Help me buy a new PC!

[sesselpupser]

Yep, that's a great system! However you haven't mentioned fans, a wi-fi card nor a sound card. You'll want to see what your temperatures are like once you've built the PC to work out the cooling requirements (make sure the case comes with at least two fans, though, one intake at the front and one exhaust at the back, even if they're inadequate it's obviously a bad idea to run a PC with no air flow!), get a wi-fi card if you need one (I managed to completely forget to buy one and had to wait two days to start using my PC after having built it) and determine whether or not you need a sound card based on the audio hardware. I THINK you only need one if you want surround sound via optical (on-(mother)board audio just passes stereo through the optical port) and/or fake surround sound effects through stereo headphones, but those effects are pretty bad and not worth spending money on. If you have PC speakers, stereo headphones or speakers, a gaming headset or a surround sound home cinema thing with HDMI-in then you'll be fine with what you have; I think the graphics card will have an HDMI output and it's possible to set it up to output audio only through that, and I've been told that's the best way to do it if you have the option.

 

[Kamuifanboy]

Yep, that's a great system! However you haven't mentioned fans, a wi-fi card nor a sound card. You'll want to see what your temperatures are like once you've built the PC to work out the cooling requirements (make sure the case comes with at least two fans, though, one intake at the front and one exhaust at the back, even if they're inadequate it's obviously a bad idea to run a PC with no air flow!), get a wi-fi card if you need one (I managed to completely forget to buy one and had to wait two days to start using my PC after having built it) and determine whether or not you need a sound card based on the audio hardware. I THINK you only need one if you want surround sound via optical (on-(mother)board audio just passes stereo through the optical port) and/or fake surround sound effects through stereo headphones, but those effects are pretty bad and not worth spending money on. If you have PC speakers, stereo headphones or speakers, a gaming headset or a surround sound home cinema thing with HDMI-in then you'll be fine with what you have; I think the graphics card will have an HDMI output and it's possible to set it up to output audio only through that, and I've been told that's the best way to do it if you have the option.

The case I am looking at is the NZXT Phantom 410 Mid Tower case. know that it has 2 very large fans in the front and rear. And, I want to say it has one on the top as well. I can't really remember. It has good reviews so I think it will be fine.

Really not in the market for a Wifi card. This PC is for gaming so, wifi is a definite No go. Not to mention that cords are always faster.

As for the sound. Yes, the sound will be going through the HDMI port to my TV but, I think that for the most of the time, the sound will be going through my SteelSeries headphones which are attatched to it's owned Sound Card. So, that is not a problem either... I think. Now, if I wanted to record iRacing footage or other game footage with my PC, I'm not 100% sure if I will be able to do it with just the basic sound card on the motherboard. Does anyone else know about this? I just figured that was for those with no sound cards period.

 

[djinline]

As for the sound. Yes, the sound will be going through the HDMI port to my TV but, I think that for the most of the time, the sound will be going through my SteelSeries headphones which are attatched to it's owned Sound Card. So, that is not a problem either... I think. Now, if I wanted to record iRacing footage or other game footage with my PC, I'm not 100% sure if I will be able to do it with just the basic sound card on the motherboard. Does anyone else know about this? I just figured that was for those with no sound cards period.

The on-board Realtek ALC898 sound chip on the Asrock Z77 Extreme4 motherboard should be pretty much good enough for recording, so I would say there is no need to buy any discrete sound cards.

 

[sesselpupser]

The on-board Realtek ALC898 sound chip on the Asrock Z77 Extreme4 motherboard should be pretty much good enough for recording, so I would say there is no need to buy any discrete sound cards.

Agreed. I was only suggesting it in case the PC was to be used with an optical surround sound receiver, as that's not the case there's no need to consider one.

 

[Sharky.]

Wireless is just as good as wired when it comes to gaming if your wireless card and signal strength are half-decent. At worst wireless adds a couple of milliseconds of latency, but considering you're going to be looking at latencies above 30-40ms anyway you're not going to notice a difference.

