The Dell Vostro 270 is a great value desktop PC and whisper quiet. It is as speedy as one needs for office work. At under £300 for a system box, I can't fault it even for editing pictures, audio or video. I replaced the Dell supplied keyboard and mouse with a Gyration set.
I was about the replace the on-board Intel HD Graphics with a twin-monitor ATI Radeon card, as I have on several previous Dells, but was delighted to find both VGA and HDMI monitor outputs. Information elsewhere conflicted on whether you could use both at once. I really needed to extend the desktop space by using monitors, however persistence shows that you can:
I was about the replace the on-board Intel HD Graphics with a twin-monitor ATI Radeon card, as I have on several previous Dells, but was delighted to find both VGA and HDMI monitor outputs. Information elsewhere conflicted on whether you could use both at once. I really needed to extend the desktop space by using monitors, however persistence shows that you can:
- Connect the VGA socket to one monitor (LG1710B) with a standard VGA cable.
- Simultaneously connect the HDMI socket to the second TV/monitor (LG M237WDP) using an HDMI to DVI cable (This was sold as a Sky box to digital monitor cable).
- Save yourself time by not trying to use HDMI to HDMI. When I connect the Dell Vostro 270 HDMI to the HDMI of the LG LG M237WDP the result was too blurry. Although the graphics driver settings can be set the HDMI output to monitor quality instead of TV quality, I couldn't get a sharp enough result. I had been here before and failed. I previously sent the output of a iMac to the LG M237WDP and got a blurry picture. An iMac to DVI cable made the LG display well.
- All was well with the dual monitor setup above, however I needed one monitor image rotated to portrait orientation. The Dell supplied graphics driver had no rotation option. An update of the Dell graphics driver at the Intel website, using the Intel machine detection web page furnished me with a 64 bit driver with the rotation option.
- This Vostro came with Windows 8 and much-to-hate. However the redeeming feature of Windows 8 is that in a multi-monitor setup, the annoying start menu and modern apps live on one screen while the desktop apps work on the other. Pressing Windows key + Pgup or Windows key + PgDn toggles the suffocating Windows 8 start menu between the two monitors.
- I'm still not liking Windows 8. I'm going to see if Windows 8.1, due soon, will change this annoyance. If not, for 8 dollars I will buy peace with Stardock's Start8 and Modernmix apps. Modernmix is the one to love: it lets you run Windows 8 modern apps in a window instead of full-screen. I don't need full-screen apps on a desktop PC where I've always got multiple apps open at one time.
