[BL] 2001 Gateway 300S PRB PC

sindi keesan keesan at sdf.lonestar.org
Mon Jan 8 23:12:48 EST 2007


It is possible to replace the onboard video in this computer.

A search on 'low-profile video card' found me some general info (these 
cards do not have space for full power so are only found with 128MB DDR 
RAM instead of 256MB) and a long listing at Amazon.com including one sold 
by Joy Systems (Tiger Direct) for $24.99 plus shipping (about $5?) minus a 
$20 mail-in rebate until 3-1-07.

It is an NVidia GeForce.  I have two NVidias that worked well for me with 
svgalib and X (even did framebuffer text mode) that came with 16MB or 32MB 
RAM and heat sinks and fans.  This card has 'only' 64MB DDR RAM, which 
should be quite adequate for viewing photos or watching DVD movies.

Some of the other cards listed went to 1920 resolution.

I view DVDs at 800x600 resolution under X, or use svga or vesa modes, with 
mplayer.  Mplayer will not do svga mode with my 4MB or 32MB AGP Riva 
cards, or vesa mode with the 2MB Matrox Millenium PCI cards.  Watching 
DVDs requires at least 600MHz (if you don't mind dropping frames 
regularly) or better, and/or a fast video card.  The ones with more RAM 
that I have were not faster for movies.

I do not guarantee this card will work in linux but it is cheap.

There are others starting at $35, most about $50, one fancy one for $810 
(plus shipping).

Make sure you get output to a standard monitor not some fancy TV.

$80-90 gets you a USB external video card with lots of RAM and 3D for 
games.  There are also USB external sound cards.  I have a USB external 
wireless ethernet card (containing a PCMCIA card and some greenboard).

The i810 sound works with mplayer and timidity and i810.o module.

If you can't get 1MB video RAM out of the i810 is won't be useful for 
movies even with the right X.

Sindi

keesan at sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org



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