[crazytechmom]

Ps my cable/Internet box is in my kitchen
Would I have to add a line to directly wire the PC in a bedroom. We now just use wireless cards for or computers in the house.

[LiveBrianD]

I have no idea why they would use 100mb/s networking - even the Pentium 4 board I had from 2003 had Gigabit. Can you even buy a board with anything less nowadays?

That said, it won't bottleneck your internet connection, just local file transfers. If you add a wireless card anyway, I guess it doesn't matter.

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 12 November 2012 - 09:34 AM

[waldojim]

crazytechmom, on 12 November 2012 - 04:55 AM, said:

iBuyPower - Desktop - 8GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive
Model: LAN WARRIOR BB700i SKU: 6979796
$849.00

Type of Memory (RAM)
DDR3 SDRAM

Hard Drive Type
SATA II (7200 rpm)

Hard Drive Size 500GB

Graphics NVIDIA GTX 660

Video Memory 2GB (dedicated)

System Memory (RAM) 8GB

Cache Memory 6MB on die Level 3

Processor Speed 3.4GHz
(with Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz)

Processor Intel® 3rd Generation Core™ i5

******* Network Card
Built-in 10/100 Ethernet LAN*****

Here are the specs on this PC
Someone mentioned something about the network card not being good enough ????
Again out of my league of knowledge ?
I have AT&T as my wireless company, I know I upgraded to the best speed they had but can't remember off hand what that is.
Any thoughts. Should we set this PC up to be wired to the cable not wireless or better yet should I put a better network card in it??

The average person wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the netwrok card on thst machine, and a $150 gamers car. Even in games it will do just fine. I would use the wired cable internet though, and not a wireles service.

Edit: For some reason I didn't catch that you meant wifi. You will probably have to get a wifi card for it. The bright side is that they are relatively cheap.

@brian: Without the equipment locally to go with it, which I gurantee att didnt give her, gigabit cards are useless.

This post has been edited by waldojim: 12 November 2012 - 10:14 AM

[crazytechmom]

Sorry I read my message it is confusing.
I have my Internet with AT&T my Internet box connects to a cable line in the house. It is a wireless wifi box so I have a wireless wifi card ( connected through USB port ) in the dest top we use now. But I can connect directly into the Internet box for a wired conection. Would it be better to wire this PC or use the wifi card ?
Sorry

[waldojim]

crazytechmom, on 12 November 2012 - 10:42 AM, said:

Sorry I read my message it is confusing.
I have my Internet with AT&T my Internet box connects to a cable line in the house. It is a wireless wifi box so I have a wireless wifi card ( connected through USB port ) in the dest top we use now. But I can connect directly into the Internet box for a wired conection. Would it be better to wire this PC or use the wifi card ?
Sorry

I always prefer a wired connection to wireless. That having been said, I game on my laptop more than anything else these days, and the wifi rarely (if ever) poses a problem. If you can find a decent wifi card relatively cheap, then it certainly won't hurt.

[snorg]

That sounds good.
Dont worry about network card, try it and see, you can always get a better network card card if you need too, they dont cost much.

[crazytechmom]

Ok
Here it comes!!!
I'm going to throw a curve ball at ya--//

****oh wait not yet**** one more thing to add****
( With all the great advice and knowledge shared, I feel so much better about making a wise PC purchase )
I thank you all so much for allowing a not so tech mom play with the Big Dogs :-)
( my son will be proud of me )

*** OK here's the curve ball for ya'll ( I'm not really from the south, I moved here from Boston but love the slang)

After all this my son has asked if he could have a laptop for gaming instead ? ARGH
***figured it was worth looking into, but I know u can get a lot more for u $ in a desktop, so here's my question---

*****If you could pick a LAPTOP for gaming, would you look for the same components as the desktop I picked out ?????
I found only one or two at best buy that we're close. But most contain AMD processors and graphics like this one below-

HP- ENVY 15.6" Laptop - 6GB Memory - 750GB Hard Drive- Natural Silver
Model: m6-1105dx • SKU: 6819205

$629.00 price is tempting !!!

***AMD Quad-Core A10-4600M Accelerated Processor with AMD Radeon HD 7660G discrete-class graphics
6GB DDR3 SDRAM
750GB hard drive (5400 rpm)
Windows 8 operating system preinstalled
?????????
-----------------------------------------
To keep it easy to follow here is my desktop choice**

iBuyPower- Desktop - 8GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive
Model: LAN WARRIOR BB700i • SKU: 6979796
Price $849.00

***3rd Gen Intel® Core™ i5-3570K processor

***NVIDIA GTX 660 graphics

***Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit operating system preinstalled

Both on best buy website. Thanks guys.
I know the laptop is much less of a machine so any thoughts on a different one?
I found it hard to find one close to the desktop specs.
This next one comes closer----
-----------------------------
Dell- Inspiron 17.3" Laptop - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive- Black
Model: I17RSE-3589BK • SKU: 6697664
Price $879.00

***3rd Gen Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM processor

***NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics

***Microsoft Windows 8 Home Edition 64-bit operating system preinstalled

Talk soon look forward to the advice ( again )

[waldojim]

To be brutally honest, you are not going to find a laptop that can game 1/2 as well as that desktop for less than $1,000. Lenov Y580 (I think) is the closest you are going to find. I am in training at work at the moment, and cannot confirm. Later today I will take the time to confirm.

[crazytechmom]

waldojim, on 13 November 2012 - 06:29 AM, said:

To be brutally honest, you are not going to find a laptop that can game 1/2 as well as that desktop for less than $1,000. Lenov Y580 (I think) is the closest you are going to find. I am in training at work at the moment, and cannot confirm. Later today I will take the time to confirm.

I totally knew u would say that :-)
Figured it was worth confirming !!!

No worries if u see something let me know. Figured it didn't hurt to ask.
I would like to have a laptop also because I will be using it too but will sacrifice portability for quality
Again u the Best!

[waldojim]

Ok, got a few minutes of break time to double check.
Yes, the Lenovo y580 is the model I was thinking of. They have it on sale right now for $850!
http://shop.lenovo.c...4:#.UKKRYIaind0

That does NOT have a 1080P display, or crazy high end specs. BUT it will play every game on the market at its native resolution. Lenovo IdeaPad machines are not exactly known for being very high end. Expect quality on par, or slightly better than a Dell XPS. Basically, solid design, functional, a bit heavy, though still with a very plasticy feel. Keyboards on Lenovo machines, including the Y series are typically a huge step above the competition. The display will be roughly on par with comparable machines. Nothing fancy, but certainly functional.

As you were looking into buying a monitor anyway, I would suggest contacting an agent, and seeing if they would cut you a deal for the 1080P display. You may be able to get away with a really nice display on there and still come in under $950.

The CPU is roughly on par with desktop counterparts. It is clocked a tad lower than the desktop we were looking at, but has HyperThreading, which makes up for a bit of the performance difference. The video card, is an Nvidia 660M, roughly on par with the 650Ti desktop parts. All in all, a very potent laptop. Remembering that it is, of course, still a laptop.