[thread]

Since I've been following this thread for quite some time, I decided it's about time to contribute. I just recently built a new tower and have gotten more into PC gaming. I am a linux guy at heart -- a massive Arch Linux fan -- so I have had to sort of concede to allow windows to be my game launcher. My brand spankin new SSD makes booting between OS's and launching games nice and quick. Currently, the games on the SSD are Mass Effect, CoD Modern Warfare 3, and Battlefield 3. On the screen is the Income Wars Starcraft II mod to which I'm sort of addicted.

For sound, I use the Cullen level 3 modded Digital link III feeding either my rolls mini mixer to the Adam A3X nearfield monitors and Sub7 subwoofer or my SR-71B in balanced mode for headphone listening. Down in front of the desk shot in my trusty (and beloved for about 2.5 years now) JH13 IEMs.

I cleaned up a bit for this pic, but it sure could be a lot cleaner. I agree that many of you are either OCD or really take the care to take good pics.

Lian Li steel case
Gigabyte motherboard, i5-2500K CPU, 8G ram
nVidia Geforce GFX 560 Ti (superclocked)
120G OCZ Vertex 3 SSD (part for doze and part for Arch)
500G WD drive (part for doze and part for Arch)
slim Samsung USB optical drive behind the Air -- the only optical drive ever used in the house
OCZ 750W PSU
24" Dell monitor (2005 model)
13" Macbook Air (i5, 128G SSD) ... I realized a year or two ago that I don't mind OSX. This laptop is amazing.

 

[Squa7ch]

 
Once I upgrade the GPU it should last me for a little while until I can build an i7 rig xD

 

[HesterDW]

Quote:

Once I upgrade the GPU it should last me for a little while until I can build an i7 rig xD

I know what you mean. My CPU has been bottlenecking hard. Btw, it looks like youre getting better with the camera.

 

[thread]

Hey, nice case, Squa7ch.

 

[3X0]

Quote:

Since I've been following this thread for quite some time, I decided it's about time to contribute. I just recently built a new tower and have gotten more into PC gaming. I am a linux guy at heart -- a massive Arch Linux fan -- so I have had to sort of concede to allow windows to be my game launcher. My brand spankin new SSD makes booting between OS's and launching games nice and quick. Currently, the games on the SSD are Mass Effect, CoD Modern Warfare 3, and Battlefield 3. On the screen is the Income Wars Starcraft II mod to which I'm sort of addicted.
For sound, I use the Cullen level 3 modded Digital link III feeding either my rolls mini mixer to the Adam A3X nearfield monitors and Sub7 subwoofer or my SR-71B in balanced mode for headphone listening. Down in front of the desk shot in my trusty (and beloved for about 2.5 years now) JH13 IEMs.
I cleaned up a bit for this pic, but it sure could be a lot cleaner. I agree that many of you are either OCD or really take the care to take good pics.

Lian Li steel case
Gigabyte motherboard, i5-2500K CPU, 8G ram
nVidia Geforce GFX 560 Ti (superclocked)
120G OCZ Vertex 3 SSD (part for doze and part for Arch)
500G WD drive (part for doze and part for Arch)
slim Samsung USB optical drive behind the Air -- the only optical drive ever used in the house

OCZ 750W PSU
24" Dell monitor (2005 model)
13" Macbook Air (i5, 128G SSD) ... I realized a year or two ago that I don't mind OSX.

This laptop is amazing.

I feel like our gear isn't that far-off perceived-experience-wise (main performance-related differences are that I have a GTX 580 Superclocked, and passive Anthony Gallo Reference Stradas as nearfield monitors powered by a Peachtree Nova which also functions as the DAC/headphone amp/hub for both the PC and MBA to my own over-2-years-old-and-out-of-warranty JH13s). I imagine you have your i5-2500K overclocked to 4.5GHz+ as well.
 
As a PC guy at heart, I'm also quite enamored with my own MBA surprisingly enough. With that said, I highly recommend you give Amarra or Pure Music a try. Amarra has been the biggest "upgrade" to my music experience in the past year, following the JH13s.

 

[HesterDW]

The 570 just barely fits..dodged a bullet on this one. Hmm might be time for a bigger case. 

