need router and 3D card advice

[Brak]

my dad just randomly bought us a new computer, about 2Ghz, 40gigs, 512 DDRAM, nothing spectacular, but better than this piece running on windows ME.

but it was on a small business sale kinda deal, so i am led to believe it has no 3D card. can anyone give me some advice on a good 3D card to run stuff like CoH and the like (World of Warcraft too, soon), but i really dont want to break the bank.im hearing GeForce here and Radeon there, i need some help

secondly, onto the big stuff. im going to do my best to keep 2 computers in the house. but if im gonna do that, my dad wants the internet on both, and NOT pay anything extra. being the computer guy of the household, i need to get some major help on choosing a router. i have no idea where to start or what to get. all i know is that i have a cable modem. HELP

[i_baked_cookies]

assuming you have an internet connection that uses ethernet, then i would strongly advise you to NOT buy netgear. stay away from every product they make. i hate them so much. die die die.

[Remington]

I can't really help you with the 3D card advice but I can help with the router. I really prefer LinkSys router systems over any other. They're well made and a breeze to install and I've never had a problem with mine. Plus, there are tons of systems for you to choose from. They have wireless and wired . . . . . . . well, just take a look.

LinkSys Router Systems

[fire1811]

i second the LinkSys router. i have my house set up for wireless and it was a breeze.

as for graphic card for anyone to make a good post on what will be good for you we REALLY need to know how much money you want to spend on the card. there is just too much of a price difference.

[SniperSmurf]

Yeah, the LinkSys are nice... while they work. I've had two (one wired, one wireless) and each died in a little over a year. Right now I'm using Microsoft's wireless router and actually prefer it to my old one.
As for Video cards, I've always been a fan of the high-end GeForce series (I've got a GeForce FX 5900 Ultra, my wife's is a GeForce 4 Ti 4600 which was my old one) but if I had to buy one right now it would probably be the Radeon X800 XT (or 9800 XT if I was on a budget).

[Cthulhu]

I personally run a linksys router at home. We run DLink products in our office, which we host a few light-duty websites. Both are great products. Netgear is a name to avoid, there are other options out there for similar price. I have found the D-Link easier to set up, but the Linksys has many more, and flexible options.

On that note, reguardless if you have 1 or 2 computers in your house, you should get a router/gateway device ANYWAYS! Although XP has a built in firewall, it is no match for some of the worms that are currently out there, none the less, what is going to exploit it in the future. With Routers, they use NAT (network address translation) which actually masks your computer behind their IP address. Because the router will ignore unsolicited traffic, your computer is safe. Now, that being said, I recommend turning off the UPNP option in your new router, as viruses have been known to take advantage of the ability to open ports and serve up your information, without you modifying your router to do so.

Hopefully that wasn't too much information for you. Its what I tell clients when they are picking up their new computer & gateway and usually they are able to absorb most of it.

Now, on to the Video Card.

ATI and GeForce (NVidia) have been at it for the last 3-5 years. Between the two, they have pushed the bar up so high for video performance, that no other company can even consider competing with them. S3, Matrox, Intel are all inable to produce a decent 3D card.

Now, of course, we all want the PCI-X X800 from ATI. But who has $900(CDN) to spend on a video card!? Honestly, the best ATI Card for the money right now is either the 9600SE or the 9800.

I personally also recomend ATI, for two reasons. 1st, they Are CANADIAN! (YAY) 2nd, I have found their stability to far surpass NVidia's. Their Drivers are better written, are less buggy and have been out performing Nvidia for quite some time. Of course, there will be people ou thtere that say the same for Nvidia... whats your fav, Mag or Cocker.. well, you know what I'm getting at.

Any how, I hope this helps.

[Miscue]

ATI has put out so much crap for such a long time with drivers from hell, that I've made it a habit of buying nVidia all the time. But, ATI has come a long way - and it will likely be my next card.