need advice on purchasing a pci-e video card to mod to use in x1 slot

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evanesce

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Messages
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I have been given a micro-atx motherboard, everything's okay except for the onboard vga is fried. I tried reflowing it but it's just not coming back to life.

It posts and stuff, just crashes on anything video intent to a scrambled screen, not even BSOD.

Anyways, need advice on a pci-e x16 card that is just capable enough to run 1080p at x1 bottleneck bandwidth (the board only has one x1 slot and that's it, very cheap e-machine).

I could get an x1 video card but it's cheaper to get an x16 and modify it down to use here in my situation.

Just plan on using as an HTPC, so I don't need good graphics, just enough to play 1080p without studdering is fine. I believe x1 has enough bandwidth for that.
 
I could sell you an old msi 560ti twin frozer, but I don't know if it can fit in your case.
 
Any cheap HD 5450 or HD 6450 will do the job.
 
I found this ATI Radeon 2400 XT 256MB card on ebay but it looks like it has some sort of dual displayports or something. at $10 shipped that's the price point i'm looking for. Is there a way to mod that to accept HDMI without a $15 adapter cable? Also looks like it's in the same gfx speed hierarchy tier as the 5450 or 6450.
 
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evanesce said:
I found this ATI Radeon 2400 XT 256MB card on ebay but it looks like it has some sort of dual displayports or something. at $10 shipped that's the price point i'm looking for. Is there a way to mod that to accept HDMI without a $15 adapter cable? Also looks like it's in the same gfx speed hierarchy tier as the 5450 or 6450.
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The problem is that the 2400XT doesn't have the HD decoding chip that the HD 5450 or HD 6450 has. So the newer cards are going to be a whole lot better for watching HD content.

As for an adapter, AFAIK, there's no way to do that kind of mod without buying an adapter.
 
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Dangman said:
The problem is that the 2400XT doesn't have the HD decoding chip that the HD 5450 or HD 6450 has. So the newer cards are going to be a whole lot better for watching HD content.
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+++kudos for pointing that out! Thanks!

Will the x1 bottleneck interfere with the HD decoding chip in your opinion?
 
I found this ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB PCI-E on ebay also..

It's not as fast as a 5450 or 6450 but it's close, do you know if this has the HD encoding chip? I know it also doesn't have HDMI, but I could deal with DVI.

Edit: actually noticed that it's not HDMI, it's a special DMS-59 port which also needs a bloody adapter :p
 
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evanesce said:
I could get an x1 video card but it's cheaper to get an x16 and modify it down to use here in my situation.
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Small FYI that I haven't seen pointed out here yet.
Will be much easier to mod the socket and not the card. All you should have to do is carefully cut the back off the x1 socket so the card can stick out of the back. Assuming the card can run in x1 mode that's all you should have to do.
 
FnordMan said:
Small FYI that I haven't seen pointed out here yet.
Will be much easier to mod the socket and not the card. All you should have to do is carefully cut the back off the x1 socket so the card can stick out of the back. Assuming the card can run in x1 mode that's all you should have to do.
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That's actually what I did, used a dremel with a grinding wheel. Came out pretty good but I ended up cutting a few traces by accident. It _looks_ like the traces just go to an unused pci-e tin dots that the motherboard wasn't designed to have so I don't think they need to be repaired.

I got a slightly bigger problem though, there's not a lot of space to fit a card in that small case. The video card is going to have to be on the small side. I'm going to need to measure perhaps. Not sure how long those 5450's or 6450's are. But if I did get one of those cards, I don't want to (like you said) permanently limit it's abilities for a future use :)
 
Can someone possibly tell me if this is a low profile card by looking at it? I'm thinking it is, but I can't tell, can't seem to pull up specs either. Assuming LP means Low Power, not profile :)
 
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LP = Low Profile.

Yes that card is a low profile card, The bracket should have been a dead giveaway of that fact.
 
Dangman said:
LP = Low Profile.

Yes that card is a low profile card, The bracket should have been a dead giveaway of that fact.
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Thanks! I have another problem. Looks like i have no more than 6.25 inches clearance in this case before it touches the edge of the dvd drive.

oaups8.jpg


I could probably be okay with removing the DVD drive to make room, since it's only needed to install windows then i can trash the drive. However it looks like that would only buy me like an additional half inch :p
 
evanesce said:
...since it's only needed to install windows then i can trash the drive. However it looks like that would only buy me like an additional half inch :p
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Make a USB Windows Installer... no self respecting geek should be without one.

I absolutely refuse to install Windows 7 via DVD these days unless I just have absolutely no other choice. It's so nice to install Windows in less than ten minutes flat. ;)
 
I wonder if this system is capable of booting off of USB. I'd say it's likely, not that old. Windows XP era.
 
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