basic questions about graphics cards and wifi, my build, etc

[hapa17]

hi. same old story: total noob here. i've swapped parts on computers before, but never done anything from scratch, so it's intimidating. but you've heard this story a million times. thinking of mostly mirroring tonymac's build. i have a few general hardware questions if you would be so kind to enlighten me.

graphics card.

i don't know the difference between a lot of these chipsets. tony's sparkle 9400 GT sounds adequate. what kind of leap do i make if i go with a 9800 GT? or a GTS 250? for my purposes, i do mostly photo editing (cs4 photoshop, lightroom 2), would probably dabble in some video editing at some point (imovie, maybe try final cut). once in a blue moon, i like to try a game out. i recall it was impossible to get Portals running on my older 13" macbook via fusion on the higher, more graphics intensive levels. i don't necessarily need crysis running at top settings (if that's even a relevant game to use as an example of a graphics hog anymore), but i'd like to have the option to run through a seemingly light game like portals without a problem. i would also like to go dual monitors at some point. was thinking of getting the dell ultrasharp 2209WA first, then maybe double it up later. who knows...maybe i'll go dual off the bat, depending on how much money i spend on everything else.

is tonymac's sparkle 9400 GT going to be adequate for my purposes, or do i need to consider going a little more advanced?

wifi.

i have a gaming router that does n-spec (or whatever the proper terminology is). ideally i'd like to use a wifi solution that is recognized as an airport. is this impossible to do with with b/g/n? in your opinions, is it more valuable to get something that supports n-spec but will be recognized as a 3rd party device, or to go b/g and have it recognized as an airport? i'm pretty simple with internet. surfing, downloading files...the occasional netflix instant stream.

finally...

assuming i know NOTHING about building my own system, all i need to buy to get up and running are the following components?

• GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
• Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80605I7860
• G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
• SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
• Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD Rewritable Drive Black SATA Model AD-7240S-0B - OEM
• Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 Modular Active PFC Power Supply
• Rosewill R230-P-BK Black 0.5mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
• a graphics card
• a wifi solution
• a bluetooth dongle
• dell UltraSharp™ 2209WA 22-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor
• snow leopard installation disc
• tonymac's wonderful installation downloads and procedures
• a keyboard and mouse

i want to be sure there isn't anything that system builders take for granted that i may not be thinking about.

i'm darn close to making this leap, and want to be sure i've got all the information necessary. thank you for this forum, tonymac. scouring insanelymac for a few weeks really scared me off from attempting this. then once i poked around this forum, i felt hugely more confident about giving it a go.

thanks in advance for your help!

 

[rskm137]

Graphics Card

Well, I've only used ATI cards in my builds since they were cheaper and I was usually on a budget so I can't speak much for performance. I hear the GTS 250 is a fairly decent card and from the looks of things around the net, it works with hackintoshes. If you want to go extreme, there have been people to get the 295s up and running with some sweet nothings whispered to them Dual monitors are something I haven't kept up on in terms of hackintosh compatibility/success, so someone else will have to pick up the ball on that aspect.

WiFi

Unfortunately, I haven't the slightest idea when it comes to this...once again, someone else will hopefully jump in and save us by finding a solution.

Overall Build

The overall build looks very nice. It's similar to many of the builds around the site/web so you should have no trouble at all. Just to nitpick, I myself would get a slightly more powerful PSU, but I don't think it's actually necessary at all.

Make sure you have sufficient airflow going through a midsized case. I just recently upgraded from a mid to full size case due to very poor airflow and having larger components (IE: Graphics Card). Computer kept overheating and BSODing with Windows 7. That is also probably due to the 4850 being known to generate enough heat to warm a small village. Also, my midsized case didn't allow for much upgrading due to cramped space. Don't want anyone to fall into the same situation as I did.

 

[hapa17]

Graphics Card

Well, I've only used ATI cards in my builds since they were cheaper and I was usually on a budget so I can't speak much for performance. I hear the GTS 250 is a fairly decent card and from the looks of things around the net, it works with hackintoshes. If you want to go extreme, there have been people to get the 295s up and running with some sweet nothings whispered to them Dual monitors are something I haven't kept up on in terms of hackintosh compatibility/success, so someone else will have to pick up the ball on that aspect.

could you (or anybody else) explain to me the difference between using a card like the 9400 GT and a 9800 GT and a 250 GTS? does the difference basically boil down to how high i can have the video settings on a game? if i rarely game, and don't watch several movie streams simultaneously, would i be fine with the 9400? dual-screen aside, i just don't understand the quantifiable difference between these grades of video card. i'm tempted to go with a higher card than in the tonymac build, but perhaps the upgrade would be negligible for my purposes.

all that being said, if anyone tells me i NEED a better card to adequately run dual monitors with the monitors i mentioned above, then please let me know. (thanks!)

