Sound cards are useless to most people they cannot tell and most of their sound sets up are completely waste of the extra channels and the little things. Mobo's now easily can do 7.1 HD surround, DTS and DDL most sound cards just off load the cpu from doing the calculations onto a sound card's chip that's all. waste of money for his budget. The real advantage to most users is from the about 90-180 dollar range which is too much for him atm is where you get sound cards with calculation software similar to Creative X-fi which tries to enhance the sound via software but it's only compatible with the sound card so...

Spartan

United States2030 Posts

January 20 2009 22:00 GMT

#22

Thanks guys, I'm taking all your suggestions and I'll come up with a more feasible build. Btw, here is my old one that I am selling:
http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/sys/1000746117.html

Durak

Canada3685 Posts

January 20 2009 22:13 GMT

#23

On January 21 2009 06:48 IzzyCraft wrote:
Sound cards are useless to most people they cannot tell and most of their sound sets up are completely waste of the extra channels and the little things. Mobo's now easily can do 7.1 HD surround, DTS and DDL most sound cards just off load the cpu from doing the calculations onto a sound card's chip that's all. waste of money for his budget. The real advantage to most users is from the about 90-180 dollar range which is too much for him atm is where you get sound cards with calculation software similar to Creative X-fi which tries to enhance the sound via software but it's only compatible with the sound card so...

I'm saying that I'm not an audiophile and I totally notice a difference. It's definitely not useless to most people but that seems to be the common "shrug off" response. Sure, mobo's have a built in sound card but it doesn't even come close to comparing.

Yes, the sound card I'm talking about is expensive. This guy is willing to spend $1200 USD for his computer. That is not chump change. I bought a HD 4870, e8400, and new mobo for ~$150 CDN after selling my old videocard, cpu, mobo and my stuff was 2 years old. I think if he's willing to spend that much money for an elite system he should look into a soundcard.

IzzyCraft

United States4487 Posts

January 20 2009 22:30 GMT

#24

Just because you spend 150 on a mobo doesn't mean it had a good integrated sound chip in it also depends on the program set up you are using and if you updated the bios and drivers and applications for said on board sound. In terms of basic sound quality, there's very little in it these days between on board sound and an add-in card. Like i said before what you are hearing is a "program enchanting" creative calls it a "crystalizer setting" which trys to take lower tones and desired tones and change the output to make it sound sharper the sound more likely then the sound card actually doing anything special. I mean he runs a 2.1 set up it's a real waste of a dedicated sound card esp one like Asus Xonar which is really meant for HD decoding perfect for media pc's which should have at least 5.1 set up and a proper set up not 5.1 speakers shoved in front of you they are also really meant for audio work and i mean work by people who actually make music because again they offload and and properly handle input from 7.1 channels for audio creation they also offload the cpu for better response in the work environment.Really unless you are having decent quality music samples to begin with ie CD rips that aren'y crappy MP3 128kb/s ideally AC3 WAV WMV uncompressed or a 320kb/s or higher there is no logical difference in the performance of the sound produced although there porb is a slighly psychological one. Also could be realtek fault they suck at making drivers and so people get problems with hearing static or something.

Durak

Canada3685 Posts

January 20 2009 22:49 GMT

#25

I meant that I spent $150 for all those parts. It was supposed to contrast with his budget but it's really besides the point.

I've noticed a huge difference with the soundcard using only a cheap headset, so I'm sure his 5.1 speakers would benefit more.

I think in his price range it would be a good purchase. He's thinking of getting dual monitors and SLI, which are really luxurious expenditures for cost/benefit. It's simply my suggestion that he should look into a soundcard.

Edit: No need to quote. Ambiguity.

