Cheap PCI or PCIe gfx card for WHS

[asposium]

can someone recommend a cheap PCI or PCIe gfx windows home server?

doesn't need to be at all flash

PCI is prefered as it saves "wasting" a PCIe slot on a gfx card

many thanks

[jim]

Either use integrated graphics if available, or just get the cheapest working card you can get?

It really doesn't matter.

[kevpuk]

PCI can be expensive new, these days, but the Classifieds/eBay are great for this sort of thing

[Singh400]

Is onboard not an option? That would be the preferred choice for a server.

[asposium]

on-board is not an option.
the mobo i want to use doesn't have on-board
and mobos with on-board are too limiting

i will check the classified for a cheap card.

[scaryjim]

mobos with on-board are too limiting

Which mobos are you looking at specifically? And in what ways are they "too limiting"? Given that you're running a (presumably small) home server what features are you looking for that you can't get on an integrated board?

As far as cheap graphics cards go, this MSI HD2350 is about as cheap as you can get at < £10 (when Scan have them in stock): otherwise you're looking at £25 minimum for PCI-e and probably near £40 for PCI.

[Singh400]

With Jim here, what is the primary role of your server and what feature do you want in your chosen motherboard?

[asposium]

primary role of the server is WHS
the server is, and will be used to store and serve photos over a network ... 1GB is essential
needs at least 1 PCIe x4 card for an adaptec 8port SAS card
OS drive will be on the mobo with the storage drives on the SAS card
may want to add a second SAS card in the future, so a second PCIe x4 slot would be useful
current server mobo uses an atom chip ... works okay, but i find the server "lags" sometimes when taking a hammering. might be the on-board / PCI SATA. board doesn't have PCIe so can't use the SAS card.

64bit, as an insurance for the next version of WHS

my desktop has an Asus P5E64 WS evolution mobo
I have found it to be a good mobo
has everything i want for the server, except for on-board video
has dropped in price
would probably use a celeron CPU

thanks for your input

[asposium]

Which mobos are you looking at specifically? And in what ways are they "too limiting"? Given that you're running a (presumably small) home server what features are you looking for that you can't get on an integrated board?

As far as cheap graphics cards go, this MSI HD2350 is about as cheap as you can get at < £10 (when Scan have them in stock): otherwise you're looking at £25 minimum for PCI-e and probably near £40 for PCI.

now that is cheap

might do the job

[TheAnimus]

Remeber that PCI can really slow down the application thats talking to it.

Just running MatLab for a mathematical model simulation stuff, we found changing from PCI to PCIe yeiled almost a 30&#37; speed improvement on exactly the same hardware.

[aidanjt]

I don't think there's any risk of Crysis accidently making it's way onto, and bottlenecking a PCI video card on a server.

[TheAnimus]

I don't think there's any risk of Crysis accidently making it's way onto, and bottlenecking a PCI video card on a server.

Matlab...... nothing that uses hardware acceleration really was installed on the standard quant build.

Seriously, this isn't me talking theoretically, this is me saying we did it. I expected a 5-10% improvment because of how crap talking to the PCI bus is. 30% really did blow me away (was a Matrox card we went from that was driving 3 screens thou)

[aidanjt]

Yes, but this is a server we're talking about, not your workstation. The display will practically be off 99.999&#37; of the time.

[asposium]

the gfx card is only there on the slim off-chance i need to connect KVM to the server to do local "fixing"

hence my not wanting to spend much

the msi card has potential, even if it would mean "wasting" a PCIe x16 slot

[DanceswithUnix]

Yes, but this is a server we're talking about, not your workstation. The display will practically be off 99.999% of the time.

Off, and yet somehow displaying a swirly screen-saver

Perhaps choice of a Celeron is another limit here, have you looked at AMD based motherboards?

Link to first one I saw, 71 quid.

[llololloy]

Don't need to waste a x16 slot, just get a x1 to x16 adapter.
ie this one
and this 2350 as mentioned.