I had to temporarily use my computer wired until I got my GTX 670 as my CF 5770s blocked every other PCI slot on my motherboard, there was absolutely no discernible performance difference in online games compared to my wireless card (300Mbps b/g/n TP-Link, modem-router is 54Mbps b/g).

 

[Kamuifanboy]

Wireless is just as good as wired when it comes to gaming if your wireless card and signal strength are half-decent. At worst wireless adds a couple of milliseconds of latency, but considering you're going to be looking at latencies above 30-40ms anyway you're not going to notice a difference.

I had to temporarily use my computer wired until I got my GTX 670 as my CF 5770s blocked every other PCI slot on my motherboard, there was absolutely no discernible performance difference in online games compared to my wireless card (300Mbps b/g/n TP-Link, modem-router is 54Mbps b/g).

Really? I did not know this. I know in the past iRacing members have always said that there is absolutely no way that you can play video games with a wireless connection.

 

[Sharky.]

They're speaking out of their backside and I'd be willing to bet they've never even tried going wireless, which means they're basing their opinion on what other people say - we all know how much of a trainwreck doing that is Having used both wired and wireless, if there is a difference it's negligible and unless you are hellbent on finding it you won't notice.

 

[Kamuifanboy]

They're speaking out of their backside and I'd be willing to bet they've never even tried going wireless, which means they're basing their opinion on what other people say - we all know how much of a trainwreck doing that is Having used both wired and wireless, if there is a difference it's negligible and unless you are hellbent on finding it you won't notice.

Are they easy to put into a computer after it has been built? I already have a LAN cable setup for the PC so a wireless card isn't something I will want right away. Maybe something that I can add later down in the project?

 

[sesselpupser]

They're speaking out of their backside and I'd be willing to bet they've never even tried going wireless, which means they're basing their opinion on what other people say - we all know how much of a trainwreck doing that is Having used both wired and wireless, if there is a difference it's negligible and unless you are hellbent on finding it you won't notice.

Hear hear! I had been using wireless for months with no problem, until I had to move my PC just about as far away from the router as possible and ended up with an intermittent signal. I installed a pair of TP-Link 200Mbps Homeplugs for a wired LAN connection over the power lines in my house, got all excited thinking it would be SO FAST and guess what? Managed to play 5 laggy minutes of BF3 before timing out, the exact same as I had with wireless where my PC used to be. The LAN connection makes no difference as Sharky says, however, given the choice I'd choose wired. I'm not one of those tinfoil hat wearing fruitbaskets who thinks everything will kill me but I'd rather not have the extra radiation, that's all! Also: bandwidth (200Mbps wired, 85Mbps wireless (on my router, anyway)) and robustness.


If you already have a LAN cable and it's not an inconvenience there's no need to go with wireless, it really doesn't matter.

 

[Sharky.]

Are they easy to put into a computer after it has been built?

Yup, all you have to do is drop it into a spare PCI(-E, depending on card and motherboard) slot on your motherboard, install the driver and you're away laughing.

however, given the choice I'd choose wired.

I would too, if only because I sometimes access files on different computers across my home network (such as home sharing my iTunes library from my desktop to my laptop in order to play music and podcasts through my speakers) and gigabit LAN >>> 54Mbit wireless g. That said...

If you already have a LAN cable and it's not an inconvenience there's no need to go with wireless, it really doesn't matter.

... it's pretty much this. If you're all set up wired and you don't have to have anything in a weird place (for example) then there's no real point in going wireless. Both desktops in my house are wireless because it wasn't feasible either running two really long ethernet cables - which I didn't even have - to both computers, or having one set up for wireless and having the router's power and ADSL cables run underneath a rug and under a door so the other could be connected via ethernet. Made both machines wireless and the router sits happily near the phone and wall jack where it's well out of anybody's way.