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HP Recommended
Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)

I have 2 used Z620s that replaced my old systems last year.  I'd want to replace the antique video cards in each of them with identical cards that would work well for general tasks, VM Virtualbox (Android, Win 10, Kali) light video editing and some Gimp photo editing.  I'm not a gamer.  My monitor right now is a U3011 which is spec'd up to 2560x1600 but that I can only run at 2048x1200 as I have a antique VGA & PS/2 KVM.  The U3011 is working well right now but it's old and we get lots of lightning.

 

The "A" system has a large HDD, 32GB and a E5-2660.  It's my everyday system.  Win10 Pro.

The "B" system has a small SSD, 2 HDDs, 32 GB and a E5-2690 (fast for an old Xeon).  It's my backup system and I've used it for general tasks, to test crunch passwords (hashcat and John), run VirtualBox and test networks.  Win 10 Pro.

 

So given my somewhat constrained budget (prefer sub-$250 each) what's your recommendation for cards with some heft?

 

For a new KVM the brand I was going to buy has lots of bad reviews lately.  What's a reasonable quality 4 port HDMI KVM (I also a Pi and a MacMini) that includes all the cables that's high res?

 

9 REPLIES 9
HP Recommended

Quadro K2200 for the cards.  If you want to run 4 monitors get 2 of those for each workstation.  About $80.00 used each from eBay.

 

KVM switches:  No experience with those.  I did post here on a great solution to have front access swappable boot drives using Icy Dock 2.5" form factor boot SATA SSDs.  I could find you that post if you wish.

HP Recommended

I'd like cards that have native HDMI - these have only DP and DVI.

 

HP Recommended

the nvidia k2100/k2200 are basic 2/4 meg professional cards which are quite reasonably priced check their specs to see if suitable for your usage anything faster will start costing much more

HP Recommended

The K2200 are2 DPs and a DVI.  I really want native HDMI interface.

 

HP Recommended

adapters exist and are much much cheaper than buying a more expensive card if you don't need the precision/quality of a professional card then the nvidia 750 TI is the equivalent to the k2100/2200

HP Recommended

Yes there are adapters and in general I've had satisfactory experiences with them.  A few not so much - I stick to the name brands.

 

I was thinking about this $200 card:

MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GT OC Graphics Card

 

Thoughts?

HP Recommended

HP makes an adapter that is a short 1-piece unit (F3W43AA).  The DP connectors are quite strong, and have a latching mechanism.  HDMI... not so much.  Weaker metal surround and slip fit... slips in easily.  Slips out too easily.

 

Dell makes a nice DP to HDMI male to female adapter that you can get from eBay for a bit over $10.00 USD with shipping included, and high quality.  The short length of cable between male-female ends results in less strain and less liklihood of the HDMI end slipping free.  Good Gorilla black duct tape helps with that too.  Below is a pic of 857GN.

 

Gaming card.... sure.  More money...sure.  Nothing wrong with that.  I'm sticking with what I actually need for the programs I use, however.  Everyone I've advised who has gotten the K2200 has been very happy with that, and the price.  High end engineers etc. want the next best thing so these cards come on the used market before their time.  But, those guys and gals are spending OPM.  I'm spending mine.s-l1600.jpg

 

 

 

 

HP Recommended

Oldserverguy,

 

Under current conditions, GPU's are wildly overpriced and the applications mentioned should be considered by the most demanding, which in this example is video editing.  Video editing however is both CPU and GPU demanding and this is also  true of photo editing.  Consider a MSI Aero GTX 1070 Ti 8GB (blower fan) for the. principal system and for the backup system a GTX 960 or 970 4GB, also using a blower version such as the ASUS Turbo . Unless a certified driver is necessary, or the priority application is Solidworks or Catia, a GTX or RTX will be faster at lower cost.  The CUDA count, clock speed, and amount of memory are the important factors. The blower is preferred  so that the GPU does not exhaust the heated air into the case.  Note that all workstation GPU's such as Quadros are blower fans.  Workstations are designed to run quietly and the airflow is not as high as a gaming case. 

 

I have Startech dual  monitor kvm switch but it is Displayport only. I'm not conversant with current KVM's.

 

___________________________________

 

If I might suggest:  in place of duplicating the costs of processors memory, drives and GPU's consider selling one and consolidating the assets into one system. With the proceeds of one of the systems,  buy a z620 second generation motherboard, (Xeon E5-v2 processors / 2013 boot block date) a  Xeon E5-2667 v2 8-core,  or E5-2680 v2 or E5-2690 v2 10-core, and accrue a total of 8X 8GB of HP-branded DDR3-1866 ECC RAM. If there is ever to be a second processor, ensure that all the RAM is matching ECC registered. Another 10-cores may be added later if required. If 8-cores is sufficient, consider a Xeon E5-1680 v2 which can be overclocked using the (free) Intel Extreme Tuning Utility(XTU). Configure a 1TB SSD OS/programs drive and in place of using a KVM switch to run two different systems, install one or more  VM's with a 16GB or 32GB RAM allotment.  For the graphics card use a single GTX 1070 Ti blower-style or if the prices drop, a GTX 1080 Ti 11GB might be possible for the $500 GPU budget.  Run directly to the GPU which will allow for the full monitor resolution.

 

This is more complex path but in my view, upgrading and duplicating components in two systems will result in unnecessary expense and too many compromises.

 

BambiBoomZ

 

HP z620_2 (2017) (R7) > Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8C@ 4.3GHz) / z420 Liquid Cooling / 64GB (HP/Samsung 8X 8GB DDR3-1866 ECC registered) / Quadro P2000 5GB _ GTX 1070 Ti 8GB / HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB AHCI + Samsung 970 EVO M.2 NVMe 500GB + HGST 7K6000 4TB + HP/HGST Enterprise 6TB / Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 sound interface + 2X Mackie MR824 / 825W PSU / Windows 7 Prof.’l 64-bit (HP OEM) > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)

[ Passmark Rating = 6280 / CPU rating = 17178 / 2D = 819 / 3D= 12629 / Mem = 3002 / Disk = 13751 / Single Thread Mark = 2368 [10.23.18]

HP z420_3: (2015) (R11) Xeon E5-1650 v2 (6C@ 4.3GHz) / z420 Liquid cooling / 64GB (HP/Samsung 8X 8GB DDR3-1866 ECC registered) / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB/ Samsung 860 EVO 500GB + HGST 4TB / ASUS Essence STX + Logitech z2300 2.1 / 600W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (HP OEM ) > Samsung 40" 4K

[Passmark System Rating: = 5644 / CPU = 15293 / 2D = 847 / 3D = 10953 / Mem = 2997 Disk = 4858 /Single Thread Mark = 2384 [6.27.19]

HP Recommended

The 1070s are too expensive.  I prefer not to have adapters, even name brand, to limit the connections and points of failure.  I have two systems that are close enough that a restore from one that fails to the other would get me where I want to be except for the display adapter.  Want the same video card as I've had problems with straights restores and I no longer have software that would do a restore to dissimilar hardware.

 

I had issues buying used systems this go around - not as described or functional issues.  Don't really want to sell/buy right now.  Both systems work OK but my antique KVM is failing so I need to replace it when I put the new cards in.

 

If the 1050 Ti will work, unless there's a better $200 card, I'll go with 2 of these.

 

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