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Hi.
I’ve been thinking about upgrading my audio set-up as the speakers that I have are about to give up their ghost and are no good anyway (don’t tell anyone, but it’s Target TRG-S15). I’m not an audiophile by any stretch of imagination and I’m used to shitty sound to the point where it doesn’t bother me too much so I find it a little puzzling when people throw away hundreds if not, indeed, thousands of dollars to buy a ‘decent’ sound system or so they say. I am, on the other hand, curious to try something new and do like listening to music and playing games quite a bit. All things considered, I’m looking for a replacement with a little bit of improvement to go with it.
I have about $100 gathering dust in my pocket which I’ve sort of earmarked for the aforementioned purpose. Paying less is welcome and paying more is not out of the question but will take some convincing. Obviously, this is no Hi-Fi budget but I think it gives me a shot at mid-range PC-oriented 2.0 and 2.1 set-ups of which there’re many. Too many, in fact.
I am drawn to 2.1 solutions but I’m a bit wary of setting up a subwoofer, however underpowered, in my apartment. Just to make it clear, it’s an apartment in an apartment block. I hate it when a neighbor’s kid is listening to some bizarre nonsense sending bass thumps through my living room while I’m trying to read a book on my day off and wouldn’t want to be a nuisance like that to people unlucky enough to live next to me. I do, on the other hand, like that extra bit of oomph that a woofer could add. So I’m thinking of something along the lines of Logitech Z523 in this department. Reviews I found online seem to be of mediocre to favorable disposition towards this piece. Do you think it would be possible to run something like that without rattling some windows and nerves?
I know there are better options available in the US but, alas, I live far away from this paradise of consumerism in the relative remoteness of Eastern Europe so juicy things like Swan M10 and Klipsch ProMedia are hard to find. Even if something like that does crop up on the market around these parts it usually costs 1.5 to 2 times of what it should and gets swept of the counters in a blink of an eye. So bear with me and stick to more mainstream offers if you would suggest an alternative.
Now, there is something to be said for 2.0 options as well. Personally, I find Logitech Z320 very attractive as a budget set-up. They correspond very well with my desire to replace and (slightly) improve the system I have without burning a hole through my pocket. Reviews keep telling me that they have decent sound for the money and they actually cost as much as they do on Amazon.com for once. However, since I’ve head a 2.0 system for eons now their curiosity factor isn’t very high. Still, giving my neighbors one less reason to hate murder me is a relief in its own right. I am a little bit concerned with their power being just 10W, although my room isn’t too big, I think it’s just under 15 square meters, so it should be easy enough for them to fill it with sound. I’m a little bit put off by people referring to Z320 as notebook speakers as it sounds a little bit derogatory but that’s probably just what they are.
I’m toying with the idea of getting these puppies now and purchasing a good gaming headset later on – something like Roccat Kave 5.1, perhaps, or some Sennheiser wireless goodness (on a separate budget, of course). This would keep things smooth around the apartment block and still give me the opportunity to enjoy quality sound when gaming. Do you think it’s a viable option? Is there a better one that I’m missing? Again, suggestions are welcome but mind the gap ;-) I know M-Audio AV30 are a great 2.0 solution but to buy those I will have to travel to a neighboring country and, again, pay more than they are really worth. Be reasonable.
By the way, if you happen to know of a reasonably priced headset (headphones with a mike), you let me know :-)
One last thing I wanted to ask about is the ‘dedicated sound card vs. Realtek’ dilemma. Is there really a point to busting another hundred over something like Asus Xonar DX when running a PC speaker set-up? Or are all those advocates out on message boards simply trying to justify their investment to themselves and the world? My mobo has Realtek ALC892 that seems to be working fine save for a somewhat iffy input line in the back. Maybe I just don’t know how bad it is?
Many thanks for reading it all and happy New Year! :-)
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I really don't want to pick on tomshardware this much, but:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fastest-graphics-card-radeon-geforce,3085-4.html
Here it ties 6870 and GTX 560 at 185$.
How does that even make sense? On newegg there are 2 6870s at 160$ and a total of 9 of them at under 185$ while the cheapest GTX 560 is at least close at 180$.
Just what?
Not to mention that it ties GTX 560 Ti and 6950 at 240$ although in reality 6950 is noticeably better than 560 Ti but is also around 30-20$ costier.
And finally it ignores GTX 560 Ti 448 core and then ties GTX 570 and 6970 although 6970 is again betterand currently also cheaper.
So basically it's a useless guide and you might as well just order graphics cards by price.
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How is the hd6970 better than the gtx570? I thought the gtx generally have a very slight advantage in games, at least fps wise if you look at benchmarks.
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Hey all,
I was wondering if anyone knew how MIR (US$) works in Canada, I am guessing you get a card with 20$ or w/e on it, but can you spend it anywhere that accepts american express (costco)?
