Build a new computer, needs advice...

I've built a few PC's over the years from parts, at least in the 98 and XP days. My last one was a Tiger Direct bare-bones kit about 3-4 years ago. An AMD TriCore something or other, used the onboard video because it actually had dual outputs (#1 item needed).

I want to build something faster, mostly to do GoPro video editing, and the usual Photoshop editing. Not a gamer, mostly the aforementioned and regular web stuff.

I've had dual monitors since way before even XP made it easy. I love having the extra real estate & being able to move all the pallets, filters, actions, preview, etc over to the small monitor and just have the main monitor free for the actual image/video.

A friend said he would help me since I've been out of tech for years, but he never answers emails. I'm tired of waiting, and think I want to try again. I saw this special today : XFX Radeon HD 6570 HD657XZDF2 Video Card - 1GB, GDDR3, PCI-Express 2.1, 1x Dual-link DVI-I, 1x VGA, 1x HDMI, DirectX 11, Single-Slot, Fan & only $300. The "XFX Radeon HD 6570 1GB GDDR3 Video Card" has a VGA and DVI output but the description sounds like only one is useable at a time?

Anyone with some insight?

That's a lot of money for not a lot of video card. These cards almost always support at least 2 video outputs - that's standard stuff these days.

That said, check Newegg and get a newer video card for less, with dual DVI ports. If your monitor doesn't support DVI use a DVI-VGA adapter, they cost a couple bucks and video cards often come with them.

Keep in mind video cards barely matter for video editing (unless you're using a GPU-accelerated encoding app) - you want lots of processing power and fast storage for that. Or if you want to save money, you can even get away with a low-powered PC and a good bit of patience.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

The $300 link was for the whole bare-bones kit. Case, processor, memory, video card. I was just trying to figure out if that card could use both outputs at once.

Whoops shoulda looked at the link

Yeah that's a pretty good deal. So far I've never seen a card that has both VGA and DVI outputs and doesn't let you use both, but you can check the manual for the card to be sure.

AMD references Eyefinity in its promo materials for that card, which says it supports up to 6 displays.

Isn't DVI dead yet? Shouldn't the outputs be HDMI by now?

RossD wrote: Isn't DVI dead yet? Shouldn't the outputs be HDMI by now?

Not really, all HDMI carries that DVI does not is audio and mandatory DRM on the link.

Funny that I posted this yesterday, as Mr Derecho seems to have killed my desktop's power supply.

thankfully power supplies are inexpensive... ease of replacement depends much on the case...

anyway... it's been covered... unless your editing program has hardware acceleration no need for a super expensive vid card... even the cheap ones will do dual monitors with no prob...

I built this a little over a year ago for under $250 after rebates... GIGABYTE GA-M68MT-S2 Thermaltake Barebones Kit - GIGABYTE GA-M68MT-S2 Board, AMD Ahtlon II X3 445, CPU Fan, 8GB DDR3 RAM Kit, Radeon HD 4350 1GB, 500GB HDD, 24x DVDRW, Thermaltake Mid Tower, 450W PSU

I added a few TB of HDD I had and it's been going strong... and the processor can be upgraded for cheap if/when I feel the need

as for DVI... I bought a decent LED monitor about a year or so ago and it doesn't have HDMI... wish it did but at the time I didn't care... next monitor I get will have DVI and HDMI but that is only so I can hook up my xbox without a dvi-hdmi adapter

I went to get a new PS and saw this. I couldn't resist since it had Win7 (which would have been another $150), twice the RAM, and possibly better CPU. Plus no shipping, no waiting, and all put together. I still got the new PS to resurrect the old desktop, makes it easier to get the old stuff off and then do something with the computer. Sell, give away, whatever.