I've been out of the game a LONG time just looking for a little info

[ToiletDuck]

Hey guys I recently purchased a computer off ebay for dirt cheap. Was missing a front panel so no one bid on it but outside of that it showed little wear and tear.

Picked up a Compaq 5850 with AMD Phenom triple core 2.2ghz, 2gb memory, and 500GB HD for $132.50. After shipping came out to $153.00. Set it up to give her a test run and she works great. Not bad if I must say so myself.

Anyway I'm looking at putting two monitors on it and was wondering if you guys could point me in the direction of a gfx card that would support using two monitors. I'll be doing business stuff with it for now and should I want to game I guess I'll upgrade it later on. Any tips?

[ToiletDuck]

It's the micro tower for anyone interested. Still trying to get a few specs on the memory.

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/pscmisc/vac/us/product_pdfs/dc5850_data_sheet.pdf

Might not be the fastest in the world but for the price I can't beat it.

[GIXXERGUY6]

decent card and good price

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500129&cm_re=gt220-_-14-500-129-_-Product

Dual monitors via a DVI to VGA adapter

here's one even cheaper

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127456R&Tpk=gt220

if you want something cheaper we could find you a 7 series card.

Here's a cheaper/lesser model

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127473

[PeterGarcia30]

honestly speaking most modern cards sold today can do the job for you... any of those cards gixxer linked will do fine and if you find a cheaper solution or an alternative one it should be fine as well running dual monitors really isn't that tasking good luck with whatever you decide
i kinda like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161303

[Stvwndr219e]

Is there any function you want other than the dual monitors? If you're gaming, you'll have to give us the resolutions, etc. If not, you could use even older technology - esp if it's still running Win XP as that doesn't support over DX9

[Bobnova]

The very first thing to do is get a new power supply, that box comes with either a 240w or a 300w, neither of which are going to appreciate a modern GPU very much, especially considering that the CPU is somewhat of a power hog to start off with.

Now if all you want is dual monitors and you aren't planning on doing any gaming, pick up a 4350, they're $20-30, support dual monitors, and draw very little power (so they should work with your current PSU).
They aren't exactly high end, and while they'll run games from ~2005 and earlier nicely enough you'll have a hell of a time trying to play something newer then that at high res or high options.

[Old Thrashbarg]

The very first thing to do is get a new power supply, that box comes with either a 240w or a 300w, neither of which are going to appreciate a modern GPU very much, especially considering that the CPU is somewhat of a power hog to start off with.

There is no need to be swapping out power supplies. The micro tower has the 300W supply, which is more than enough for any low-end or midrange video card... pretty much any card that doesn't require the additional PCIe power will work fine.

But... if you're just looking to hook up dual monitors, and not looking for gaming performance, is there some reason you can't just use the onboard graphics? It has two outputs, at least according to the spec sheet.

[ToiletDuck]

Thanks for all the applies. I'm planning on using it for just business use but the reason I want the additional card is so that it doesn't use shared memory and generally the resolutions are better.