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I've googled and got mixed messages..
I have this motherboard [url= http://www.tyan.com/Motherboards_S2927-E_S2927G2NR-E ]Tyan Thunder n3600b s2927-E[/url]
It has PCI Express x 16 and given it was 2006 I reckon we can safely say its version 1.0.
I want a good graphics card happy to pay £150 ish or less, dual output to dvi monitors (I reckon I can convert most outputs with cable nes pa?)
Problem is most seem to be PCI e version 2.1 onwards.
Wikipedia says [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express ]version 2.1 onwards[/url] is not backwards compatible..
Its just to do a bit of basic cad and complex fea.
I think you've answered your own question.
Far as I can tell (from Googling the NFP3600 chipset), that board is PCI-E 1.0 and there's no mention of it being updated in BIOS revisions.
As per Wikipedia, "most" PCI-E 2.1+ boards have a power requirement beyond the 1.0 spec so won't work. There's plenty of people saying the opposite, but my gut feeling is that they've misunderstood the compatibility (or got lucky).
That said, it depends what you mean by a "good" graphics card. This looks perfect to me:
Dual DVI, in budget, Nvidia's CAD chipset, PCI-E 2.0 bus.
Well I'd imagine the FEA shouldn't be an issue for graphics, I have some [s]junk[/s] old cards in the loft I could check the specs on. TBH though you'll be talking major legacy issues (complete non driver support for older ATI cards) and probably performance compromises.
Having checked dates I have a 1GB Radeon 4400 (I think) that should fit the bill. It's passive cooled but I have a spare zalman fan and heatsink that I can have a go at fitting and see if it will slot in. One DVI port, one SVHS and one VGA that can be converted (I'm sure I have a spare converter)I also have the card the sink came off of that started glitching (purple vision in games, lovely), you can have that as well and see how you get on.
Anything else you think you need? I have a few [b]non-ECC[/b] 800MHz 512mb DDR2 RAM chips. Not sure if they would work with your board (it specs registered ECC but so do a lot that it may work with) but you're welcome to them if it keeps your rig running. Some beer tokens and you can have the lot.
I reckon I can convert most outputs with cable nes pa?
I'm not sure why you'd want to, but worth noting that DVI to VGA is a simple adapter if it's DVI-A (analogue, and unlikely) or DVI-I (both), but DVI-D (digital) to VGA will give you headaches.
One DVI port, one SVHS and one VGA that can be converted (I'm sure I have a spare converter)
Point of note, if the port is a DVD-D (with no analogue pins next to the spade connector), it's highly likely that that card will only drive one of the two outputs at once rather than being dual-headed.
I'll have a look and check the specs, thanks for mentioning.
Almost certain it's a Sapphire HD3450 in which case it's dual display capable.
Cougar, yup thats what I reckon anyway cheers. Good find that.
Squirrelking thanks for the offer, I will go with that new card Cougar found cheers.
Eeer, quick check:512MB VRAM? Is that enough? If you're running a viewport with any textures you could pass that, pronto.