time for new computer

[Blackguy]

After 5 years of constantly upgrading my computer, I decided to put a brand fresh new togheter. I'd lke some comment or suggestion to how this list looks, and what I might have forgotten. I already have a duallayer DVD burner, and keyboard, mouse, and a 19" TFT monitor.

1 x ASUS P5N-E SLI - Motherboard - ATX - nForce 650i SLI - LGA775 Socket - UDMA133, Serial ATA-300 (RAID), eSATA - Gigabit Ethernet - FireWire - 6-kanal audio
   
1 x Kingston HyperX - Memory - 2 GB ( 2 x 1 GB ) - DIMM 240-pin - DDR II - 800 MHz / PC2-6400 - CL4 - 2 V

2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 - Harddrive - 320 GB - internal harddisk - 3.5" - SATA-300 - 7200 rpm - buffer: 16 MB

1 x Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 / 2.4 GHz ( 1066 MHz ) - LGA775 Socket - L2 4 MB - Box

1 x ASUS EN8800GTS/HTDP - Videcard - GF 8800 GTS - PCI Express x16 - 320 MB GDDR3 - Digital Visual Interface (DVI) ( HDCP ) - HDTV out

1 x Antec Performance One P180B - Miditower - ATX - No powersupply - black - USB/FireWire/Audio

1 x NorthQ 4775-500BU Ultra Silent PSU - Power Supply ( internal ) - ATX12V 2.0 - AC 230 V - 500 Watt

1 x Skythe Infinity - Processor-cooling - ( Socket 478, Socket 754, Socket 940, Socket 775, Socket 939, Socket AM2 )

[s0ulz]

Looks like a very capable rig, however unless you never use headphones or listen to sound output loud, I'd recommend a separate soundcard.

Once I went Creative, I never went back, the difference is HUGE.

[Blackguy]

Well, I do have a Audigy lying around I bought as bulk a couple of months ago, so I guess I could throw that inside.

Since the very eary start of onboard sound, I have never used anything else. I simply cant hear the diffrence. But if you say I can with a real soundcard, I'd might give it a shot.

[s0ulz]

Yes, the difference really comes out when working with decent headgear or speakers. A good sound card sounds a lot better.

Even though onboard audios have come a long way ever since, a proper Audigy card will make everything sound more crisp, clean and what's the most important - in place 3D location wise.

I guess it's more important for gamers who need to know where their opponents are, but it makes listening to music a treat as well.

Not a must, but a good way to spoil your ears.

[Blackguy]

Well I'll chug the soundcard in when I get the machine then. I guess this is the setup I'll be buying.

I guess it could have been better, but its only like 1700$ for it, and thats pretty cheap in denmark, looking at what im getting for the money.

[Falonthas]

see if tigerdirect has the components you want for cheaper or bundled

sometimes they do and their overstock is always good for lowering price too

[Falonthas]

matter of fact looking at your list you can barebones a higher processor and board for alot less than you can by the cpu and board separately

[Blackguy]

That would only work if I lived in the US, I dont want to pay 250$ for shipping it here to Denmark. Besides they dont have presicely what I want, so I'll stick by buying it in Denmark. But I had thought of it.

[Falonthas]

hmm never thought shipping would be that much

[Chazzler]

Man am I jealous for your future craphics card!
I so wish to have two of those, but they cost like 500€ around here. That makes something like $560 a piece (GTX ones I mean)

[Blackguy]

The one im buying is only a gts, and "just" a 320 meg version. But the test ive seen so far doesnt put the normal gts version and the gtx version much ahead. I mean whats the diffrence? If you run 181 frames or you run 178 frames.

[Talan Va'lash]

A dedicated soundcard will also give you a marginal but not negligable performance increase while running multimedia stuff even if you can't hear the difference.

When I had my really nice audio rig set up the difference even between a midgrade soundcard and a high end soundcard was apparent. With the speakers I'm using now (which are nice and portable) the difference in quality is kinda rendered useless by the speaker's poor frequency response (decent bass, good highs, terrible midrange.)

I used to actually use a digidesign mBox as my soundcard just for the quality A/D's in it. The ultimate test of a soundcard (and speakers) is to just play a sine wave at moderate volumes (read "loudish") and then increase the frequency while you listen to it. Poor soundcards will distort that pure sinewave into a saw wave before you even hit 8kHz, professional audio cards will preserve the sine wave's characteristics until you exceed the audible frequency of your ears. Of course, you have to have pro monitors (that means speakers) or headphones with a decent frequency response to perform this test well.

This may all sound a bit esoteric, but if a sine wave is distorting at reasonable frequencies (8khz is well within the audible spectrum, it's within the standard range of a violin) then everything else around those frequencies is distorting too, which can result in a dirty or muddy sound.

[Blackguy]

Who shot who in the what now?

Well like I said, I wont loose anything by tossing that Audigy into the rig, and I might buy some new headphones while I'm at it. I seem to wear out earphones once a year, so it might be time to buy some decent quality ones this time.