Overall Build

The overall build looks very nice. It's similar to many of the builds around the site/web so you should have no trouble at all. Just to nitpick, I myself would get a slightly more powerful PSU, but I don't think it's actually necessary at all.

you think 600W? more??

Make sure you have sufficient airflow going through a midsized case. I just recently upgraded from a mid to full size case due to very poor airflow and having larger components (IE: Graphics Card). Computer kept overheating and BSODing with Windows 7. That is also probably due to the 4850 being known to generate enough heat to warm a small village. Also, my midsized case didn't allow for much upgrading due to cramped space. Don't want anyone to fall into the same situation as I did.

how does one ensure that they have sufficient airflow in a midsized case? is this a matter of tying off your internal wires/cables real nice and tidy? or should i look into adding extra fans? or should i just go full size right off the bat?

thanks for your input rskm137. it is mucho appreciado!

 

[rskm137]

If I were to choose, I would say go with a GTS 250. Compares closest to a 4850 on ATI's side of the game. I would say that's a pretty healthy spot in terms of getting something that can hold it's own even in todays games (like Crysis on High settings roughly). Should be more than adequate for what you are looking to do. You can get what Tony has, but you will probably have to upgrade to a bit more powerful card sooner rather than later.

I would say that 600-650 is about where I would start in terms of power supply. It will provide enough power to your current system easily and there is room to upgrade in the future a bit with that same PSU. Myself, I rock a 750w, but realistically, it's overkill what guts I have inside. The higher watt PSU you get, the more cables you get with it (typically). Unless your case has dedicated areas for cable management, it's crowds your main holding area. Crowding your main area will keep more heat inside and block air flow.

For the best airflow, make sure you have good cable management and a couple fans. If you don't plan on upgrading a whole lot, a mid size case might suit your needs quite well. If you do a bit of heavy lifting in photoshop/video editing for extended periods of time frequently, you may want to upgrade to a full case. Some of that stuff requires quite a bit of processor work which creates a bit more heat and in a case where everything is close together, it tends to stay hot longer.

I also want to warn you about full cases. When they say that the cases are large, they aren't kidding. I knew they were going to be big, but my new full tower pretty much effectively doubles the size of my mid case. UPS said the case weighs 37lbs and they weren't kidding. Full cases are something that are ment to stay in one place. If you plan on updating the components a bit there is plenty of room for big pieces; they usually have like 100 fans on them, so heating is usually amazing and there isn't a worry over heating.

I know that's a lot of jumbled, non flowing words but all in all it comes down to how future proof do you want to make yourself from the get go?

I want to future proof a far as possible

Full Case
650w PSU
GTS 250 or higher

I just want something up and running and don't care about the cost of upgrading later

Mid Case
550-600w PSU
9400/9800 GT

 

[thelostswede]

You don't need that mATX board you know
Most of the Gigabyte boards now have edited DSDT's in the database on the blog.
I'm using a GTS 250 and it's plenty fast in OSX and I can play most games in Windows.
WiFi is currently a problem if you run 64-bit, as there doesn't seem to be a lot of drivers out there.
And I wouldn't get a full tower, no-one uses those any more but I'd get something a bit better than what you specced in, as you'll hate building a system in a cheap case and if you're really lucky you'll end up in the ER (yes, some cheap cases are really like razor blades inside).
Oh and that Antec PSU will be plenty for your build.

