How should I connect my PC?

Lucas Brown

Honorable
Jun 29, 2013
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10,530
Hi, I am somewhat of a beginner to building computers so bear with me here. I have a build for my gaming PC almost all figured out, however, I am unsure what to do with networking. As I will be gaming a lot online/skyping with friends, I want a strong, reliable and fast connection to the internet. I will be putting my PC in my room, which is aprox. 20 ft away from our router. The signal goes through two walls, but browsing the internet/watching HD videos in my room using my ipad works great.

Although I would prefer using an ethernet connection, I do not want to have to drill holes in my walls. For that reason I am leaning towards WiFi, but I have been looking into other solutions such as powerline adaptors as well.

My questions are, should I buy an ethernet card and use powerline? What about a WiFi card? What would the price differences be? Could someone find me a cheap but good WiFi card? (I have a limited budget that I have almost reached with the rest of the parts, so I need my networking solution to be on the cheap.) Would it be possible to salvage the Wifi card from my old PC? It's a Dell from 2003, would the card be too out of date?

If anyone could help me with any of the questions I would greatly appreciate it! :)
 
Solution


You don't need an ethernet card, your motherboard should have an ethernet port already.
Powerline adapter is a good option. I've used it but can't give you numbers to compare the quality of powerline vs wifi. What I can tell you is that if your wifi is very far then powerline might be the only option. It depends on proximity.

If you did setup wifi, how many meters away is your computer?
 

Lucas Brown

Honorable
Jun 29, 2013
40
0
10,530
Like I said, my computer will be roughly 20 feet away from my modem. If I was going to go the ethernet route, could you suggest a good ethernet card to add to my rig? I'm clueless when it comes to ethernet/wireless cards in PC's...
 


You don't need an ethernet card, your motherboard should have an ethernet port already.
 
Solution