Well I got a $50 dollar check from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas and decided this is what I wanted. I would have eventually bought these when I buy all the parts for the PC i'll be building soon, but since I got the money I decided I might as well do it now.

And PC gaming/audio is what they will be used for basically. I'll also use them with my portable CD player. I'm very excited, I've heard lots of good things about them. It's sort of scary to here what a lot of you have to say about them but I don't think my un-trained ears will notice what you all fuss about.

I've heard people talking about "breaking in" new headphones. Is this necessary? If so, how can I do it?

Welcome to Head-Fi, btb103.

don't worry about burning in your headphones. just use them as you would have had you never heard of burning in.

will this be connected to a sound blaster, or have you decided on something different? what processor did you decide on? what mobo? what memory? what power supply? what OS? will there be a dvd player in your unit?

Hi btb103... Welcome to head-fi, Sorry about your Grandpa and Grandmas wallets!! (standard greeting with a bit of ad-lib on my part )

The HD497s, although I haven't heard them myself... going solely on the opinions of everyone else will definetly open your eyes (or is that ears? ) to quality sound!!

You might not neccesarily notice a huge difference straight away, and might feel a bit disappointed... but give them two weeks, and then go back to what you have been using up to now... and see which you prefer then

Its highly addictive here... a great place to hang out... but the withdrawal symptoms when you leave are killers!

and sorry about your wallet

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it will be his soon enough. just wait.

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Well I won't be buying the parts for awhile. When my dad's new business starts making money and I get a job is when I'll be able to get it. That should be within the next month or two. Specs as follows (subject to change):
Motherboard: Leadtek K7NCR18D-PRO (this is the new NForce2 chipset with onboard sound called Soundstorm, which I've heard is comparable to being between Sound Blaster Live and Sound Blaster Audigy)
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 1700+
RAM: 2x 256MB Samsung PC2700 DDR
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9500 Pro
OS: Windows XP Pro
CD: 48x Lite-On Burner
no DVD player, that can be saved for the new home theater we got : )
etc etc

Its sort of on a budget so I'm not going to be upgrading the sound card (though when I get more money I may get the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz)

I think it'll be a wicked nice system to game on and listen to music and perhaps hang out here

Thanks for the warm welcome guys, looking forward to getting into this.

i'd get a 2000 or 2100, both being at or under 100 bucks now.

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Yes but the 1700+ is based on the Thoroughbred core, meaning better overclocks and cooler running.

EDIT: not to mention the 1700+ being only $57 while the 2100 and 2000 being in the mid $90's

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How far can the 1700+ be clocked-over?

Congratulations on the phones, they're nice - I've heard them.

Welcome ! And prepare to spent a lot of money !

ah, overclocking, then yes 1700, my 2000+ (1.66) is only slightly above 2200 speeds (1.833)
if you get better ram, you might fare better.

as a rule the even numbered xp's seem to overclock better such as the 1600, 1800 and 2000.

i've seen 1600's running at 2ghz

Enjoy your new toy when it arives.
I hope you get many years use out of them and if you are anything like me when i got my 497's 4 days ago , you will never want to take them off.....EVER!

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As have I. But the 1600 is dying. The 1700 is rising to fill in where the 1600 fell (hehe I just watched the two towers for the second time tonite) For awhile some people were picking up insanely awesome steppings of the 1600, but for some reason that has stopped, and since the 1700 has moved to the thoroughbred core, the 1600 has been left in the dust.

And jessica, yes I know I'd be better off with better RAM, so if my dad doesn't have a problem with spending a little more, I'll buy a few sticks of Corsair PC3200 : )

Again guys, thanks for the warm welcome. Seems like a lot of girls on this forum, I like it

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Kingston PC2700 ValueRam

use it. love it.

mine runs 218mhz cas2 7 3 3

stick of 512 will run you 140 bucks at www.googlegear.com 50 cents for 2nd day shipping as well.