Quote from wolfram;523632:
As for using wifi, having one as an add-on card, or built in, is not necessary better. The wifi signal strength and how much speed you get depends on distance and any interfering objects within the distance of the router and the computer. As long has you have a decent one, it should work just fine.
What applejack listed is fine. So is what Yoorah listed.
A real antenna has better gain compared to the stuff in those tiny USB things. As such, it can perform better in less than ideal circumstances, compared to a USB device. If it is an option, one should always get a real wifi card with real antennae. The USB alternative is only good if you have ideal signal conditions and you don't have the option to install a card, imo.
Quote from BobYoMeowMeow;523432:
no the cat was being honest [about 1200 vs P183]
:(
The 1200 is a completely different beast. It was built with a brute-force approach. The P183, on the other hand, is an efficient work of engineering where cooling and noise insulation are carefully optimized. Making an enclosure that you can stuff full of fans to keep things cool isn't hard at all. Making one that lets the hot air out but keeps the noise in, however, is much more difficult. The P18X line has been a pioneer in this regard for a long time now. You just can't compare it to a random case with a bunch of fans in it. D:
I'd go on about the specifics of what makes for good cooling efficiency in a case, but it would drag on off topic for too long. x(
Bottom line is that the P183 is a top of the line case, and for very good reason. Recently, however, a new company called Fractal Design [S]copied[/S] picked up the P18X design and features and made a cheaper, if not better, case. Check out the
Define R3. I'm
highly considering this for my next build. But it does cost $110, so I wouldn't recommend it to someone building on a budget.
As for the Antec 100 vs 300, one issue with the 100 that I noticed is that its air intakes have no dust filters. That's a pretty major oversight. Do not buy! Or buy dust filters to go along with it, if they sell em. My
Antec P150 case has dust filters on the air intakes and I can tell you that those filters collect a lot of dust. I wouldn't want that to go inside the case. ;(
Quote from Mystickskye;525055:
Dual channel RAM doesn't really offer that much of an improvement over most tasks over single channel. Most tests actually show very little improvement in most situations. Only specific situations tend to really allow dual channel to truly perform over single channel.
Mind, the price difference is generally small enough that it mostly doesn't matter but putting it out there.
That's true. But I see no point to cripple a system over it, especially since you get less RAM, too. And as Osayidan said in another thread, if you have two modules, you have redundancy in case one fails. It's also easier to troubleshoot this way.
Quote from Mystickskye;525135:
Antec and Corsair don't actually make their own PSUs. Antec's PSUs are made by Seasonic, Delta, Fortron, Channel Well and in one case, Enhance. Corsair PSUs are made by Seasonic, Channel Well and in one case, Flextronics.
Point is, many of the PSUs sold by Antec and Corsair are also sold (under a different name) by the original manufacturer. So by extension, these companies can be pretty dandy too. Seasonic in particular is also very popular.
True enough! Seasonic makes great PSUs, and they've been making them for a really long time. But the Seasonic-branded models are often more expensive than the very same one under the Antec name. :P
Quote from Mystickskye;525198:
Actually 4GB of RAM is fine. Unless you're multi-tasking with resource intensive apps or going for high end media applications you won't really use more than 4GB (in such situations other RAM specs would probably be just as if not more important anyway). I game fine with Crysis Warhead at 1920x1080 and maxed settings and people game fine with Crysis 2's new dx11 content with 4GB of RAM.
Not true! 4GB is "fine," but you can get measurable benefits in performance by going to 8GB, or even higher, in newer games. You then also have the option of implementing RAM Disk, which is nice. Not something that a newbie would bother with, however.
Quote from BobYoMeowMeow;525211:
make sure you end up with 4 fans in the end or something
You don't need that many fans unless you've got some crazy multi-GPU, overclocked setup going on! Remember that fans = noise, and not necessarily better cooling. Plan according to the build!
Quote from Mystickskye;525218:
Price gap probably won't be that big but honestly, you're probably better off spending the money on RAM with lower CL or something rather than getting more of it. CL8 or even CL7 if it's within budget. Buying 8GB would mostly be spending money on something you're not ever going to use (unless of course you do go into super multi tasking and such).
Actually, CL timings are nothing more than a marketing gimmick. The difference in performance is barely measurable. Raw speed makes a bigger difference, and even then once you go past DDR3-1600, you see no benefits. One should stick with 1333 or 1600 RAM, with the basic timings, unless there is a sale on some particular item. :P
Quote from BobYoMeowMeow;527288:
Yoorah, was the cat's posts about hardware neccessary?
the cat hasn't shopped for hardware since 2007.
Some of them contained good info, but some of it was wrong (like higher density HDD platters being more reliable--this is not true, but they are faster!) and I think most of it would be confusing to a newbie. D: It doesn't hurt, though.