Radeon HD 5450 1GB connection options

[chrisp9au]

I'm waiting on a used HP DC7900 SFF E8400 PC (4GB) to arrive to upgrade from my current HP DX6120 machine. I'm planning on running a 128GB SSD drive for operating system and programs, and a 500GB HDD for documents etc.

I intend to use my current Radeon HD 5450 1GB 64-bit low profile graphics card to run dual monitors, 1 in landscape mode 1 in portrait mode. I'm looking for advice on the best way to connect them up. I'm not into gaming, but I do a little design work and the occasional bit of graphics work in Gimp, plus internet browsing and Office documents.

For graphics options, the DC7900 has 1 x PCI-e X16 slot, 1 x PCI Express X4 slot,
1 x PCi-e X1 slot, an HP Displayport, and a VGA connection.

My understanding is that the Radeon HD 5450 supports dual monitors, so I've ordered a dual DVI-D adapter so that I can plug both monitors into the card.

My monitors have DVI-D and VGA connections, so I don't think I can use the Displayport with my monitors?

The PCI Express X4 slot is documented as a graphics slot?, but should I use the PCI-e X16 slot for extra speed?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Other plans include audio card in the PCI slot, and a USB 3.0 card in the PCI-e X1 slot.

Thanks

Chris

 

[4745454b]

Do you currently do this? I'm not sure you can run monitors with different rotations. You didn't list what 5450 you already have but from what you wrote it looks OK. You'll get a big drop in speed by running the USB 3 off the 1x slot. Just telling you now so you aren't surprised when you run any tests.

 

[chrisp9au]

Do you currently do this? I'm not sure you can run monitors with different rotations. You didn't list what 5450 you already have but from what you wrote it looks OK. You'll get a big drop in speed by running the USB 3 off the 1x slot. Just telling you now so you aren't surprised when you run any tests.

I'm currently using Display Fusion which enables the rotations. http://www.displayfusion.com/

My card is an ATI Radeon 1GB HD5450 Silent Graphic Card Low Profile HDMI DVI VGA HD. (HIS H545HR1G)

I've already got the USB 3.0 card running in my DX6120, seems pretty good to me. The DC7900 MB doesn't support USB 3.0 so the PCI-e X1 slot is the only way to use it, as far as I know?

Thanks

Chris

 

[4745454b]

I was wondering. I know when I was looking at Eyefinity awhile back there were some people who wanted to use landscape on the middle screen, and portrait for the side monitors. I don't remember the reason why. The AMD drivers (At the time, no clue if they've changed this.) don't allow this so I wasn't sure you had found a way around this. Glad to see you have.

The USB 3 card will work, but because its going through a 1x slot you won't get full/real USB 3 speeds. If you are happy with it then no worries. If you test it and find you don't get 3.0 speeds, at least you'll know what. I ran into this when I was testing my SATA 6.0 SSD and found I wasn't get near the 550MBps read/write. The ports I had it in weren't attached to the MCH natively, and I was capped at around 250MBps. I don't think this will slow you to much. But you asked for thoughts and wanted to make sure you knew.

 

[chrisp9au]

I was wondering. I know when I was looking at Eyefinity awhile back there were some people who wanted to use landscape on the middle screen, and portrait for the side monitors. I don't remember the reason why. The AMD drivers (At the time, no clue if they've changed this.) don't allow this so I wasn't sure you had found a way around this. Glad to see you have.

The USB 3 card will work, but because its going through a 1x slot you won't get full/real USB 3 speeds. If you are happy with it then no worries. If you test it and find you don't get 3.0 speeds, at least you'll know what. I ran into this when I was testing my SATA 6.0 SSD and found I wasn't get near the 550MBps read/write. The ports I had it in weren't attached to the MCH natively, and I was capped at around 250MBps. I don't think this will slow you to much. But you asked for thoughts and wanted to make sure you knew.

Thanks, I'm satisfied that I'll see a reasonable performance jump with the 'new' PC, I'm on a pension so can't afford the best.

I'm still looking for an answer on the graphics card and which PCI-e slot to put it in, the X16 or the X4, any ideas?

Chris

 

[4745454b]

x16. With a card as weak as the 5450 I doubt you'd see any difference between the two. But you might as well use the best you have.

 

[chrisp9au]

x16. With a card as weak as the 5450 I doubt you'd see any difference between the two. But you might as well use the best you have.

Thanks for the advice.

It's sad that you find it necessary to be negative about the card.
For me the card will do what I want it to do, that's all that matters.

Chris

 

[4745454b]

I don't mean to be negative about it. Low end cards are made just for what you are using them for. If you aren't gaming then it doesn't make sense to buy the 7850 or 7970 as its just going to cost you money which you don't need to spend. On a similar not, you do probably want to consider the APUs from AMD next time. The best of the APUs are faster then the 5450 now. But as long as you are happy with it then it doesn't matter.