Pentium 2 compaq and PCI video card

[onesmartidiot]

MY buddys work cleaned their storage closet out and I ended up with 5 computers (2 being servers) and alot of monitors.

2 of the computers were compaq deskpros with pentium 2's with MMX. However, It seems someone snatched the videocards already. I tried putting a GF2 agp card in, but it turns out the backplate cutout is halfsized. SO instead of buying an old agp card that will only work in this system, Ive decided to look for PCI graphics cards.

I have my eyes on a nvidia 5200 with 256mb memory. But I dont know if the system can keep up with it, or what i should look for.

This compaq system has full pci cutouts in the back so it should work. I just figured i'd check with you guys to make sure it will work. (since ill buy another one for the other maching system)

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

A 5200 would work fine, however, it's probably over-doing it. You'd get by just fine (and save yourself a few bucks) with something like this on a PII. It's not like you'll be doing more than very minimal tasks with the PC anyway, with the 5200 or otherwise.

 

[onesmartidiot]

Wow do I feel dumb or what

Here I am concerned about blowing up an old processor with a hunky card and you find exactly what I need for the right price.

Question, will 8mb run ubuntu smoothly? and above 800x600?

Because thats probably what I will drop on those bad boys.

The dell server i got with these machines has 2mb integrated video and dosent really like ubuntu.

It turns on and works, but at low resolutions. And it craps its pants when a screen saver comes on.

Also, I'm a newegg guy, Ive never shopped tiger because I dont do rebates.

Are they any good?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

TigerDirect is decent, I usually get my stuff from then in less than 5 business days, trouble free.

I've actually used that card in a client's PC (just wanted it to use Excel on an ancient Dell). Worked great from what I can remember. I believe I had it displaying 1024x728 in XP Professional.

 

[Nodsu]

8MB is more than enough video memory for any reasonable resolution.
1600x1200x3=5.5MB for example.

Ubuntu's speed will depend mostly on system memory, not video. Unless you have 512MB of RAM, Xubuntu would be a better choice.