Problem connecting monitor to my new motherboard

frc · 16 Dec 2011 at 19:01

The mother board is a Gigabyte Z68AP-D3:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro....aspx?pid=3897

My monitor is quite old, acer AL1914. It has a female 9-pin socket on it, and I have a male<-->male cable which wants a female socket on the computer, which I always used to have.

But the back of the computer has a male connector instead:

I can get a gender changing adaptor but I'm wondering if the motherboard is even set up to put video out through that port or if it's just for other things now? If I do manage to plug it in, will I even get a picture?

Or do I need a new monitor with HDMI connectors?

EDIT: I've realised that actually these two types of connector are not the same at all and the monitor has a VGA connector, right? So do I definitely need a new monitor with HDMI connectors?

PhillyDee · 16 Dec 2011 at 19:24

Yes.
The one you are looking at is actually a serial port.

You need either:

A monitor which supports DVI OR HDMI.
And a cable that goes HDMI to DVI
Or HDMI to HDMI

depending on the monitor.

Karateyid · 16 Dec 2011 at 19:29

Do you not have a graphics card to plug the monitor into rather than use the onboard gfx ??

frc · 16 Dec 2011 at 19:29

PhillyDee said:
Yes.
The one you are looking at is actually a serial port.

You need either:

A monitor which supports DVI OR HDMI.
And a cable that goes HDMI to DVI
Or HDMI to HDMI

depending on the monitor.

Thanks. So is the only computer-side monitor connection there HDMI? None of those other sockets will talk to a monitor?

frc · 16 Dec 2011 at 19:31

Karateyid said:
Do you not have a graphics card to plug the monitor into rather than use the onboard gfx ??

No I don't have a graphics card...

PhillyDee · 16 Dec 2011 at 19:37

Nope, it only supports an HDMI

You could buy a new graphics card, but I would take this opportunity to upgrade to something larger!

22" http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-027-AS

Narj · 16 Dec 2011 at 19:38

I'm guessing frame rates over 9600 baud connection won't be too great

frc · 16 Dec 2011 at 20:22

PhillyDee said:
Nope, it only supports an HDMI

You could buy a new graphics card, but I would take this opportunity to upgrade to something larger!

22" http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-027-AS

I've just spent a great deal of money on computer equipment and related stuff, and this monitor itself is new to me (second hand)...

I also don't have much desk space and this 19" one is fine, in fact it's huge compared to the 15" screen I'm on right now and have used for the past six years.

If I got a cheap graphics card with a VGA output, would it mean I couldn't benefit from the intel onboard graphics any more (I have an i5 2500k)? And I guess it would be a power drain, too, running a whole graphics card just as a cable adaptor.

PhillyDee · 16 Dec 2011 at 20:41

Yes, the graphics card would take the place of the onboard graphics, what do you intend to do with the PC? This determines what card you would need.

frc · 16 Dec 2011 at 21:04

PhillyDee said:
Yes, the graphics card would take the place of the onboard graphics, what do you intend to do with the PC? This determines what card you would need.

No gaming whatsoever.

Some HD video work, but only a few projects per year.

Apart from that, just wasting my life shuffling pixels around a screen...

..if I can get one plugged in, that is.

I intentionally didn't get a graphics card, since I don't think I really need one and I can't begin to describe what a grotesquely large upgrade this already is from my old (and still current, as of this evening) laptop.