Graphics Card assistance

[unwired]

Hi

I recently picked up a pc which had been used as a server by my old company.

It has the following spec:

Super Micro Computer X7SBL-LN2 Motherboard
- 1 PCI Express x8 , 1 PCI Express x8 ( x4 mode ) , 2 PCI ( 5 V )
Core 2 Duo 5300 cpu
2G DDR 2 PC2-6400 ram
250G SATA HDD

The obvious problem is that there is no onboard sound card and no video card.

Sound card - no prob - can pick up that.

Is it still possible I could find a video card for pci-e x8?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[ponder]

I speak under correction but I think you can run a x16 card in x8 slot but you might have to cut the back out of the x8 slot so the card fits if the physical size is different to a x16 slot else it should work fine but only in x8 lane configuration.

EDIT: You sure that MB has no onboard GPU?
According to http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/3200/X7SBL-LN2.cfm it has on board XGI Volari Z9S 32MB Graphics which was developed by SiS and eventually XGI was brought out by SiS.

Drivers for it can be found here: http://w3.sis.com/download/

 

[Pada]

Why would you want to install a graphics card in that motherboard? The PC is simply too slow for any modern games in any case.

Apparently you can just get a PCI-E 16x graphics card and install it in the PCI-E 8x slot, but you might have to cut out the back of the PCI-E 8x slot for the 16x card to fit

Edit:ROFL ponder had the exact same idea ^^

 

[unwired]

Why would you want to install a graphics card in that motherboard? The PC is simply too slow for any modern games in any case.

Apparently you can just get a PCI-E 16x graphics card and install it in the PCI-E 8x slot, but you might have to cut out the back of the PCI-E 8x slot for the 16x card to fit

Edit:ROFL ponder had the exact same idea ^^

Thanks for the advice. Got this cheap and thought I could use it as a home pc.
No gaming, just MS Word, email, internet, skype and youtube.

Sounds like I need a new m/board and cpu.

 

[ponder]

Thanks for the advice. Got this cheap and thought I could use it as a home pc.
No gaming, just MS Word, email, internet, skype and youtube.

Sounds like I need a new m/board and cpu.

EDIT: You sure that MB has no onboard GPU?
According to http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/3200/X7SBL-LN2.cfm it has on board XGI Volari Z9S 32MB Graphics which was developed by SiS and eventually XGI was brought out by SiS.

Drivers for it can be found here: http://w3.sis.com/download/

Did you double check it has no onboard?

You could always buy a PCIe x1 video card if you don't want to hack the slot (if even required).

 

[unwired]

Did you double check it has no onboard?

You could always buy a PCIe x1 video card if you don't want to hack the slot (if even required).

Quite right - it has 32MB onboard.
Reason I though i needed a 'proper' card - was that when I tried to install Ubuntu 11.04 - it didnt allow me to use the Unity desktop - which I believe is linked to the poor graphics memory.

PCIe x1 - any idea who sells this - and what is the max memory?

Seeing that Esquire have some specials coming up - may look at starting from scratch.

 

[Pada]

Just ditch Unity, it sux badly in any case.
It is a cool idea, but flawed in so many ways still, which is why I reverted to Gnome desktop again with my Ubuntu 11.04 x64.

 

[ponder]

Just ditch Unity, it sux badly in any case.
It is a cool idea, but flawed in so many ways still, which is why I reverted to Gnome desktop again with my Ubuntu 11.04 x64.

Agreed and I have not even tried it yet. I reckon XFCE will pick up a lot of Gnome2 users that are not interested in Unity or Gnome 3.

 

[unwired]

thanks guys. will give XFCE a bash.

 

[ponder]

thanks guys. will give XFCE a bash.

You can switch to classical Gnome 2 with what you have now.
Besides the XFCE version of Ubuntu there is also LXDE (Lubuntu) which is even lighter in resources and very snappy.

 

[Fuma]

I heard that Ubuntu 10.10 is more stable than 11.04.

 

[Happy Camper]

I heard that Ubuntu 10.10 is more stable than 11.04.

I have 11.04 installed and i reckon its the most stable version of Ubuntu yet, behaves very well on my system, feels smooth and solid

To the OP, install the proper drivers for your card and you might get unity working fine, but with 32mb it may be painfully slow to respond. See how it goes before buying a card you may not need.