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Dual Monitor on Inspiron 660s
Bought an uncustomized Inspiron 660s at Best Buy about a week ago in an emergency situation. I need to run two monitors. I haven't opened up the case yet, but it looks to me like the onboard graphics has 1 VGA and 1 HDMI port, but most of the back panel looks fixed in place.
From looking at the manual, it looks like there's a PCI slot at the top of the machine, and there's a plate on the back panel with a + hole cut in it that I'm guessing punches out.
Is that the way to do it? Can I just get a single head VGA card, put it in the PCI slot, then run one monitor off the onboard card and one off the PCI card?
I don't do anything that requires high-end graphics - I just need to be able to run two monitors.
Thanks...
rdunnill
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January 6th, 2013 10:00
$40 before a $10 mail-in rebate: www.newegg.com/.../Product.aspx
It will support dual digital monitors, meaning the new ones that are sold today, not the olds ones of yesteryear lacking digital inputs.
DBRose
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March 11th, 2013 08:00
The card suggested above cannot be installed in an Inspiron 660s - too big for the one small horizontal slot. Moreover, all you need is to use the VGA and HDMI ports and you can drive two monitors. You may need an HDMI to DVI cable if your monitor doesn't have an HDMI port.
Supertomato66
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February 10th, 2014 22:00
Hi there; just bought 660s and also require dual video. did a little research and bought EVGA GeForce GT 620 - 01G-P3-2625.
Low profile, single slot, dual monitor capable. The power is a small concern but my nominal usage should not tax the 660s PS.
Card should arrive in a couple days and will let you know how it goes..
Cheers
Chuck2013
3 Posts
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February 11th, 2014 00:00
Thank you for the replies. Supertomato please let me know how it goes. I haven't done anything yet, but need to soon, so your post was timely.
Supertomato66
2 Posts
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February 13th, 2014 14:00
Success! I got the card last night. I swapped the regular bracket for the low profile one and tossed out the VGA connector. Turned off the 660s, and popped in the card. Dead simple with instructions in the manual.
I connected an Insignia 24" monitor to the DVI connector and Toshiba 21" HDTV to the HDMI jack (of the new card) and powered it all up.
Screens flickered a few times during startup It took a bit, but Win8 recognized the card and installed the drivers and came back with both screens working in extended mode.
I then went to Device Manager and 'disabled' the integrated Intel Video chip and installed the drivers and software that came with the card. It flagged that there was updates available but I skipped them until everything was installed and I did a full re-start. There was no 'disable integrated video' flag in the Bios but all seems good with just the s/w disable.
The picture on both screens is much better than the Integrated video was.
I'm running the EVA Precision X program to monitor the card and power/heat are all low when running the low demand movies/slide shows on multi screen.
I think I can even run a 3rd HDMI monitor off the internal HDMI but didn't want to push it.
All in al,l very happy with card and computer (but Win8 is a bear to get used to)
Good Luck!
Kelbear1
1.5K Posts
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February 13th, 2014 20:00
Either the HD 6450 or the GT 620 will work in the 660s as long as you change over to the low profile brackets. I ran the HD 6450 in the 660s and it worked fine. I now run the HD 6570 for better gaming performance.