New PC Advice

[axial]

Workable meaning in place of wireless or ethernet, for general PC-to-network or PC-to-router connections, rather than for primary use with home entertainment systems. I briefly used a Netgear powerline system several years ago, back about Win95 era; the speed was fine for mid-level surfing and e-mail use.

The AVScience forums have lots of postings about both MOCA and powerline use with streaming for home entertainment systems. I guess I'm wondering whether anybody here has current experience and could suggest whether they might be satisfactory alternatives to a wireless setup in terms of speed, reliability, security.

[n8chavez]

axial - I do have an SSD already, and I like it very much. It's a 30 gb one, which is large enough for my OS and apps (sans games). I also have another one of the WD 2 TB drives that I have on the current config. That dive is for multimedia. The other 2 TB dive will be used for games and system images.

Bill_Bright - Everything I've read, and from what people have been telling me, is that on-board graphics are inferior to separate graphics cards. My way of thinking, aside from that, is that I hate having everything coming from one device. For the same reason, I won't get a VCR that has a DVD player in it; if the VCR was to break then I'd need to replace the DVD player as well. Make sense?

[Bill_Bright]

Bill_Bright - Everything I've read, and from what people have been telling me, is that on-board graphics are inferior to separate graphics cards. My way of thinking, aside from that, is that I hate having everything coming from one device. For the same reason, I won't get a VCR that has a DVD player in it; if the VCR was to break then I'd need to replace the DVD player as well. Make sense?

Your argument makes perfect sense - for someone buying a motherboard WITHOUT integrated graphics. BUT, the Intel DH67BLB3 motherboard you selected, as seen here, HAS integrated graphics! So that is like buying a VCR with a DVD player, then buying and using a separate DVD player too.

If you have every intention of using a card, it is not necessary to buy a board with integrated graphics. It will be a feature you pay for, but never use. And that's my point. If me, if I know I will be using a graphics card, I would buy a motherboard without integrated graphics simply because that is a more efficient use of my money.

No doubt that Intel board is a good board, and you can certainly add a graphics card and it will work just fine. And if a graphics card is not in the immediate budget, and the need for the computer cannot wait until you have the money, then using integrated graphics until the budget allows for a card is a viable option. But you seem to indicate you are buying the card and the motherboard at the same time.

on-board graphics are inferior to separate graphics cards

For the record, that is no longer a valid statement. 5 years ago, yes. But integrated graphics have come a long ways since then and many of the latest motherboards have very good graphics support AND integrated RAM for graphics (so it does not have to steal big chunks of system RAM) providing excellent graphics solutions - especially when used with a graphics capable CPU like the i3, i5, i7 line of Intels. A computer based on those platforms make excellent home theater PCs and are often integrated into high-end home theater systems. They are even capable of moderate gaming, providing superior gaming graphics support over entry level cards and many low to moderately priced cards too (when coupled with a decent CPU and lots of system RAM). It used to be that even budget cards offered superior graphics to integrated because the GPU was likely better and because cards carry their own RAM - thus your "blanket statement" was true then. But with the latest motherboards, that is no longer the case.

Remember, there are many notebooks marketed as gaming machines that use integrated graphics and provide very good game play too. Too bad their compact nature causes the tendency for notebooks to suffer badly from heat, and they are difficult for normal users to keep the interiors clean of heat-trapping dust.

We also have to remember that game makers know most potential buyers cannot afford $250 to $300 (or more) for a high-end graphics card. So they design these games to have good "game play" with lessor graphics solutions, smaller horsepower CPUs, and a minimum amount of RAM. They may not have the stunning backgrounds or as many extra graphics features, or as much detail at the highest resolutions, but the "game play" is the still there.

[mack_guy911]

best this is how to cool down your room temprature your choice is right with good cabinate case i mean

Cooler Master CM 690 nice choice

i am not gaming expert dont play games much either

but i use linux a lot testing many inside vmware/virtualbox at same time which produce lot of heat

so what i do is and highly advice keep an eye on your temp sensors of cpu hdd mother board gpu ......etc as much as possible you can do that while gaming as well when level pause/clear minimize and peep on sensors dont take more then few secounds.

secondly what i do is make room temp low atleast below 35 if possible ...................if. air conditioning is expensive trade then you can mix it with desert coolers.

i am using them since 7 years on same computer system without any problems

i dont have any cpu cooler .......no.....mumbo-jambo stuff .........just ordinery intel cpu fan with intel mother board 6gb ram and i dont do overclocking either

[mack_guy911]

like bill bright adviced who is indeed a hardware guru in this field


having another graphic card have many advantages one of them is it divide your cpu/motherboard load as well heat which genarate on gpu instead of motherboard/cpu alone

If you have every intention of using a card, it is not necessary to buy a board with integrated graphics. It will be a feature you pay for, but never use. And that's my point. If me, if I know I will be using a graphics card, I would buy a motherboard without integrated graphics simply because that is a more efficient use of my money.

if i where you i select mother board for heat efficiency / duaribility which have great heaksinks .....etc i dont much care of it having integrated graphics or not