PC Hardware Woes

[vodhner at cox.net]

I need some advice in a hurry, because I'm getting ready to spend some money on new hardware.

My PC an Athlon mother board with EIDE disk ports.

I am going to buy a video card, probably a big new hard disk, and maybe a monitor.  I have not bought new peripherals in a long time, and need advice on price and on Linux compatibility.

VIDEO CARD:  I want something that will drive a monitor up to 1600 x 1200 or so.  I want nice color and resolution, but I don't care much about speed:  I'm not a gamer.

MONITOR:  Maybe my old video card killed my old 21 inch heater^H^H^H^H^H^Hmonitor, or maybe it was the new version of X I installed that failed to sync correctly, or maybe it just died of old age; or, maybe it will work with the new video card.  If I need to buy a new monitor, I'm ready to spend some bucks on it.  Again, nice visual quality and long life are important but speed is not.

DISK:  It looks like all the new ones are SATA and Ultra ATA.  Are my three-year-old EIDE ports useless for the new disks?  I have slots available for a new interface card if needed, but how much will that cost and what do I need?  (I will still be running my 80 GB disk and a CDRW via EIDE.  The new disk will replace my 40 GB and 20 GB drives.)

Any clues will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Vic