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<blockquote data-quote="Rackhir" data-source="post: 4995323" data-attributes="member: 149">No, it does not preclude it. You can in fact use both simultaneously to drive 2-3 monitors (many graphics cards will drive 2 monitors). However a lot of the integrated graphics will steal some of your computer's ram.You actually want what's called a &quot;PCIe x16&quot; or &quot;PCI Express x16&quot; slot. The sixteen refers to both the number of PCIe &quot;lanes&quot; and the physical slot. You will see some computers with PCIe x8 slots. Which generally speaking are physically identical to an x16 slot, but have half the number of data lanes. A PCIe X8 slot is acceptable for what you want it for.You can probably get a graphics card for that much. It depends on what else you get/want, especially in a monitor. Does that budget include a monitor?If you can tell us where you are likely to buy it we can probably recommend specific models.Make sure it comes with some sort of a DVD burner (DVD-RW+/-).I highly recommend getting a cheap USB &quot;thumb&quot; drive. A 4 gig one should be $10 or less and is terrific for transferring files and such.Don't pay for &quot;security&quot; software. AVG anti-virus is free and works well. Malwarebytes and Spybot-Search &amp; Destroy are two good free anti-malware packages (not the same thing as anti-virus software). Make sure you have those downloaded and ready to install onto your new computer before you connect it to the internet. The first thing you should do after you do hook it up to the internet is to hit &quot;windows update&quot; and install any security patches and updates available.Update them regularly and run them regularly. The average unpatched unprotected PC connected to the internet will be compromised in something like 15 min.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rackhir, post: 4995323, member: 149"] No, it does not preclude it. You can in fact use both simultaneously to drive 2-3 monitors (many graphics cards will drive 2 monitors). However a lot of the integrated graphics will steal some of your computer's ram. You actually want what's called a "PCIe x16" or "PCI Express x16" slot. The sixteen refers to both the number of PCIe "lanes" and the physical slot. You will see some computers with PCIe x8 slots. Which generally speaking are physically identical to an x16 slot, but have half the number of data lanes. A PCIe X8 slot is acceptable for what you want it for. You can probably get a graphics card for that much. It depends on what else you get/want, especially in a monitor. Does that budget include a monitor? If you can tell us where you are likely to buy it we can probably recommend specific models. Make sure it comes with some sort of a DVD burner (DVD-RW+/-). I highly recommend getting a cheap USB "thumb" drive. A 4 gig one should be $10 or less and is terrific for transferring files and such. Don't pay for "security" software. AVG anti-virus is free and works well. Malwarebytes and Spybot-Search & Destroy are two good free anti-malware packages (not the same thing as anti-virus software). Make sure you have those downloaded and ready to install onto your new computer before you connect it to the internet. The first thing you should do after you do hook it up to the internet is to hit "windows update" and install any security patches and updates available. Update them regularly and run them regularly. The average unpatched unprotected PC connected to the internet will be compromised in something like 15 min. [/QUOTE]

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