Spartan

United States2030 Posts

January 21 2009 00:50 GMT

#26

Okay.. going off everyone's recommendations I came up with this:
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=6025429

Durak

Canada3685 Posts

January 21 2009 01:20 GMT

#27

That rig is basically the same as the one you currently have. Good bye $1200.

mahnini

United States6862 Posts

January 21 2009 01:22 GMT

#28

get a ac7 cooler also intel quads should be getting a price drop soon, e8500 should last you a while though

Spartan

United States2030 Posts

January 21 2009 01:26 GMT

#29

On January 21 2009 10:22 mahnini wrote:
get a ac7 cooler also intel quads should be getting a price drop soon, e8500 should last you a while though

Someone said that quad-cores what be a complete waste because not a lot of programs take advantage of 4 cores. And the reviews say the e8500 is waay better than the q6600.

mahnini

United States6862 Posts

January 21 2009 01:28 GMT

#30

On January 21 2009 10:26 Spartan wrote:

Show nested quote +

Someone said that quad-cores what be a complete waste because not a lot of programs take advantage of 4 cores. And the reviews say the e8500 is waay better than the q6600.

it would be but if you're not upgrading for a while, like 2+ years, quad is probably better.
plus if you wait for the rumored price drop it might be the same price

Spartan

United States2030 Posts

January 21 2009 04:20 GMT

#31

Yea I see what you mean. But in 2-3 years I'll probably get another new PC to switch out this coming new one. For now I'll take the higher speed and less cores, over the lower speed and more cores that won't even be accessed by the majority of the programs out there.

Savio

United States1850 Posts

January 21 2009 05:56 GMT

#32

I don't see the need for a hard disk cooler.

Good choices on vid card and processor. Both super reliable, proven and therefore popular.

Wow, 650 watt power supply. Are you planning SLI still? 650 watt is serious power and may be way more than you need.

But I think this build is much better than your last one. Except...did I miss it or did you only have an 80 gig hard drive? Thats pretty much tiny. I would get minimum 200 gigs. I prefer 400 gigs just to be safe. Its amazing how fast those fill up even in you aren't downloading movies/music. Running out of hard disk is annoying.

Also, you do know that you can't burn dvds with that right? Be sure you don't ever plan on burning one before purchasing. Upgrading to a DVD burner should only be a little bit more money.

mahnini

United States6862 Posts

January 21 2009 07:26 GMT

#33

for 99$ 650w corsair is a nice deal and i'm assuming 80gb would just be his system drive and he's saving his storage from his old comp

Spartan

United States2030 Posts

January 21 2009 20:30 GMT

#34

On January 21 2009 14:56 Savio wrote:
I don't see the need for a hard disk cooler.

Good choices on vid card and processor. Both super reliable, proven and therefore popular.

Wow, 650 watt power supply. Are you planning SLI still? 650 watt is serious power and may be way more than you need.

But I think this build is much better than your last one. Except...did I miss it or did you only have an 80 gig hard drive? Thats pretty much tiny. I would get minimum 200 gigs. I prefer 400 gigs just to be safe. Its amazing how fast those fill up even in you aren't downloading movies/music. Running out of hard disk is annoying.

Also, you do know that you can't burn dvds with that right? Be sure you don't ever plan on burning one before purchasing. Upgrading to a DVD burner should only be a little bit more money.

Just to be safe for future upgrades. I only put one HD since it will be my primary for programs and such. I'll probably get a second one, but I don't save movies I've watched after downloading anyways.

On January 21 2009 16:26 mahnini wrote:
for 99$ 650w corsair is a nice deal and i'm assuming 80gb would just be his system drive and he's saving his storage from his old comp

Do you think I should get a RAPTOR HD for my primary, then a slower/larger HD for my secondary?

mahnini

United States6862 Posts

January 21 2009 22:09 GMT

#35

i dont think a raptor is worth the money, you wont get any significant improvements

Elemenope

Burkina Faso1704 Posts

January 21 2009 22:31 GMT

#36

On January 21 2009 09:50 Spartan wrote:
Okay.. going off everyone's recommendations I came up with this:
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=6025429

Why would you get the RAM heatsinks when the ram you're getting already has them? The HDD cooler is also probably not needed either with that case. The LED fan is also not needed unless you're planning on dangling it outside of the case. After you build it all, just make sure you set fan options for your video card as the 4800 series auto-fans are horrible.