[moosteve]

well, here's my set up for now. there is still some cabling and wire management to do, both with the computer and the audio set up. I finally got tired of standard computer audio, and had a bunch of old gear laying around in storage, so this is my "found" computer audio. the DAC i purchased here from floydfan33.
 
computer:
 
HAF32
AMD FX-6100 @ 4.55 Ghz
Asus Sabertooth 990FX
2 x 6970 (Gigabyte, MSI)
Corsair HX-850
XSPC 750 RX360 liquid cooling (distilled, DEX anti-freeze)
Koolance doodads

 
audio:
 
Matrix mini
NAD 2150
NAD 1020
Polk Audio RTA 11T
Sony MDR-V6

 
i hope to find i new set of cans soon... but these could be a lot worse. i have found the headphone amp in the 2150 to be most to my liking....
unfortunately my budget is nil for a little while, until i sell a bunch of computer stuff. it is all still so much better than the Bose Companions they are replacing...
 
steve
 
 
 
 
 

 

[Zeebra]

Moved out and got a new audio interface (as per the signature), everything went very swimmingly!

 

[ohhgourami]

Finally got around to do some cable management so here is a pic of mine as I just built it over the week:

 
Silverstone TJ-10B with Scythe Slipstream 800 rpm fans (silent!)
i3-2120 OC 3.46
ASRock Z68M/USB3
Mushkin 8gb ram
CM 212+ with Cougar fan
Gigabyte HD6850
Seasonic X-750 PSU
Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 120gb SSD
Seagate Barracuda 2TB
 
I don't play any demanding games so I didn't bother for an i5 or i7 with GTX580s.  Just waiting for that Haswell

 

[shaunybaby]

nice computer ohhgourami, how are you finding the i3? what games are you playing on with this setup?
I,ve order the mother board(Asus MAXIMUS IV GENE-Z), psu(Corsair 650HX Professional Series), ram(8GB G.Skill DDR3) Cpu (i7 2600k) cooler (corsair h80), I have still got to buy a samsung 64gb ssd and a amd hd 7970.
when I get it all put to together I will take some photos and put em up on here, I can,t wait to get it and put it all together I have been stuck with my laptop and the lowest settings for all the games I play for too long

 

[Roller]

Quote:

Finally got around to do some cable management so here is a pic of mine as I just built it over the week:

 
Silverstone TJ-10B with Scythe Slipstream 800 rpm fans (silent!)
i3-2120 OC 3.46
ASRock Z68M/USB3
Mushkin 8gb ram
CM 212+ with Cougar fan
Gigabyte HD6850
Seasonic X-750 PSU
Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 120gb SSD
Seagate Barracuda 2TB
 
I don't play any demanding games so I didn't bother for an i5 or i7 with GTX580s.  Just waiting for that Haswell

Nice looking build

I do think that you should try and sell that i3 for a good price so you can replace it by an i5 2500K, other than gaining further fps, the system will feel both more responsive and more stable due to having pure logical units within.
 
Haswell is still a long ways, and due to the lack of any real competition, its release date might be delayed further, like how Ivy Bridge was. But I'm more eager to see Kepler in the wild as Sandy Bridge is indeed a very solid platform.
 
EDIT: The reason I mention the 2500K is because it presents itself as a rather good price/performance component.
 
Do you use your computer solely for gaming?

 

[ohhgourami]

Quote:

Nice looking build

I do think that you should try and sell that i3 for a good price so you can replace it by an i5 2500K, other than gaining further fps, the system will feel both more responsive and more stable due to having pure logical units within.
 
Haswell is still a long ways, and due to the lack of any real competition, its release date might be delayed further, like how Ivy Bridge was. But I'm more eager to see Kepler in the wild as Sandy Bridge is indeed a very solid platform.
 
EDIT: The reason I mention the 2500K is because it presents itself as a rather good price/performance component.
 
Do you use your computer solely for gaming?

Thanks!
 
I was contemplating whether or not to get the 2500k as it was only ~$60 more but didn't see the point.  I don't play anything all that demanding i.e LoL, killingfloor, D3 in the future.  It is also why I tried to save a couple bucks with a micro atx board.  I use this comp for hw, running a bit of simulations, but mostly surfing the web, listening to music, and watching stuff.
 
The "key" components in my build are meant to be given away (to my gf, family computer, whatever) once the Haswells are out.  But I also have the option of getting an Ivy Bridge if it is a significant upgrade over the Sandys.
 

