[Isolize]

I'm in the process of upgrading my PC. Well, pretty much all of my PC - just keeping the hard drives and optical drives. I've run into a little issue - well more of a little bump in the road. I've got my case, I have my (used) ATI Radeon 8500 (good enough for me, I just happened to get it free), and I've ordered my motherboard. Now you see, currently I have a dell and cannot try out the craphics card. It does not have a drivers CD, but I figure I can get them online. Here's where my problem comes in, though - my motherboard (here ), seems not to have a monitor jack. Does this mean it doesn't have integrated graphics? Fair enough, but doesn't this mean that when I first start up the computer to install Windows (formatting before the switch), I won't have a monitor because the graphics drivers won't be in place? Or will the card do the basics without the drivers? I'm sort of lost here.

Now when I say the motherboard does not have a monitor jack - it has a very similar one. It's female, though, the same as the monitor's plug. It's in the picture below.



Can this be used as a monitor jack somehow? Maybe? I don't know.

Sorry, i know this is a bit of a disaster to read - I'll poin t out the main questions, but I'm pretty sure you'll want the background I described above.

- Will the ATI Radeon 8500 work temporarily to display on the monitor without drivers, during windows installation until I can download the drivers? Should I download and burn them to a CD beforehand (will that help)?
- Will the blue jack on the picture above work as a monitor plug with some sort of adapter, or does the motherboard just plain not include integrated graphics?

Thank you very much in advance - I appreciate your input very much.

[Trotter]

Put in the card and Windows will put a generic driver with it. It will work, but it won't be pretty.

Once you get Windows up and running, go online and get your drivers.

[Isolize]

Perfect, exactly what I needed to know - so the motherbaord doesn't have any integrated graphics, correct?

Thanks a lot.

[Trotter]

Doesn't look like it. But it will work.

I recently replaced the drivers for my card. My mobo doesn't have integrated graphics, either. Once I uninstalled the old drivers and rebooted, all I had was basic resolution and colors until I installed the new drivers.

[Isolize]

I have no problem with that, every time I format I have to go through the setup and such in 640x400 and few colors until Windows is up and running again and I can install the drivers.

Thanks again.