couple of silly questions

[DavidNB]

Looking to buy a new computer and leaning towards a dell. Its more for my son who plays alot of games, I';ll keep the old one for poker and so on. Any how, question one, I looked up specs on the back of PC games and found some saying they require geforce 3 or better as in this link
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddet...=&langid=EN

on dells site they don't use the terms geforce 3 or better,
they quote model numbers like 7300. Whats up with the different terms, am I missing something?


second and alst questions, I have high speed DSL wired and with the second computer I want to install a wireless network. Any suggestions on what to look for in specs?

[funkyworms]

The Geforce 3 line of video cards is a few generations old. Any Geforce 7-series (i.e. 7300, 7600, etc) will be able to handle those games.

You will need a wireless router for your network; and a wireless adapter for your 2nd computer. Any router at a major electronics retailer will suit your needs. Linksys and Netgear are popular brands. Wireless adapters come in 3 varieties:
1) PCI - plugs into a slot inside a desktop computer
2) PCMCIA - plugs into a laptop
3) USB - can be used in a laptop or desktop

The protocol you're looking for is 802.11g. Most, if not all, routers support that now. Look to spend about $60 for a router and $20-30 for a wireless adapter at a retailer. You can find them cheaper online. I would try to match brands for both items. Don't let them try sell you a $120 pre-N router, you don't need it.

[DavidNB]

THanks for the help.

[Freakin]

For geforce cards, the newest generation is the Geforce 8 series (8800, 8600, etc). For their cards, the higher the number in the series, the better the card.

So a 7950 is really good, and may be better for gaming then something like an 8300. A higher 7 series card (7800 to 7950) will be able to run pretty much any game and keep it looking good. You can certainly max out almost any gaming setup by enabled certain features on new games, but I doubt your son will know the difference.


I'd recommend at least a 7800 if he wants to play new games

[DavidNB]

ok, I was looking at a 7300 graphics card.
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products...;l=en&s=dhs

I guess I should relook things over.

[Freakin]

[ QUOTE ]
ok, I was looking at a 7300 graphics card.
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products...;l=en&s=dhs

I guess I should relook things over.

[/ QUOTE ]

a 7300 will run games, but not as 'pretty' as a higher-end graphics card will.

My point was that you can get a card that will make most games look on the higher end of pretty for less than $200

[DavidNB]

ok,m its a learning experince for me.

Just one last question dealing with routers and so on. I noticed some cheaper units at dell also saying firewall protection. I found this odd a cheaper unit would say it and the more expensive ones wouldn't. Is this just a play on words or something?

I do run firewall software, norton and have anti virus protection aswell, F Prot.


There was a time I knew alot about PC's, even to the point of squeezing every inch of memory out with a 386, aka trying to get 590kb memory. Got busy in life, married and kids and seemed to have lost it all.