Off-Topic Thread

Yeah, that'll be fine. If Home Premium is a bit cheaper, you might as well for got that, but if they're the same price there's no reason not to go for Professional.

small bit off topic, but did gtx 680 prices went up?

i bought my one for 425£ in scan.co.uk and now it is 431 cheapest. and the palit one that i bough is now 443£

.

is thats what you call a price war?! :eek:

Supply and demand. Prices always jump around after a launch when people can't get their hands on stuff.

Serephucus wrote: »

Supply and demand. Prices always jump around after a launch when people can't get their hands on stuff.

that is draging quite long now! i expected all the fuss drop by now, plus with amd price cut.

surely people who were in the market for high end GPU would got for 7970 now.

deconduo

ShadowHearth wrote: »

that is draging quite long now! i expected all the fuss drop by now, plus with amd price cut.

surely people who were in the market for high end GPU would got for 7970 now.

Going by the prices on HWVS, most definitely. The cheapest HD7970 is only €430 whereas the cheapest GTX680 is €482 and it isn't even in stock :eek: No reason at all to get the 680 given that price difference.

deconduo wrote: »

Going by the prices on HWVS, most definitely. The cheapest HD7970 is only €430 whereas the cheapest GTX680 is €482 and it isn't even in stock :eek: No reason at all to get the 680 given that price difference.

yup. i dont see any point going 680 at all too. 7970 is better value now. i really hope 680 will drop in price too. i might have gone 7970 way... it would be way cheaper going CF for me now!

So, bit of an experiment going at the moment. Plugged my Z906s into the onboard optical out on my motherboard, to give onboard audio a try. Long story short: to those saying that onboard sound is enough - you're right, sort of (but I can't frakking stand it).

If you have a motherboard that'll do DDL (Dolby Digital Live) and a speaker set that will support it, then it's better, but still not nearly as nice as a dedicated card. Without DDL? I wouldn't use anything more than Aldi speakers, to be perfectly honest.

To me, even with DDL enabled, everything sounds quite muffled, and flat. It's almost like someone intentionally encoded the music at a much lower quality (mp3 96Kb/s, ish) and shrunk the amplitude range or something.

This isn't even bringing up Window's absolutely horrible support for surround systems. Without DDL, I have to use the 3D effect thing that comes with the Z906s (The X-530s and 540s have it as well I think) and that's a complete failure. Doesn't sound right at all.

Questions, things to try, opinions, etc.?

2.0? :P

Get out.

Bloodwing

I'm very tempted to go for a dedicated card and a decent set of speakers but i don't know if i could justify a massive outlay. Would i get a decent set up for €200-€250? I see the speakers your using are about €350, there's no way I could spend that!!

What speakers have you got at the moment? They might be good enough to show a difference with just a new sound card.

Bloodwing

Serephucus wrote: »

What speakers have you got at the moment? They might be good enough to show a difference with just a new sound card.

I doubt that. I have these. There's a set of Z906 for sale on adverts for €250 that's a bit more reasonable but it would cost me about €50 to get them sent up from Cork.

You could very easily look at a nice 2.1 set. Most people will tell you high-end 2.1 beats budget 5.1 anyway, but I just wanted surround.

These for instance, are supposed to be fantastic.

Bloodwing

I just watched the NCIX review of them. They look like a nice set alright. What sort of sound card would you recommend for a set like these. It would need an optical out because i have a set of AX Pro's that i use a fair bit.

erm.... nothing to see here lads. just parking this off so i dont forget what im ordering. HWVS really need to get more than a 3 basket limit. im building 4 PC's in the next week or 2 and ive no space to remember them all.

Item|Price
2 x Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€379.58
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€40.99
BitFenix Merc Beta|€31.61
XFX RADEON HD 6870 900M 1GB DDR5 DUAL DP HDMI DUAL DVI|€141.34
LG GH24NS bare schwarz|€16.70
2 x ASRock Z77 Extreme6, Sockel 1155, ATX|€329.32
LogiLink Wireless LAN 300 Mbps PCI Karte 802.11n 2T2R|€16.42
Gigabyte GM-M6880 Laser Gaming Maus|€10.49
LogiLink Gaming & Grafikdesign Mauspad XXL|€2.65
Sharkoon 1337 XL Mat "Black" Mousepad|€7.01
3 x 8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3L-12800U CL9-9-9-24 (DDR3L-1600)|€133.65
2 x 16 GB ADATA Superior Series S102 grey USB3.0|€43.06
2 x Edifier 2.1 System M1350|€46.58
2 x Corsair Hydro Series H100 (Sockel 775/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1)|€177.28
Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T, ATX, ohne Netzteil|€142.79
ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€150.95
Sapphire HD 7870 2GB GDDR5 PCI-Express|€299.29
2 x Razer DeathAdder Re-Spawn, USB, 3500 dpi|€88.50
Corsair Vengeance 1300 Analog Gaming Headset|€60.95
Crucial M4 128GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€131.24
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D 1TB SATA 6GB's|€91.33
XFX PRO750W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply|€82.39
TP-Link TL-WN951N, 300Mbps PCI-Adapter|€23.39
2 x Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€151.18
Logitech Wireless Presenter R400|€30.57
2 x Scythe GentleTyphoon 120 mm Lüfter 1850 rpm|€22.20
Arctic Cooling Wärmeleitpaste MX-4 Tube|€3.98
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance PC3-14900U CL9|€50.19
Seagate Barracuda Spinpoint HD204UI 2TB SATA II|€100.62
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€2825.24

