budget dual monitor capable computer

[skier]

Hi,

I'm looking to build/buy an extremely low budget computer. I guess I will start by explaining with what I need to do with it and what I don't. I won't be doing very many daily or typical tasks on this setup because I have a powermac to do that all on. I will be playing poker on this computer.

I have a dell 2405fpw and a dell 2001fp for monitors and I need to be able to run a dual monitor setupo with these two on this computer. I'll be running these kinds of programs on it:

one or two poker clients, 4-8 tables a piece plus lobbies (lets say 12 windows)
Firefox
A database application that runs very slowly on my dell 2400 at the moment tracking thousands of poker hands.
another tracking application that runs ok on that same dell
a couple of analysis tools
an IM or two.

Preferebly all at once (just running in the background etc).

that is all that this computer will be used for. No gaming, watching movies, playing/storing music or anything like that. I'm looking to spend less than $500 if possible, but can spend more if necessary.

Anyone have any suggestions as to where I should buy this and what I should buy? I was looking at custom built ones and I wouldn't mind going that route since all the big names seem to have built in video in my price range, but i really have no idea what components i should be selecting.


Also. does anyone know of any sort of affordable dvi/vga switches so i can run this dual monitor setup with this pc and my powermac?

Thanks.

[Silver Bullet]

Custom build machines for this price are hard... i usually build custom machines for proformance and not much else. For the price your looking for i would get either a used system from the BST thread (example: here (http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=284333) ) OR get a Dell 3100* (i have it down to $459 + tax & shipping). Then buy a graphics card that gets the job done for you. I would get something reasonable (Dual DVI) to keep the monitors looking as clear as possible.

* You will have to confirm with Dell that it has either an open PCI-E or AGP slot, they say it does.. but never assume anything with Dell

As for the splitter .. not sure, I have seen a couple but DVI switches are usually pretty expensive.

[Evil Baby]

I have a Radeon 9500 pro and it can do dual monitors. I'm using it right now but people are selling them dirt cheap. like $30 to $60. I'd look at that. I can only assume that it would be able to handle what you want. Look into getting as much decent ram as you can as well.

[skier]

I've been doing some research, and I'll have to email dell about the 3100, but this is what i've come up with as a possible setup and I would have it built by NCIX or someone:

Antec Sonata 2 case - $115
AMD Sempron 2600t - $85
ASRock 939 Dual SATA2 Mobo - $95
1Gb Ram - ~$100
80gb HD - $75
LG DVD Writer - $55 ( I could go with a cd drive, but for $30 more....)
video card of some sort ~$120

Total ~$600

It's a little more than I would like to spend, but it could work, how would this compare to a dell 3100 (by the way, how did you get that down to 449?)

thanks.

[MrWizard]

Your processor and your mobo are not compatible. Your processor is a socket 754 while your mobo is socket 939.

[skier]

So I looked on the dell web site (forums) and it seems that you can add a pci video card to the 3100. I also found some compatbile motherboards on the ncix web site. What kind of video card (agp, pci, pci-e) is best for value vs. performance for this kind of high resolution setup. Hmmm, just looked again(http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_video&message.id=120719) (thats where I found my previous info) and apparently my 2400 can accept a pci video card. So i guess the question now is, can I get a pci video card to put into my dell dimension 2400 and update the ram to say 1gb (256mb right now) and will it be able to run a lot of windows at 1600x1200 and 1920x1200?