External Graphics Cards

[HudsonHawk]

So the wife is wanting to add a second monitor to her desktop at the office (after she hears me rave about my having three).  She has the one VGA port on the motherboard, and that's it.  I told her she basically has two options: 1) install an additional or dual-port graphics card through a open PCI slot, or 2) one of those external cards that connects through a USB port.  Obviously the former is the best solution, and likely the cheapest.  But it requires getting her good-for-nothing IT guy to actually install it.  Has anyone used one of the latter?  Is it any good?  Response time?  Am I missing any other options?

[Trey]

I have an ArkVIEW USB-to-DVI adapter.  I believe it is this one, but I'm not at home to check:  http://www.amazon.com/ARKVIEW-USB-DH88-Multi-Display-External-Displays/dp/B001B7H39W/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1303935670&sr=1-7

I only use it to project my computer screen onto my TV for streaming video (espn3, hulu, etc).  I haven't messed with it a lot, but it's definitely a bit finicky.  It would probably drive me a little nuts if I was trying to use it for something other than just watching the pretty pictures it puts up.  The response time for me is fine, but I ultimately don't really care about response time, so that probably doesn't help you much.

ETA: I use the HDMI output rather than the DVI one, if that matters.

[MRaup]

So the wife is wanting to add a second monitor to her desktop at the office (after she hears me rave about my having three).  She has the one VGA port on the motherboard, and that's it.  I told her she basically has two options: 1) install an additional or dual-port graphics card through a open PCI slot, or 2) one of those external cards that connects through a USB port.  Obviously the former is the best solution, and likely the cheapest.  But it requires getting her good-for-nothing IT guy to actually install it.  Has anyone used one of the latter?  Is it any good?  Response time?  Am I missing any other options?

In my experience, USB to VGA has a much slower refresh time,  and the picture quality isn't great.

If you're just using it to look at Word/Email, it's perfectly fine. Watching videos, playing games... Worthless.

[Gizzmonic]

Yeah, USB was never intended as a video interface.  Getting the IT guy to install a real video card might be a hassle, but it's a one-and-done hassle.  Whereas if you use the USB interface, you'll probably run into all sorts of odd quirks and poor performance.  I've never been impressed with one.

[Waldo]

So the wife is wanting to add a second monitor to her desktop at the office (after she hears me rave about my having three).  She has the one VGA port on the motherboard, and that's it.  I told her she basically has two options: 1) install an additional or dual-port graphics card through a open PCI slot, or 2) one of those external cards that connects through a USB port.  Obviously the former is the best solution, and likely the cheapest.  But it requires getting her good-for-nothing IT guy to actually install it.  Has anyone used one of the latter?  Is it any good?  Response time?  Am I missing any other options?

First of all, if the computer was bought anytime in the last 4-5 years she will probably need a PCI Express x16 graphics card.  For a few years before that the standard was AGP.  Plain PCI video cards are still around but they haven't been the standard in a long time, and PCI is not cross-compatible with PCI Express.  Just wanted to clarify that in case you weren't aware of the difference.

I would steer clear of the USB option.  If this were a network adapter it wouldn't matter so much, but video needs all the speed it can get.  USB 2.0 has a theoretical maximum speed of 480 megabits/second, while a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot has a theoretical max of 64 gigabits/second.

If she doesn't want to rely on her IT guy, installing a video card is really one of the easiest things you can do to a desktop computer.  Shut the computer down, open the case, pop the card into the slot, boot the computer, install the drivers, and you're done.  Since she only needs it for extended desktop, you don't need to get a really powerful card, which also means you won't need to upgrade the computer's power supply.  From shutdown to driver install it may take 10 minutes tops.

Also, even though she has the VGA out on the motherboard, she will still probably need a dual-output graphics card.  It's usually an either-or since most BIOSes (especially Dell) will disable the integrated graphics if a video card is detected.  Even if it is possible, you're relying on two different pieces of hardware, actively using two different sets of drivers, etc., and dual-output cards are cheap enough that price is not a huge concern.  Something like this card would probably work just fine, assuming that the computer doesn't require a low-profile card.  If one of her monitors doesn't take DVI then she would need a DVI->VGA adapter as well.

[HudsonHawk]

First of all, if the computer was bought anytime in the last 4-5 years she will probably need a PCI Express x16 graphics card.  For a few years before that the standard was AGP.  Plain PCI video cards are still around but they haven't been the standard in a long time, and PCI is not cross-compatible with PCI Express.  Just wanted to clarify that in case you weren't aware of the difference.

I would steer clear of the USB option.  If this were a network adapter it wouldn't matter so much, but video needs all the speed it can get.  USB 2.0 has a theoretical maximum speed of 480 megabits/second, while a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot has a theoretical max of 64 gigabits/second.

If she doesn't want to rely on her IT guy, installing a video card is really one of the easiest things you can do to a desktop computer.  Shut the computer down, open the case, pop the card into the slot, boot the computer, install the drivers, and you're done.  Since she only needs it for extended desktop, you don't need to get a really powerful card, which also means you won't need to upgrade the computer's power supply.  From shutdown to driver install it may take 10 minutes tops.

Also, even though she has the VGA out on the motherboard, she will still probably need a dual-output graphics card.  It's usually an either-or since most BIOSes (especially Dell) will disable the integrated graphics if a video card is detected.  Even if it is possible, you're relying on two different pieces of hardware, actively using two different sets of drivers, etc., and dual-output cards are cheap enough that price is not a huge concern.  Something like this card would probably work just fine, assuming that the computer doesn't require a low-profile card.  If one of her monitors doesn't take DVI then she would need a DVI->VGA adapter as well.

Thanks for the info.  I'm aware of the PCI express, as is her IT guy, I assume.  It's a brand new Dell, so PCI express would be the way to go.  As for installing it herself, I could do it for her in 5 minutes, but like most companies, they don't like regular employees adding hardware (or software for that matter) to their computers  on their own.  It's best if done by the company IT man, for liability and warranty, I suppose.  She says he's a good guy, just tone deaf to the needs of the employees.  It takes him forever to get around to actually doing anything and then wants to do it at the most inopportune times (for example, he wanted to swap out her computer on April 14th, the busiest day of the year.  She asked if he was high).  At any rate, she's an accountant so it'll be basically for viewing multiple documents and spreadsheets and such, but I'll advise her to push for the new graphics card.  Is two DVI ports better than one DVI and one VGA/two VGA?  Or since it has to go through an adapter, it doesn't matter anyway?

[Waldo]

Is two DVI ports better than one DVI and one VGA/two VGA?  Or since it has to go through an adapter, it doesn't matter anyway?

Two DVIs are better if both monitors support DVI, but that triples the cost of the card (based on what Newegg carries, at least).  If one or both of the monitors are VGA only then it doesn't really matter.  Plus, for what she's using it for (documents, e-mail, web browsing) she may not notice the difference between DVI and VGA anyway.