Are you building for living or just for friends m8?

Tipsy McSwagger

Have a silly question. What's the best way of getting wireless Internet working on my new build?

sydthebeat

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Have a silly question. What's the best way of getting wireless Internet working on my new build?

i use a belkin wireless usb adapter like this

Jesus christ, there are even "gaming speakers". Serephecus is definitely trolling me now.

If you want a 2.1 set - http://www.amazon.de/SWANS-M10-Aktiv-Lautsprecher/dp/B001P4846C

I'm actually not. I thought the very same thing when I first heard about them, but according to a friend of mine that was able to hear them, and several reviews, they're great. They really shouldn't have been marketed as gaming speakers though. It really gives the wrong impression.

@Neilos, as for a sound card, maybe something like a Xonar DX?

Burgo

Brian wrote: »

Jesus christ, there are even "gaming speakers". Serephecus is definitely trolling me now.

If you want a 2.1 set - http://www.amazon.de/SWANS-M10-Aktiv-Lautsprecher/dp/B001P4846C

was looking for some swan stuff a while ago, didn't see anything that wasn't based in the US, ffs Brian why'd you have to post that!

Took me a lot of searching to find that. Don't think I'm not annoyed either, I got BX5a's for €250 and the M10s are said to be better!

Also, come summer time, I think I'll be getting a Lepai TA2020 amp and some cheap passive speakers for the fun of it. Studio monitors are good for use at a desk, but I'd like something a bit more atmospheric for bookshelf use. Whether or not the TA2020 unit is powerful enough for that I don't really know.

http://shop.ebay.ie/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1313&_nkw=lepai+ta2020&=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HergWLEC0A

http://www.richersounds.com/product/bookshelf-speakers/wharfedale/diamond-9.0/whar-9.0-blk

edit: oh hello http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056610117 those are probably all too big to be driven by the Lepai though

sosmyface

lads would ye rate this Intel 330 Series 120GB
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Series-120GB-Solid-State/dp/B007P3RMLU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335264527&sr=8-1
ahead of an m4 ssd?

Burgo

Brian wrote: »

Took me a lot of searching to find that. Don't think I'm not annoyed either, I got BX5a's for €250 and the M10s are said to be better!

Also, come summer time, I think I'll be getting a Lepai TA2020 amp and some cheap passive speakers for the fun of it. Studio monitors are good for use at a desk, but I'd like something a bit more atmospheric for bookshelf use. Whether or not the TA2020 unit is powerful enough for that I don't really know.

http://shop.ebay.ie/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1313&_nkw=lepai+ta2020&=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HergWLEC0A

http://www.richersounds.com/product/bookshelf-speakers/wharfedale/diamond-9.0/whar-9.0-blk

edit: oh hello http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056610117 those are probably all too big to be driven by the Lepai though

The BX5a's are really nice, could you really part with them

Never heard of the Lepai, looks pretty good for the price. Yeah I'd say the monitor audios would require a bit more power, but damn they do look good.

I only have a pair of behringer ms40s that i was thinking of upgrading soon, might be sooner than i thought!

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Are you building for living or just for friends m8?

Just friends

my payment on this is going to be a €7 mouse mat and some TIM

the one lad was looking for an iMac for Photoshop work, and for the same price I'm building him a monster 16GB RAM 2500K that'll game too, cause he's getting into BF3 on XBox. using a u2311 going by your word that its amazeballs

Headshot

Ugh is all I can say. I'm currently installing my new ssd and I can't find a spare red sata cable

I've the sata cable in the ssd but none spare for the hard drive

I'll be home this evening and I'll give you one If you're stuck.

And a cuddle, too?

Headshot

Cheers tea but I got a sata cable in town there, going to install it myself
( pissed me off I couldn't find the original one)

But I'd take a cuddle if ya have one to spare