MSI Geforce 8400GS 256 MB DDR2 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card D256H

Very cheap but good video card. I used it in a dual-screen scenario, on Windows 7, and did not even had to touch a button. It self-installed and adjusted.
No complaints whatsoever.

I got a couple of these for a file server and an HTPC. This card isn't going to set your display on fire with amazing 3D graphics, for that you'll need to spend a bit more to get something more capable. This card has a low power consumption, idle or at load. It also has passive cooling, which is good if you are trying to cut back on noise, however, the caveat is that you SHOULD be mindful of the airflow in the case. If you have a case with poor ventilation and airflow, you are doing yourself and your computer a disservice as heat is the enemy here. More heat = shorter component lifespan.

For the HTPC computer, it works pretty well, all I needed it for was for the HDMI since the CPU I'm using with it can handle 1080p video without GPU acceleration, but the ability is there though. It's just that the video player program I'm using doesn't play nice with hardware acceleration, but that's a user (me :P hehe)problem.

I did a ton of investigation in video cards before finally settling on this one, and boy am I glad I did. The ONLY reason I needed a new video card was because I wanted to run 2 monitors; I am not into gaming so I don't really care about those capabilities, nor am I into HDMI ports so I can hook my computer up to my TV and run movies that way. This card is perfect if all you want to do is run 2 monitors. The last video card I bought several years ago had a fan on it and it whistled like a tea kettle; it was awful. So I wanted a quiet card which is why I wanted one with the heatsink on it. I was worried about 2 things; one was whether my power supply unit of 250W was enough, and the other was the temperature of the card. My power supply unit is plenty for this card, and the temperature of this card never runs more than 59 degrees C. Perhaps if you ran games the card would be 80 or 90, but if all you want to do is run 2 monitors, this card works just fine.

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