 

[thread]

I feel like our gear isn't that far-off perceived-experience-wise (main performance-related differences are that I have a GTX 580 Superclocked, and passive Anthony Gallo Reference Stradas as nearfield monitors powered by a Peachtree Nova which also functions as the DAC/headphone amp/hub for both the PC and MBA to my own over-2-years-old-and-out-of-warranty JH13s). I imagine you have your i5-2500K overclocked to 4.5GHz+ as well.

As a PC guy at heart, I'm also quite enamored with my own MBA surprisingly enough. With that said, I highly recommend you give Amarra or Pure Music a try. Amarra has been the biggest "upgrade" to my music experience in the past year, following the JH13s.

That's really interesting because I never really put much faith in softwares like Amarra. Have you tried all the other (mac) ones?

I actually hadn't overclocked mostly because this thing is so new and haven't felt the need, but you inspired me to have a go at it. It didn't go so well with my limited effort, but I'll probably have another go at it. The thing is, though, all the load is on the GPU, really... this CPU is already way faster than I really need.

I like how you mention perceived performance because I do try and not get crazy stuff for the sake of it. I set out for the i7 at first, but when I realized it wouldn't be a huge boon to the games I'd be playing ... I changed my mind. I don't do anything too crazy with the comp -- just gaming and mixing. (Check my drum 'n bass podcast linked in the signature heh)

Anyway, thanks for the comments.

 

[oshia86]

My rig.
 

 
Specs.
 
Quote:

2600k @ 4.8, Thermalright Silver Arrow with 3 AP-15's, 8gb Gskill ddr3 1600, EVGA GTX580 SLI, Corsair HX850, Asus Essence ST, Gigabyte Z68xp-ud3p, WD Caviar Black 1.5TB, Crucial M4 128GB, klipsch promedia 2.1, Samsung 24", Silverstone RV02-E, Razer Mamba, Grado SR325is

 

 

[thread]

Alright, 3X0. I got my overclock done. It's at 4.5 GHz and I've ran LinX without errors, and watched my numbers in PassMark PerformanceTest go up significantly. A huge thing was noticing that my motherboard was configured to use SATA in IDE mode. When I changed it to AHCI (and did a windows registry mod to prevent a blue screen on boot) my SSD performance went up SIGNIFICANTLY! I can see this in the benchmarks and in actual usage both.

Thanks for the swell idea

 

[wberghofer]

Last week I added this set of powered KRK studio monitors to my desktop system:
 

KRK Rokit 5 (left and middle), KRK 10s subwoofer (right)
 
The speakers are powered by an integrated class A-B amplifier (45 watt each, 15 watt for high, 30 watt for middle and low frequency). The subwoofer has a built-in amplifier with 150 watt. On the back of the speakers there’s a huge array of connections available: unbalanced RCA, balanced 1/4" TRS and balanced XLR. This set replaces the Q Acoustics passive speakers and the Fatman iTube hybrid amplifier (2 × 15 watt) → I used before.
 
Although I intentionally selected the smallest model of the Rokit series (5" woofer), volume and bass presence are stunning when compared to my former desktop setup. If I would have known their powerful sound signature before I probably would have omitted the subwoofer, but it adds a great, deep bass fundament. It took two or three days for me to get adjusted to the new sound, but then I realized: this setup certainly sounds better than my former system. The detail resolution is very fine, and the “sweet spot” listening area is wider than before.
 
I think the price is surprisingly low for the performance of this system: € 148.–/£ 127.– for each loudspeaker, € 444.–/£ 381.– for the subwoofer, prices including VAT.
 
A recent photo of my desktop shall follow as soon as the new DAC and the headphone amplifier are connected. Just received the shipping notification from Schiit Audio.
 
Werner.

 

[Lunatique]

Quote:

Although I intentionally selected the smallest model of the Rokit series (5" woofer), volume and bass presence are stunning when compared to my former desktop setup. If I would have known their powerful sound signature before I probably would have omitted the subwoofer, but it adds a great, deep bass fundament. It took two or three days for me to get adjusted to the new sound, but then I realized: this setup certainly sounds better than my former system. The detail resolution is very fine, and the “sweet spot” listening area is wider than before.
 
