PCI Gfx card for old P2B-N motherboard: what's possible ??

I got hold of a really cheap PC (35 euro's) with a 17" monitor,
keyboard, 20GB HD and 192MB RAM. It's got an old P2B-N motherboard and
now I'm looking for a Gfx card. I asked someone in a computer shop
since they had an ATI Radeo 9250 PCI card if this would work and the
answer was "no". Is he right ? What is the max I can put into this
motherboard ? There doesn't seem to be an AGP slot.

 

IMHO he's probably wrong, but the P2B-N is such a rare beast you'll have
difficulty getting accurate information on your upgrade options.

FWIW an ATI Radeon 7000 64MB DDR is the 'max' PCI graphics card I've
used in a P2B-series board.

I've been looking for a P2B-N for my collection for some time without
success. If someone would like to donate one, I'll have it running a
Tualatin processor in short order, and the upgrade possibilities will be
fully documented on my site

P2B

http://tipperlinne.com/p2bmod

 

According to the manual, that motherboard has an onboard video
chip. That should be sufficient to drive the monitor. The biggest
question would be the qualities of the BIOS, and whether the BIOS
could actually handle the declaraton information a modern video
card offers. I don't see an option in the BIOS to enable or
disable build-in video, so it might have to be disabled via
Device Manager in Windows.

I think I would try to get the motherboard operating using
the built-in video first, and then decide whether buying a
bunch of hardware for it makes any sense at all. A riser
board would be needed, to gain access to the PCI bus.
The riser board could be tested with a cheap LAN card, to
see whether the PCI bus is working or not.

Paul

 

The PC itself is working OK. I've already installed Win2k Pro on it.
It came with a riser card so I do have PCI access.
I was just wondering if it would be worth the risk of paying 69 euros
for this ATI Radeon 9250 PCI gfx card.

 

Why do you need the card? The card and PC overall will not be able to run
any current games anyway.
For multi-monitor, any cheap old PCI gfx card will do. It will probably
work, but I can't see the reason to install and buy it.

 

Hi!


I would recommend a Matrox Millenium G450 or P650. If a fan do not disturb
you, also the P750.
Maybe there is also Parhelia with PCI.



Best Regards,

Daniel Mandic