I am a bit behind in the world of graphics cards, HTPC and all that
I am in the market for a new graphics card, preferably passively cooled and modest in performance - DOOM III is my most up-to-date game and I don’t play that much. I don’t expect to become a hard-core gamer any time soon either. Examples of the sort of thing I am looking at include:
Both these cards have DVI and HDMI connections. If I wanted to use a regular monitor for work and browsing SDMB and a TV for watching video how does that work? Would it be set up like a dual monitor configuration or would I need to switch from one to the other? If the latter is that pretty straightforward?
It’s a simple setup, yes. The drivers for the video card will take care of everything. All you have to do is choose how you want to treat the second monitor. It can clone your main display or it can extend it.
For an HTPC, I’d recommend either a dedicated machine or an extender. Even though you can use both your TV and your monitor, you’ll run into issues. You might be playing a game which might interfere with your TV watching/recording for example. When you have a window focused other than the media center app some remote control functions might not work, etc. It can work though, that used to be my configuration until I decided to just build a dedicated machine.
You might also want to be frugal on the TV tuner as some neat new (and cheaper) digital tuners with cable card support are coming out end of this year/beginning of next. It’s now possible to build your own HTPC with cable card support, something that wasn’t possible before, you had to buy an HTPC from a distributor with OCUR BIOS support. That limitation has been lifted.
