Buying a new pc
- Thread starter DJ12
- Start date
It's supposedly a standard, although fairly high-quality solution. It's got a bit of shielding and stuff going, and so on, so it might be okay, I dunno. I couldn't get the front microphone to sound good (might be the internal leads that came with the case picking up interference, who can say), and I had ground hum in the analog outputs when the weight of the cable pulled on the connector.
I actually switched to optical out today to get away from the hum once and for all.
I actually switched to optical out today to get away from the hum once and for all.
It's supposedly a standard, although fairly high-quality solution. It's got a bit of shielding and stuff going, and so on, so it might be okay, I dunno. I couldn't get the front microphone to sound good (might be the internal leads that came with the case picking up interference, who can say), and I had ground hum in the analog outputs when the weight of the cable pulled on the connector.
I actually switched to optical out today to get away from the hum once and for all.
Thanks, say it all really.
Apparently it is a Realtek 1150 design with proprietary software.
I still believe discreet is the way forward if you want decent sound quality.
Thanks for your advice guys, going with this after extensive review reading.
I7 4770k, 16 gb Kingston Hyperx 2400 ram, MSI z87-GD65 motherboard, corsair h110 cooler and a corsair c7 case.
I have a Silencer 750 quad crossfire PSU which will be bastardised from the out-going setup, along with the HDDs, creative SB x-fi pci-express version, and the afore mention 7870 gpu.
Not a bad system if I do say so myself, doesn't break the bank and will be good for the next 3 to 4 years with the occasional GPU upgrade.
I7 4770k, 16 gb Kingston Hyperx 2400 ram, MSI z87-GD65 motherboard, corsair h110 cooler and a corsair c7 case.
I have a Silencer 750 quad crossfire PSU which will be bastardised from the out-going setup, along with the HDDs, creative SB x-fi pci-express version, and the afore mention 7870 gpu.
Not a bad system if I do say so myself, doesn't break the bank and will be good for the next 3 to 4 years with the occasional GPU upgrade.
In that case your best bet is probably the i5-4670K. It will perform almost as well as the i7-4770K in games while being a good bit cheaper. You might want to wait a bit for the "Haswell refresh" parts to hit the market if you want the extra 100MHz.
If DJ12 is not planning on upgrading again for a few years then I can see the rational for going to 16GB of fast DDR3 2400 memory.
Good luck with your build DJ12 - looks pretty awesome to me!
Blazkowicz
Legend
It's supposedly a standard, although fairly high-quality solution. It's got a bit of shielding and stuff going, and so on, so it might be okay, I dunno. I couldn't get the front microphone to sound good (might be the internal leads that came with the case picking up interference, who can say), and I had ground hum in the analog outputs when the weight of the cable pulled on the connector.
I actually switched to optical out today to get away from the hum once and for all.
Weight from the cable, what's that?
I always advise to buy the cheapest, thinnest, unremarkable-looking cables because cables do jack all for audio quality and the cheap stuff doesn't break easily (and you afford more length). Unless maybe a pet eats the cable.
Front outs on the cases are another story they're "mysterious" yes, maybe it would be fixed if the case manufacturer cared and spent $0.1 more on that.
Blazkowicz
Legend
I have Xonar DX, that's a crazy fidelity level, more than I'll ever need (nice that I can plug it into some serious sound system if I come to it). Even when using it all times at 100% master level (or -1dB, -2dB)
But I used to have a SB Live!, using the rear output (a series of Live and Audigy 1, it's very easy to render them useless when you're changing your PC hardware and run them unscrewed..), it was pretty perfect even though the SNR is about 10dB lower.
So I now believe that the best motherboad must be good for pretty any usage. Xonar DX and up match or exceed any high end grade audio hardware (including stupid things like $5000 CD players)
if that helps :
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/918-16/performances-reseau-audio.html
comparison of Z87 mini ITX motherboards. ASRock Z87E-ITX is best
.The same page shows that "killer NIC" actually Atheros AR8161 is CPU hungry.
Because the cable was one of those PC-only analog 5.1 cables, but due to my wireless surround speakers crapping out I had to remove the sub/center/surround jacks, leaving only one of three jacks plugged in. This introduced additional strain on the connector input, which sometimes caused ground hum when contact became poor.
I'm finally having the surround speakers fixed by an electronics repairman, so hopefully I'll get them back in working order sometime next week. Was supposed to be this week, but seems he couldn't get them done in time for some proper 5.1 gaming this weekend.
This is why I will only every buy mobos that support DTS Connect or Dolby Digital Live. It is dogshit that most PCs can't output 5.1 surround in games over the optical or copper digital outputs. ASRock is pretty good about including that in their midrange boards. Looks like all of their boards with the Realtek 1150 support at least DTS Connect... probably the royalties are lower with DTS.
Blazkowicz
Legend
In the article above Asrock and Asus had DTS connect, Gigabyte and MSI hadn't.
Even sound cards don't all have them, e.g. Xonar DS/DSX has it but not DG or DX.
Using HDMI sound may be better/easier if you can do that. It has higher bandwith, S/PDIF was made for CD and DAT cassettes, it's an oddity that we have an interface so slow it'd be like USB stayed at USB 1.
Even sound cards don't all have them, e.g. Xonar DS/DSX has it but not DG or DX.
Using HDMI sound may be better/easier if you can do that. It has higher bandwith, S/PDIF was made for CD and DAT cassettes, it's an oddity that we have an interface so slow it'd be like USB stayed at USB 1.
Interesting, I'll bare that in mind for when Intel eventually release something worth upgrading to.
I realise I could go HDMI with my audio solution but since that would require a new amp (and probably screw up my dual link DVI monitor connection, I'll just stick with good old SPDIF.
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
What I've been wondering for a while now is how do I actually get DTS/DD for games on my Onkyo with my pc? I've got my pc hooked up to the Onkyo (HDX35, basic model) but every game I play is always PCM and never DD/DTS. I got a 560TI and Asus z87 gryphon. Movies do display DTS/DD.
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
Okay I've googled a bit and it seems most realtek chips do actually have dolby/dts support, it's just not enabled in the drivers so you need a modded driver. I'll give that a shot later this week.
Btw for some reason I always feel the sound from my 35 euro logitech speakers is actually better than that of my Onkyo... I got it on this theather direct mode, which somehow turns 2.1 into 5.1, it certainly sounds "fuller" than the other modes but still... Whatever mode I pick I always feel sound is lost.
Btw for some reason I always feel the sound from my 35 euro logitech speakers is actually better than that of my Onkyo... I got it on this theather direct mode, which somehow turns 2.1 into 5.1, it certainly sounds "fuller" than the other modes but still... Whatever mode I pick I always feel sound is lost.
TTottentranz posted this helpful link in my recent thread in the PC Hardware forum: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...olby-digital-live-and-dts-interactive.193148/
There you will find the required modded driver if you have Realtek audio hardware on your mobo. It's a hack and unsupported by the manufacturer obviously, so understandably it's a bit of a crapshoot wether it'll work on your particular mobo or not. However it just might, so perhaps you want to try it.
On the last page of the thread there's instructions how to make windows driver signing enforcement not shit itself when trying to load this hacked driver. Good luck!
There you will find the required modded driver if you have Realtek audio hardware on your mobo. It's a hack and unsupported by the manufacturer obviously, so understandably it's a bit of a crapshoot wether it'll work on your particular mobo or not. However it just might, so perhaps you want to try it.
On the last page of the thread there's instructions how to make windows driver signing enforcement not shit itself when trying to load this hacked driver. Good luck!
Similar threads