 

[Roller]

Quote:

Thanks!
 
I was contemplating whether or not to get the 2500k as it was only ~$60 more but didn't see the point.  I don't play anything all that demanding i.e LoL, killingfloor, D3 in the future.  It is also why I tried to save a couple bucks with a micro atx board.  I use this comp for hw, running a bit of simulations, but mostly surfing the web, listening to music, and watching stuff.
 
The "key" components in my build are meant to be given away (to my gf, family computer, whatever) once the Haswells are out.  But I also have the option of getting an Ivy Bridge if it is a significant upgrade over the Sandys.
 

Wow, that price difference is really small, I've seen larger price gaps around here. I wouldn't blink before getting the 2500K like that, but I do a lot of rendering so I need as much CPU grunt as I can get. Are those simulations you run resource intensive?
 
If you had an i5 2500K or an i7 2600K, I'd say you could give Ivy Bridge a pass, but with an i3 2120... not so much. But if the most resource intensive apps you run are games, then getting a middle of the pack CPU (or continuing to use that i3, although it will bottleneck the system) and a midrange to high end GPU would serve you perfectly.

 

[ohhgourami]

an i5 would be better, but I think I can get away without.  I was kinda tight on cash right when I was buying it.  If you know a good place where I can sell the i3, do tell me as I don't exactly mind getting an i5 now that I think about it.

 

[185717]

Quote:

an i5 would be better, but I think I can get away without.  I was kinda tight on cash right when I was buying it.  If you know a good place where I can sell the i3, do tell me as I don't exactly mind getting an i5 now that I think about it.

overclock.net? ebay?

 

[HesterDW]

Audioengines came today, and I finally said good riddance to my Altec Lansing BXR1221. Organized my desk too. I feel more clearheaded now that my desk is clean.
 



Next step is to clean the inside. ^^

 

[shaunybaby]

talking of doing cable management, I got my motherboard yesterday and I think I spent about an hour just plugging in all the cables of the case, this is the first time I have ever built my own pc and it takes a bit of time but its fun and Its always something I have wanted to do.
 
today the PSU and ram turned up, I put the ram in in about 10 seconds (easy as pie) but then I put all the cables into the motherboard and the CPU and the fans, I was try to hide away as much cable as I could and keep the case nice and tidy so of course I spent 30 minutes doing cable management, but it looks nice inside now
 
when I put in the CPU and cooler in I will put up some pictures for you to see

 

[Zeebra]

I wonder do USB 1.1 audio interfaces suffer if they're behind a powered USB 2.0 hub. At least some have issues with USB 3.0 from what I've heard. I was thinking of throwing my computer tower under my bed, as to reduce the amount of audible noise. I don't really feel like putting money into non-vital upgrades at the moment.

So yeah, a powered USB hub + a long DVI cable should suffice to improve my listening experience

 

[HesterDW]

Quote:

talking of doing cable management, I got my motherboard yesterday and I think I spent about an hour just plugging in all the cables of the case, this is the first time I have ever built my own pc and it takes a bit of time but its fun and Its always something I have wanted to do.
 
today the PSU and ram turned up, I put the ram in in about 10 seconds (easy as pie) but then I put all the cables into the motherboard and the CPU and the fans, I was try to hide away as much cable as I could and keep the case nice and tidy so of course I spent 30 minutes doing cable management, but it looks nice inside now
 
when I put in the CPU and cooler in I will put up some pictures for you to see

I'd love to see some pics of the progress if you don't mind!
 
 

 

[TheRH]

 
Quote:

I wonder do USB 1.1 audio interfaces suffer if they're behind a powered USB 2.0 hub. At least some have issues with USB 3.0 from what I've heard. I was thinking of throwing my computer tower under my bed, as to reduce the amount of audible noise. I don't really feel like putting money into non-vital upgrades at the moment.
So yeah, a powered USB hub + a long DVI cable should suffice to improve my listening experience

I would never run an interface off a hub, a USB card via on board or pci, that is different. You have to look at this way, when you use a hub you +5VDC, each additional device you add takes away from the set value.

 

[Roller]

Quote:

I would never run an interface off a hub, a USB card via on board or pci, that is different. You have to look at this way, when you use a hub you +5VDC, each additional device you add takes away from the set value.

An externally powered hub has no power issues, but I agree that self powered hubs do take power values from a single port and split them through whatever number of ports the hub has.