Wireless-N PCIe Card?

[Chidoro]

We may finally bite the bullet on a new PC and one of the choices is a Dell Wireless-N PCIe Card? WHy would I need this if I intend to get a wireless-N router? One's internal and one's external or is there something else?

Thanks

[Xatrei]

In all likelihood, your new desktop will have a built in 1000/100/10 Ethernet port, but not built in wireless support. You'll need a wireless adapter for the computer if you intend to access a wireless network such as that provided by the new wireless router that you mentioned. If you plan to place the desktop close enough to the router that you can easily connect via an Ethernet cable, then you won't need the wireless card for your PC.

[Winnow]

Laptops generally have wireless built in. Desktop PCs generally don't.

Go ethernet (gigabit) if at all possible if your router is going to be sitting right by your PC. Wireless N is nice but it's still fuckloads slower than an actual physical connection if you're going to be transferring files, etc.

[Chidoro]

Thanks for the info. I'm going to buy the router separately as this is for a desktop

The video card is kind of weak, but I can upgrade that pretty easily down the road.

Studio XPS 9000, Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English

Studio XPS 9000 Intel® Core™ i7-920 processor(8MB L3 Cache, 2.66GHz)

Memory 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 4 DIMMs

Keyboard Desktop Cordless S520 Keyboard with LX5 Laser Mouse

Monitor 21.5 inch Dell S2209W Full HD Widescreen Monitor

Video Card ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB

Hard Drives 1TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive

Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English

Mouse Mouse included in Wireless, Laser or Bluetooth Package

Modem No Modem Option

Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language

Optical Drives Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
Sound Card Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio


Speaker No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)


Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007


After discounts, tax, shipping, and an $100 reduction for AMEX points, $1,250. I have $350 in Best Buy gift cards from Citibank for the new printer, router, backup hard drive, etc. Pretty happy to move from an 7+ year old machine finally

[miir]

That's a video card and a power supply away from being a very nice gaming rig.

[Chidoro]

Thanks, I'm pretty happy with it and the price was right for us. Given the existing power supply of 475w, I could bump to a 5750 pretty harmlessly. But since I've been using a x700 agp slot for about 3 years now, anything is a good bump at this point.

[Chidoro]

I popped a 5770 into the slot and it's working nicely in the system. The system was already quiet, cool, and spacious inside. Since the system was designed to potentially have a 5870 in there, the power supply already had a 6 and a 6+2 75W cables plugged in but sectioned off. Swapped the cards, put the pin in, reattached the brace and replugged the monitor. Considering the gaming I do on this system(or rather, it's limited use), it's going to be with us for a pretty long time. The case can also handle another 2 internal hard drives, and I already have an external drive hooked through the esata plug.
pretty damn cool for the outlayed price