I think the price is surprisingly low for the performance of this system: € 148.–/£ 127.– for each loudspeaker, € 444.–/£ 381.– for the subwoofer, prices including VAT.

If you had skipped the subwoofer, then you would be missing all the sub-bass frequencies below 52Hz, and a lot of musical information exists down there, regardless of musical style. 
 
I actually considered this same setup for my living room, but since I almost never watch TV in the living room anymore, I didn't do it. 
 
For the price tag, entry-level pro-audio series like the Rokit are a really good deal. They provide enough power and sub-bass weight (with the sub), and they are more accurate than most consumer grade systems in the same price range.
 

 

[DRUB]

Quote:

If you had skipped the subwoofer, then you would be missing all the sub-bass frequencies below 52Hz, and a lot of musical information exists down there, regardless of musical style. 
 
I actually considered this same setup for my living room, but since I almost never watch TV in the living room anymore, I didn't do it. 
 
For the price tag, entry-level pro-audio series like the Rokit are a really good deal. They provide enough power and sub-bass weight (with the sub), and they are more accurate than most consumer grade systems in the same price range.
 

Totally agree, had a very similar set-up myself (KRK RP5 G2 + Wharfedale SW150) and loved it. 
 

 

[JRG1990]

Quote:

Last week I added this set of powered KRK studio monitors to my desktop system:
 

KRK Rokit 5 (left and middle), KRK 10s subwoofer (right)
 
The speakers are powered by an integrated class A-B amplifier (45 watt each, 15 watt for high, 30 watt for middle and low frequency). The subwoofer has a built-in amplifier with 150 watt. On the back of the speakers there’s a huge array of connections available: unbalanced RCA, balanced 1/4" TRS and balanced XLR. This set replaces the Q Acoustics passive speakers and the Fatman iTube hybrid amplifier (2 × 15 watt) → I used before.
 
Although I intentionally selected the smallest model of the Rokit series (5" woofer), volume and bass presence are stunning when compared to my former desktop setup. If I would have known their powerful sound signature before I probably would have omitted the subwoofer, but it adds a great, deep bass fundament. It took two or three days for me to get adjusted to the new sound, but then I realized: this setup certainly sounds better than my former system. The detail resolution is very fine, and the “sweet spot” listening area is wider than before.
 
I think the price is surprisingly low for the performance of this system: € 148.–/£ 127.– for each loudspeaker, € 444.–/£ 381.– for the subwoofer, prices including VAT.
 
A recent photo of my desktop shall follow as soon as the new DAC and the headphone amplifier are connected. Just received the shipping notification from Schiit Audio.
 
Werner.

I have the same sub it only costs £319 here in the uk with 20% VAT , It's a good sounding sub and goes pretty low but I still think even at £319 it's a bit pricey.
 

 

[chrislangley4253]

 
 
Gear is as follows:
v4 Magnums
Matrix M-Stage
Objective 2
Gamma 2
Maximo iM-590 case
Etymotic case
1984 IBM Model M Keyboard
10ft Canare extender with Neutrik plugs
Logitech G5000 (modded with Teflon discs)
Func Industries 1030 Archetype Mousepad
 
Specs:
Sandy bridge i5-2500K @4.1ghz, Coolermaster 120mm CPU cooler, XFX black edition OC'd Radeon hd6870, MSI board, 8GB hyperx ddr3, XFX 650w PSU, 1tb spinpoint F3 HDD, coolermaster HAF 992 case w/ red fans

 

[Saturn]

Quote:

 

 
 
 
 
 
Gear is as follows:
v4 Magnums
Matrix M-Stage
Objective 2
Gamma 2
Maximo iM-590 case
Etymotic case
1984 IBM Model M Keyboard
10ft Canare extender with Neutrik plugs
Logitech G5000 (modded with Teflon discs)
Func Industries 1030 Archetype Mousepad
 
Specs:
Sandy bridge i5-2500K @4.1ghz, Coolermaster 120mm CPU cooler, XFX black edition OC'd Radeon hd6870, MSI board, 8GB hyperx ddr3, XFX 650w PSU, 1tb spinpoint F3 HDD, coolermaster HAF 992 case w/ red fans

My eyes we're appealed more to your keyboard than your computer. 1984 keyboard, haha, it must still do the trick! (I have an old logitech keyboard).