Thx
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On December 29 2011 00:06 nam nam wrote:
How is the hd6970 better than the gtx570? I thought the gtx generally have a very slight advantage in games, at least fps wise if you look at benchmarks.
6970 is the one with an advantage o_o Especially after the performance drivers
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On December 28 2011 23:27 Chaomantic wrote:
One last thing I wanted to ask about is the ‘dedicated sound card vs. Realtek’ dilemma. Is there really a point to busting another hundred over something like Asus Xonar DX when running a PC speaker set-up? Or are all those advocates out on message boards simply trying to justify their investment to themselves and the world? My mobo has Realtek ALC892 that seems to be working fine save for a somewhat iffy input line in the back. Maybe I just don’t know how bad it is?
Modern onboard audio like ALC892 is a lot better than it used to be in the past. Sound cards may make more of a difference when you're driving headphones, where the D/A as well as headphone amplification are used, but it's still not even a huge deal for most setups. For sending a signal to powered speakers, you're just looking at the quality of the D/A, so it's less of a factor. At this kind of price point for speakers, the speakers are going to be way way worse than most onboard audio, so no, a discrete sound card isn't worth the purchase unless you absolutely need EAX (and nobody does these days) or other DSP processing that they offer.
Unfortunately, availability and pricing (including relative pricing) of audio components varies extremely widely in different parts of the world, so good recommendations are difficult to make. Maybe you can try avsforum or something like that.
I will say that at that kind of price point, and at most price points, a stereo headphones set will have better sound quality than the speakers set. The problems are just the obvious ones of (1) you have to wear them, (2) nobody else gets the sound even if you want them to, and (3) you won't feel any bass impact over the body. There are legitimate reasons to prefer one over the other and vice versa.
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On December 29 2011 02:13 Shikyo wrote:Show nested quote +On December 29 2011 00:06 nam nam wrote:
How is the hd6970 better than the gtx570? I thought the gtx generally have a very slight advantage in games, at least fps wise if you look at benchmarks. 6970 is the one with an advantage o_o Especially after the performance drivers
Before that. I haven't seen any stats afterwards.
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On December 29 2011 03:32 nam nam wrote:Show nested quote +On December 29 2011 02:13 Shikyo wrote:On December 29 2011 00:06 nam nam wrote:
How is the hd6970 better than the gtx570? I thought the gtx generally have a very slight advantage in games, at least fps wise if you look at benchmarks. 6970 is the one with an advantage o_o Especially after the performance drivers Before that. I haven't seen any stats afterwards.
well AMDs drivers improved the performance but it'd be awesome if nvidias drivers have made their cards better as they're the cheaper ones <_<
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On December 29 2011 03:32 nam nam wrote:Show nested quote +On December 29 2011 02:13 Shikyo wrote:On December 29 2011 00:06 nam nam wrote:
How is the hd6970 better than the gtx570? I thought the gtx generally have a very slight advantage in games, at least fps wise if you look at benchmarks. 6970 is the one with an advantage o_o Especially after the performance drivers Before that. I haven't seen any stats afterwards.
Depends on settings a lot. AMD struggles with MSAA a lot more than Nvidia, and the rest is game dependant.
I was surprised at how much better nvidia's cards are at computing antialiasing (I'd just heard they were), but it could be due to simply having more aggressive filters on when to not further process the image, or a less thorough technique (with no noticeable difference in quality).
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/292?vs=306
If you look at the benches, the 6970 is ahead in most games until AA is enabled.
NOTE: *Older drivers of course in this review*
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Hey so i OC'd my i5 2500k to 4.4ghz and ran intel burn test with everything at max and eventually my cpus temp would average out to about 76 celcius, also it idles at around 42, are either of these too hot?
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76 is hot for a 2500k. It all comes down to personal preference really, but most consider 60-65C maximum acceptable temps for a good lifespan.
Are you running on the stock cooler? If so undervolt it and drop to 4.0 for now (until you get a custom heatsink). With some tweaking you can generally get to 60C with prime 95 at 4.0 on stock. (I did and it's 40C some days here, no airconditioning)
If you have a custom heatsink already:
- It's utter shit, unlikely but possible
- You installed it incorrectly
- You have overvolted the cpu for that clockspeed
- Your case has inadequate ventilation
- You may have accidentally placed it in the vicinity of an oven or heater or similar device
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Your powersupply seems extremely expensive. The motherboard and cpu can be had for far less with combo deals that more experienced forum-goers know about. Apart from that it is a good build.
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On December 29 2011 03:53 Rollin wrote:
76 is hot for a 2500k. It all comes down to personal preference really, but most consider 60-65C maximum acceptable temps for a good lifespan.
