Low-Profile Graphics Cards?

thebrix asks: "I've acquired a Dell OptiPlex GX150. It's a pleasant machine to use - small, quiet and uses only 145 watts at full tilt with my flat panel - but its Achilles heel is the feeble i815 on-board graphics which steals RAM from main memory and plasters black bars onto my KDE desktop at inconvenient moments. There's a 4xAGP slot, but it's low-profile because of the small chassis and finding a low-profile graphics card is proving difficult because, invariably, manufacturers are more interested in listing whizzo features than how big the card is. So far, the Matrox G550 Dual DVI is the only card I've come across which definitely fits. Does anyone know of others?"

Comments

Can't you get an agp bus extension at an L?

[linzeal]

I thought I saw an AGP bus extension at an L at fry's (I know they have them for PCI), so long as you are not using any of the probably first few pci slots you could do this.

Try the Asus V7100 Pro

[Mifflesticks]

Check out http://navasgrp.home.att.net/tech/low_profile_vide o.htm

He says that the Asus V7100 Pro (http://www.asus.com.tw/vga/agpv7100pro/overview.h tm) will work (he has even more stringent requirements than you, it seems)

did you try ATI?

[Galahad]

When I worked there, they made a low-profile card for use in a riser assembly. It might have been OEM only though, I don't recall.

Nvidia Quadro 4 200NVS

[pcmills]

I have one of these working in a small form factor Compaq/HP. Quadro 4

Stick with the G550

[brejc8]

I say stick with the G550. I have one in the office and its very vice with two screens.
By the way The VGA/DVI version is low profile too.

Re:Stick with the G550

[EvilBudMan]

This card is highly regarded too. Dual monitors are cool.

Re:Stick with the G550

[brejc8]

The best thing was it came with linux software on CD.

NLX vs ATX card styles

[dpilot]

I believe I may have run into this, before.

You may want to look for cards that advertise 'NLX' compatibility. The NLX I/O shield is half as high and twice a wide as conventional card IO shields. (also known as ATX, perhaps overloading the motherboard acronym) A few years back I installed a G400 in a system at work to replace the planar video, and it came with an NLX shield in the box. A few moments to change shields, and it was in and running.

GeForce 2 MX

[decep]

Most GeForce 2 MXs are relatively low profile. I'm sure there are some low profile GF4MXs out there.

Re:did you try ATI?

[flux4]

I retail ATI in Canada and they don't have any low-profile cards available for me, boxed or OEM. If they did, I'd be a happier retailer.

Second hand?

[tsa]

I also had a 815I. It's a pest. Why don't you try a second hand diamond Viper 550 or 770?

Modem

[b0bby]

I have a GX150 too & I was looking around for a low profile modem without much success. I just ended up with a standard modem in which the pcb was small enough to fit & I cut & bent the bracket. The case doesn't need screws to hod the card in place so you don't have to do anything fancy.

Re:Modem

[Yogger]

I actually have a winmodem that came with a GX150 my work bought. I know that it fits and works perfectly, it was just sent by accident one time. Let me know if you need another one.

Had a similar problem with an i810 card

[Dave114]

Someone else discovered that adding Option "XaaNoOffscreenPixmaps" "Yes" to your video card config in xf86 v.4 would solve that problem. Maybe it'll also solve your i815 problem.

Have you tried Dell?

[Yogger]

For a while my company was ordering the GX150's with an extra video card. Something from ATI I seem to recall. You might be able to order whatever card it was seperatly.

Here's a thought

[glens]

Go to the Dell link you provided and click on the "Tech Specs" tab/link in that page; then click on "Learn more" for the graphics options about 1/3 of the way down the second page. That will give you a couple of quick ideas.