 

[hapa17]

You don't need that mATX board you know
Most of the Gigabyte boards now have edited DSDT's in the database on the blog.
I'm using a GTS 250 and it's plenty fast in OSX and I can play most games in Windows.
WiFi is currently a problem if you run 64-bit, as there doesn't seem to be a lot of drivers out there.
And I wouldn't get a full tower, no-one uses those any more but I'd get something a bit better than what you specced in, as you'll hate building a system in a cheap case and if you're really lucky you'll end up in the ER (yes, some cheap cases are really like razor blades inside).
Oh and that Antec PSU will be plenty for your build.

i only decided on the UD2 mobo because it's what tonymac uses. i really don't know the difference from one to the other. if you think i should go with a different one, please recommend away.

you guys are pushing me toward the GTS 250. now again, i don't really game on pc's (more of a console player myself), but i'd like the option to run through the occasional game here and there. so maybe i'll go GTS 250. but if i understand the implication correctly, the 9400 GT wouldn't really be game friendly at all?

any specific case recommendations thelostswede? whereas i am just blindly mirroring tonymac's mobo, i was completely picking a case out of the proverbial hat. i just liked the price point and the top-side ports.

thanks for your advice. it's quite obvious i'm not very knowledgeable on the hardware game. UD2...UD3...9400GT...GTS250...i don't know the difference from one to another to the next. any guidance yall can provide would be HUGE. A-1 for me is kick-ass photo editing performance, and the rare dabble in video editing and a game.

oh...another question...this whole 64-bit business...how big of a deal is it? as i understand it, SL boots to 32-bit by default. on my older macbook running SL, i don't (knowingly) do anything with 64-bit. am i wrong in assuming that's more of a future OS thing? not something i need to concern myself with at this point. seems like you get added performance by going 64, but it doesn't seem like the most supported thing just yet. amiright?

thanks!!

 

[rskm137]

You don't need that mATX board you know
Most of the Gigabyte boards now have edited DSDT's in the database on the blog.
I'm using a GTS 250 and it's plenty fast in OSX and I can play most games in Windows.
WiFi is currently a problem if you run 64-bit, as there doesn't seem to be a lot of drivers out there.
And I wouldn't get a full tower, no-one uses those any more but I'd get something a bit better than what you specced in, as you'll hate building a system in a cheap case and if you're really lucky you'll end up in the ER (yes, some cheap cases are really like razor blades inside).
Oh and that Antec PSU will be plenty for your build.

Just curious, where do you get that no one uses full towers anymore? That's ALL I see anymore. Maybe that's just around here?

 

[thelostswede]

Well, I guess it depends what you're calling a full tower.
To me a full tower is 7+ 5.25-inch drive bays, although some of the newer cases like the cooler master Cosmos etc only have 5.25-inch drives along the front of the case.
I have one 5.25-inch drive, so what's the point?
Sure, some people use water cooling and you can always use converters, but...
I have one of these babies http://lian-li.com/v2/tw/flashpage/b25f/ which I'd call a mid tower, but I still have space for six hard drives, which is more important to me than having a huge amount of drive bays I don't use.

And if I got a mATX board I'd go for a mATX case. Not a lot of well laid out ones around though, but this one isn't half bad http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=27

Built my mates hackintosh in one of these
http://www.cmstorm.com/en/products/chassis/scout/

And another system for my GF's brother in one of these
http://www.cmstorm.com/en/products/chassis/sniper/

Sorry, but it seems like I'm the local go to guy for this kind of stuff...

 

[rskm137]

I typically buy most of my electronics from Newegg when possible and they can filter by Mid Towers and Full Towers.

Here's my old mid http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146025 - it had multiple bays, but there was so little room for everything, it wasn't exactly practical in terms of actual use. (IE: Major heating issues)

Here's my current full tower http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129043 - this thing is MASSIVE. I don't think many people REALLY need something this size (I sure don't), but the space is fantastic for upgrading to newer, bigger graphics cards and multiple hard drives. I also didn't turn my hand into diced onions trying to squeeze everything in. That particular case has 6 fans with a slot for a seventh, so I don't have to worry about heat problems from prolonged periods of gaming or programming/rendering once my school gets going. I won't probably ever have to upgrade the case again as long as the buttons continue to work.

Eh, you will probably hear something different from every person though.

 

[thelostswede]

Classic full, mid and mini

Well, NZXT makes **** imho

The 1200 isn't all bad, but a bit too "airy". Mesh is ok, but it also means a lot of dust, even more so when you have cats...

I guess the terminology as well as case design has changed a bit, but I still don't see the need for cases with a bunch of 5.25-inch drives.

I have always had decent cases, but my Lian-Li is something out of the ordinary in terms of both features and quality. It might not be worth the asking price, but it's a sweet case