Low-Profile Video Cards?

Catherine Ellerman asks: "I'm after a couple of REALLY low-profile video cards to put in a firewall/router. Motherboards with built in video and networking are available but the reason why I don't really want to go out and buy a new motherboard is because a lot of the processing power would be wasted. Back in my parts store I've a couple of 120Mhz Pentium motherboards that will do the job nicely and a friend of mine helped me source the low-profile NICs (at just over an inch high they're hardly noticeable). All I need now is someone to help me find a couple of low-profile video cards and get the bugs out of the latest kernel."

Comments

Another idea

[flikx]

Why not leave a video card out completely? If this is for a router/firewall/NAT gateway, you shouldn't need to do much console work. Build the system with no video card at all, and use the serial port for a console during emergencies.

Just my 2 , since that's what I do on my network.

Re:Another idea

[psergiu]

Some mobo's won't budge if they don't find a video card somewhere :(

For my low profile setups i usually use an 1 slot isa extender (in US, i have seen those at fry's, or you could use isa slots and sockets from old/fried mobos and cards and the soldering iron to make an L-shaped extender) and a isa vga or hercules card (anything that will make the bios happy)

Re:Another idea

[BRTB]

Serial console... make sure you have Serial Console support in the kernel, add "console=ttySx" to the LILO append= line, and maybe fix the /dev/console device node. The Text-Terminal HOWTO has the details.

Re:Buggy kernel...

[psergiu]

and OpenBSD also has almost-builtin[tm] serial console support. Even for instalation. (you have to modify one line in one file on the install disk).

The Freebsd install floppy will sense and use a serial console if you send enough Break signals.

That's nice...

[LinuxGeek8]

I'm after a couple of REALLY low-profile video cards to put in a firewall/router.

That's nice for you.
Only problem is you forgot to put your mail adress in the post so we can get rid of our garbage.

But yes, I understand your problem, just when you need that something low-profile, noone in the neighbourhood seems to have some left-overs.

Soldering Iron

[Ratbert42]

This is the sort of thing where I'd break out some wire-wrap wire and a soldering iron. Duct tape the video card somewhere and wire it to the ISA connector. (I pity the fool that does this with a PCI card.)

Can you believe that I've only fried one motherboard doing crap like that?

Alternate Options

[uslinux.net]

Assuming strictly console and ethernet access is not an option, have you considered 90 degree riser cards? Most 1U rack servers use them. As a matter of fact, the nicest one I've seen is a PCI riser for a 1U rack unit with PCI slots on either side, so you can get two PCI cards in one slot (but since they're horizontal, you lose all your other slots). I've seen them on the web before, and if you do a little searching, you might get lucky. Perhaps try someplace like http://allelectronics.com. Of course, you still need a case for this equipment...

Re:Alternate Options

[Matt_Bennett]

Because of the way PCI works, you can't just turn 1 slot into 2 without a bridge built onto the riser, or a specially modified slot on the motherboard that brings out another PCI REQ/GNT pair. In that case, the PCI riser must be paired with a specific motherboard, since there is no standard for this.

Re:Alternate Options

[ivan256]

There are PCI risers that have a little 4 pin piece of card on the end of a wire that grab the extra signals from another slot without taking up more space. I assume that the riser he mentions does this, or that it is motherbaord specific.

Re:Alternate Options

[Matt_Bennett]

We have no disagreement- you're repeating what I said:

you can't just turn 1 slot into 2 without a bridge built onto the riser

You can also run into the problem of violating the PCI power limits if you try to power 2 cards off of one slot. Most cards don't come near to the limit, but you increase the odds of a problem by trying to power more than one card.

i'll second that Re:Buggy kernel...

[StandardDeviant]

OpenBSD is just a dream to work with for any sort of networking/security task. Working with (i)pf after ip(chains|tables) is like a religious epiphany. It might require a little gear shifting for a person whose previous experience was Linux only, but it's not that hard really (I'm no guru with obsd but I was up and running with a firewall in a couple of days).

another option

[StandardDeviant]

the other posts about using an isa or pci extender are all good ideas, as is the idea of installing with a vid card then yanking it. Another option (more expensive but also potentially nicer) is the PC weasel: http://www.realweasel.com/intro.html This would be ideal if this machine you're planning on building will be in a place that's inconvenient to get to. Also, here's a place selling 8mb ati chipset low profile pci cards: http://www.c-source.com/csource/newsite/ttechnote. asp?part_no=500182 (searched pricewatch for "low profile vid").

Re:another option

[whatsit]

My favorite place for risers is Barada In Canada. The seem to have a fairly large selection of pci and isa risers. However, I didn't see any ISA risers under 2.4 inches tall, but some of the PCI risers (even old Pentium boards should support these) are very small.

Of course, if your case doesn't like side-ways cards, you will need to take your Dremel to it or come up with some other way to hack it together.

All of this is assuming that you are going to need the video output from your low profile setup. If you don't need a direct monitor feed from the box, I would highly recommend The Weasel and an extra serial port on another machine. If you read Japanese and have a currency converter handy, you can check out the product page on their distributor's site.

Perhaps you could share your design with use (the case in particular) so that we don't have to guess at your setup?

Matrox..

[cmowire]

I know that I've at least seen advertising materials for Matrox's low-profile PCI video cards. I couldn't find it on Matrox's website, so you might have to contact them or a reseller that works on low-profile PCI products.

Ask Google

[jamiea]

Google "low-profile pci video card"

Yeesh.

Re:Buggy kernel...

[Maul]

Agreed. As much as I love Linux, I think BSD is probably the better choice for the task.

What about

[senine]

Try using a agp or pci riser card. These adapters fit between the card and the slot, and allow you to mount the card parallel to the board, as opposed to perpendicular to it.

They make right angle and flexible ones.

-Senine

What kind of case are you going to use?

[unitron]

You don't say why you need low profile expansion cards. Are you trying to stick a regular AT or AT but with a PS/2 keyboard and mouse into an LPX case? (I once did that before realising that I could unsolder the PS/2 ports and solder in a regular DIN connector for the keyboard.)