Are you running on the stock cooler? If so undervolt it and drop to 4.0 for now (until you get a custom heatsink). With some tweaking you can generally get to 60C with prime 95 at 4.0 on stock. (I did and it's 40C some days here, no airconditioning)
If you have a custom heatsink already:
- It's utter shit, unlikely but possible
- You installed it incorrectly
- You have overvolted the cpu for that clockspeed
- Your case has inadequate ventilation
- You may have accidentally placed it in the vicinity of an oven or heater or similar device
i have a coolermaster 212 installed, i guess il re-apply the thermal paste and bump up the speed on my case fan.
How do i remove the old paste?
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On December 29 2011 03:56 SnowSC2 wrote:Show nested quote +On December 29 2011 03:53 Rollin wrote:
76 is hot for a 2500k. It all comes down to personal preference really, but most consider 60-65C maximum acceptable temps for a good lifespan.
Are you running on the stock cooler? If so undervolt it and drop to 4.0 for now (until you get a custom heatsink). With some tweaking you can generally get to 60C with prime 95 at 4.0 on stock. (I did and it's 40C some days here, no airconditioning)
If you have a custom heatsink already:
- It's utter shit, unlikely but possible
- You installed it incorrectly
- You have overvolted the cpu for that clockspeed
- Your case has inadequate ventilation
- You may have accidentally placed it in the vicinity of an oven or heater or similar device i have a coolermaster 212 installed, i guess il re-apply the thermal paste and bump up the speed on my case fan. How do i remove the old paste?
With a credit card, but it is not necessarily the issue. What voltage are you running at? And which case do you have?
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On December 29 2011 03:57 Rollin wrote:Show nested quote +On December 29 2011 03:56 SnowSC2 wrote:On December 29 2011 03:53 Rollin wrote:
76 is hot for a 2500k. It all comes down to personal preference really, but most consider 60-65C maximum acceptable temps for a good lifespan.
Are you running on the stock cooler? If so undervolt it and drop to 4.0 for now (until you get a custom heatsink). With some tweaking you can generally get to 60C with prime 95 at 4.0 on stock. (I did and it's 40C some days here, no airconditioning)
If you have a custom heatsink already:
- It's utter shit, unlikely but possible
- You installed it incorrectly
- You have overvolted the cpu for that clockspeed
- Your case has inadequate ventilation
- You may have accidentally placed it in the vicinity of an oven or heater or similar device i have a coolermaster 212 installed, i guess il re-apply the thermal paste and bump up the speed on my case fan. How do i remove the old paste? With a credit card, but it is not necessarily the issue. What voltage are you running at? And which case do you have?
antec 300 and core voltage 1.336
also i think both my exhaust fans are on med or low, i should probably turn those up
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ok so i went into bios and it was set to 1.288, but cpuz is saying 1.336?
wtf?
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So I purchased 2 Seagate Green 2Tb drives on boxing day for $120 each, I installed them no problems, I formatted the disks and used windows 7 to make them a single drive. After restarting the hard drive icon in my Computer is a folder, and the name was changed to PENDRIVE, yet going properties the name still is the one I set previously. What is this, I have no clue what's going on. So my 3.8TB spanned drive says it's a folder? and the name is changed and I cannot change it back. I'm thinking some kind of virus but :/
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Cheaper RAM (still 1600 MHz) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220569
Unless you're planning on CFX/SLI, get the 450 W capstone for $60, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182066
Cheaper optical drive ($17, free shipping) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136240
edit: You don't have a heatsink, something like the Hyper 212+ for $29 is fine, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065
Xigmatek Gaia or something around the $30 mark is fine too.
On December 28 2011 19:00 MK1593 wrote:
I am looking to build a new computer from scratch. I have very limited knowledge but a friend who would help me put it together. My monitor is outdated and would appreciate any suggestions for that too. I have been playing sc 2 on low settings since the beta.
Budget-Preferably under 1300 not including monitor
Resolution- Best possible
Using for-Gaming and everyday use. I would like to play sc2, skyrim, etc at best settings possible for budget.
Upgrade cycle- Around three years
Building time- Now
Overclocking- I'm a total noob and would if suggested for what I will be using it for
Operating system- Will need to purchase one
Second gpu or crossfire- Dont know if necessary
Buying from- US
Thanks in advance for any suggestions. I was going to buy prebuilt but heard about the advantages of building and what better place to seek help than here.
If you want to overclock, use the above build (with changes) and add http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004Q0PT3I (Windows 7 x64, $100) If you can find it cheaper, get it. OEM version is fine. Newegg's OEM is $100 as well.
If you want a better graphics card, get a 560 Ti or 6950
If you don't want to OC, get this processor (i5-2500, $190 w/ promo code INTELCORE10) and a cheap H61 mobo such as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138332 (10% off with EMCJHHD86), drop the heatsink and get this RAM instead, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313086
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EPT
