The only caveat is that the GeForce 128MB must be the primary and the ATI 256MB PCIe is the secondary.
 
I have a 9150 with a stock x300se. Added a PCI Radeon 7000. Everything worked perfectly AFTER I installed the latest Catalyst drivers from ATI site.

PCI Radeon 7000 was $49.95 and it came with 2 outputs (DVI, VGA) in case I want to add another monitor. I got it from Microcenter.

This is the cheapest PCI card with dual output that I could find.
Diamond Radeon S60
 
Quote from lwlee:

"... This is the cheapest PCI card with dual output that I could find.
Diamond Radeon S60
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NOT RECOMMENDED. The Diamond is a "3rd Party" card.... that's just asking for trouble in multi-card setups.

If you have a genuine Radeon card now, get another genuine Radeon card... and avoid all others.
 
Take it for what it is. A confirmation that the S60 works with a 9150 and x300se.

Some people are gonna want to justify their overpriced card as being the gospel.
 
Quote from lwlee:

Take it for what it is. A confirmation that the S60 works with a 9150 and x300se.

Some people are gonna want to justify their overpriced card as being the gospel.
More...

Now you've made yourself clear. In prior post, you only said the S60 was "the cheapest you've found", not that "it works with your other card."

*Some* 3rd-party cards are likely to work... after all, there's lots of them. But they're a bad bet generally unless you already know they work together.
 
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