Do I need to build a "gaming" computer?

[InbetweenDreams]

[MENTION=22914]Cobalt[/MENTION] That one is pretty ugly lol. The thing that really stands out is that it does not have railings for mounting DVD drives...granted that more and more people are skipping DVD drives all together or just using external drives. You might want to look at another case, you don't have to go with all the stuff I listed, that is mostly a sample to go off of.

Me personally I would probably go with something similar to what I posted....the awards they give out can be a bit misleading at times. Internal DVD drives are always cheaper than the external, but it might not matter so much for you. We're talking about $20 for an internal and probably $30-50 for an external...roughly...might find better deals elsewhere. Me personally, I usually buy from Newegg mostly because they are better to deal with if I have to return something, just have to keep in mind that return policies vary on different products. Also, not sure why, but have to watch for open box and refurbished stuff. I kind of hate that, I want to buy new only. If I want to buy something used I'd look on eBay.

Anyway, back on the ugly case. I don't know what they're doing for airflow, I thought they might have had a meshed grill on the front of the case but that doesn't seem to be the case, so yeah I would be a bit hesitant on that case myself from that standpoint.

[Cobalt]

I didn't catch that it didn't have the spot for a DVD drive. Which to me is very damning. I want my computer to have one. I still have a few disc based things that I need for my computer. I do have an external DVD drive I bought for my laptop but I don't want to keep having to plug that into my desktop every time I want to use a disc. So for me, that counts that other case out.

The more I go over what you suggested the more I'm thinking about going with that setup. I know it was just more a sample but, it's pretty much got what I was asking for. I like that it can do more than what I originally wanted. I went through Steam the other night and was looking at things I never considered before but noticed with some of the specs from the sample you came up with, it could probably run most of them rather decently.

Is there anything you would change, given my price range? I know some people are really picky about motherboards but, I didn't really see a problem with what you picked. It looked like it had enough RAM slots and all that other fancy stuff so, I don't know why it would be a problem. I also forgot to mention wireless connectivity. I might not be hooking up my computer directly to a router with a line, what do you get for a wireless connection? One of those little card things or is there something else now?

Also, about newegg, Would you recommend them over other places? I noticed on the pcparts picker site, it shows other sites for some of the parts at cheaper prices but, if there's a problem with a part and all sales are final/returns are a real hassle then that wouldn't help me much. I'd rather pay a little more for the peace of mind then get something for 15 dollars cheaper and deeply regret it later.

And, final question (promise). Apparently, there are more than just one type of monitor. I looked through a few last night that ranged from 100-600 dollars. I was rather perplexed. I figure as long as a monitor displays 1080 and is a decent size, why pay several hundred dollars more? Clearly there's something I'm missing here.

Signed,
~The Technology Dunce

[Cobalt]

I wish I was aloud to edit posts after like, an hour as apparently I lose the option to.
I looked into some more monitors and it seems like the prices go up because of refresh rates and the like. Which for me doesn't really matter because I'm not doing anything all that intensive/demanding. I'm thinking a 100 dollar monitor would be just fine unless I've missed something.
Like for instance, something like this?:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...38566&SID=

[InbetweenDreams]

[MENTION=22914]Cobalt[/MENTION] The Asus monitor will do just fine... I'm on a crappy 19" monitor, there's definitely some very nice monitors but right paying $500 for one is way too much.

But some are organic LED, some will do 4k resolution, there's even curved monitors and ultra wide monitors.... But $100 fits my sort of budget and it being a LED back lit monitor it will last a lot longer than the old LCD florescent standard.

[Cobalt]

Thanks for the seal of approval haha. I was hoping that monitor would do it because I like the price and the look of it.
I think I figured out what I need for the wireless connection. Is it a PCI card that plugs into the motherboard? I saw a couple without the little antennas for about 30 dollars but I don't know if that's what I need.

[InbetweenDreams]

Thanks for the seal of approval haha. I was hoping that monitor would do it because I like the price and the look of it.
I think I figured out what I need for the wireless connection. Is it a PCI card that plugs into the motherboard? I saw a couple without the little antennas for about 30 dollars but I don't know if that's what I need.

For Wi-Fi you have a few options. With the GIGABYTE GA-H97M-D3H motherboard you can use either PCI or PCI Express (PCIe). I would go for PCI myself because that board has 2 PCI Express slots and if you wanted to add another peripheral later on that uses PCI Express you would be able to do so. You're more than likely going to end up with something that uses PCI Express. It is also likely that the video card would occupy enough space that one of the PCI slots might not be usable, even though the card only occupies one slot (if I do remember correctly). Just depends on the actual size of the card and the peripheral you're adding. All in all it is likely that everything will be fine.

Anyway, wireless cards... First question how far away and what sort of router do you have, if you're not sure whether it is 802.11n, 802.11g, or the newer 802.11ac just look on the bottom of the router and give me the model number and I can look up what specs it has. Distance being the most critical however. If you're several walls deep you generally will get better performance. Whatever the case I would try to spend less than $50 on whatever I buy. I did buy this, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6833106251 and although it is PCI Express and I'm not fond of using the slots up it did work really well and got pretty good speeds (over 100 mpbs through 3-4 walls). Only problem I have with wireless in general is that it is never ever as reliable as a wire.

Running Ethernet to your computer is the best thing you could do overall but the initial cost is more and will likely involve crimping the RJ45 jacks to each end. So it is a bit more involved and can have a higher upfront cost but for gaming and the hassles I have had with wireless in my career I try to avoid it if at all possible. It just never worked well for streaming videos, I could make it better but not nearly where I wanted it to be.

USB wireless adapters are probably the easiest and cheapest. However, I would only go with that if you're pretty close. Even though they have antennas internally and for the most part work, they just aren't as good as having an external antenna or a higher performing adapter.

Hope that answered the question, kind of went on and on with that.

[Cobalt]

[MENTION=23180]axle2152[/MENTION] (I forgot I could mention members with that @ thing)
Thanks for helping, I found out my router was this model number: SBG6580
Here's a link to it: http://surfboard.com/products/sbg6580/
And looking it up it uses 802.11n
I'm still looking at what type of card to match it with.
But I'm still debating where to put the computer. It may go in the same room with the router or it may go a few rooms down. It would stay on the same floor and would possibly be just down the hall from the router. There wouldn't be too many walls in between but it would have to be strong enough to make it about oh...50 feet or so?

[InbetweenDreams]

It would probably be fine. If you decide to put in the same room get you an Ethernet cable. I would see if you could get a USB adapter with an external antenna, keeps things relatively simple.

[James]

I have found that 90% of the refurbished computers are better than the original factory computers if the tech that repaired them knows his stuff. Can be bought for far less than the factory original and work very well.
I use a server which I update every few years, does everything I ask of it. All my other computers go through it so have storage they wouldn't have otherwise.

[Cobalt]

[MENTION=23180]axle2152[/MENTION]
I found this PCI card which looks okay and reviewed well.
http://www.pcm.com/p/StarTech-Wireless-N...e=zwb12165
I tried to link the newegg page for it but it's not working at the moment.

I looked up the differences between the PCI/e cards vs USB adapters for wifi to see if people thought one or the other were better. It doesn't seem like either side is really any better or worse. In my opinion though I would think an actual PCI card would be better than a USB adapter so I went with that. But I'm fine with getting something else if it appears to be better than what I linked.