Building a PC - Worth it?

lmimmfn

CruelCoin wrote: »

Any half decent motherboard has great onboard sound. Very few people benefit from having a soundcard, and if you're not running 7.1 speakers, its largely wasted.

depends, my own experience with RealTek is that it sux majorly with regular headphones, but if you take e.g. an Asus Rampage V which uses realtek it has a built in preamp which of course allows you to connect regular headphones and have decent volume with reduced noise etc. Its completely dependent on the mobo.

Shiminay

I think for those who have a more refined ear and professional need such as a musician or audio engineer, the extra splash on a soundcard is completely justified, but for most people who won't appreciate the difference, on-board is perfectly adequate. Yes that sounds very "holier than thou" and I apologise for that, but the types of people I mentioned will regularly ask more of their sound card than any game would (or they're using a Mac )

ancapailldorcha

Shiminay wrote: »

I think for those who have a more refined ear and professional need such as a musician or audio engineer, the extra splash on a soundcard is completely justified, but for most people who won't appreciate the difference, on-board is perfectly adequate. Yes that sounds very "holier than thou" and I apologise for that, but the types of people I mentioned will regularly ask more of their sound card than any game would (or they're using a Mac )

I actually worked for a medical devices firm in Oxfordshire repairing and calibrating audiometers. I earned the nickname "bat" as I was the only one who could hear them when they were playing up. This PC would only be for games and films. Sound card sounds like it might be superfluous.

I echo what many say. Use the resource which we have in the PC Building and Upgrading.
There are some very knowledgeable people there who have even offered to help posters to physically put the machine together.

The one thing that I would stress; this is a capital spend, it is going to (hopefully) last for 5+ years. If you can slightly overspec, in a balanced manner, now it will save you a fortune later on.
If you have some redundancy in the system performance it will allow you not to have to upgrade parts, as requirements increase.

ScumLord

Make sure you double check how the ram needs to be configured. At time I bought the ram had to be in pairs, but I thought it had to be in triplets, so I bought 12gb of ram. Then found out the 3rd stick would only work if it had another 4gb to go with it. Ended up paying something like half the price for one stick, that I'd paid for 3 sticks, and now I have 16gb of ram for no particular reason.

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Sound card sounds like it might be superfluous.

They are, unless you're producing music or sound for film they're completely redundant.

ScumLord

ScumLord wrote: »

Make sure you double check how the ram needs to be configured. At time I bought the ram had to be in pairs, but I thought it had to be in triplets, so I bought 12gb of ram. Then found out the 3rd stick would only work if it had another 4gb to go with it. Ended up paying something like half the price for one stick, that I'd paid for 3 sticks, and now I have 16gb of ram for no particular reason.

They are, unless you're producing music or sound for film they're completely redundant.

Would the sound out system not dictate the need for a sound card?
I actually need to know this as I'm getting handed a 7.1 Yamaha head unit and speakers

ScumLord

Deleted User wrote: »

Would the sound out system not dictate the need for a sound card?
I actually need to know this as I'm getting handed a 7.1 Yamaha head unit and speakers

Onboard sound ports usually let you set what the plug does. I think there's usually the front, centre/sub, rears, mic, and maybe an audio in. But you can change what they do, so you can just make the mic plug do the extra set of speakers from a 7.1. Most come with a digital out too. I guess it can depend on the board but any half ways decent Motherboard should have something like 5 audio jacks at the back, as well as the digital out.