TyCobb

@Phished0ne said:

@TyCobb said:

@Kixxi said:

@DaveC524 said:

Why use the word "whore" Patrick? Phh... misogynistic male privilege.

Really inappropriate for a front page headline, at least to anyone not knowing what the article is about. Felt insulting.

I agree "whore" is a horrible word and should never be used. There are much better words like "slut", "bitch", "twat", and every woman's favorite, "cunt".

shut up. The character class is called "the camwhore" and this is an adult website. Ugh.

You should read my whole post. Obviously I know this is an adult website.

@Kixxi said:

@DaveC524 said:

Why use the word "whore" Patrick? Phh... misogynistic male privilege.

Really inappropriate for a front page headline, at least to anyone not knowing what the article is about. Felt insulting.

I agree "whore" is a horrible word and should never be used. There are much better words like "slut", "bitch", "twat", and every woman's favorite, "cunt".

Are your monitors running the same resolution? In game, are you running the same resolution as you do when just sitting at the desktop?

These matter. I can use my secondary monitor IF the game is running the same resolution. This makes it quite difficult when playing older games that never supported widescreen.

@Andorski said:

@MistaSparkle: To my knowledge, no game uses more than two cores, so the i5 quad core processor is more than enough for gaming. The only game-related reason I would see someone spring for an i7 is if they are recording game footage while playing. When it comes to the CPU, fps is more dependent on clock speeds. The best thing for you to do to get the best performance from your CPU is to overclock the processor. Get a good CPU cooler like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo and you should be able to hit 4.3-4.5GHz with relative ease.

This is his first build and under no circumstances should he even attempt this.

@MistaSparkle, you found a great CPU at a great price. Go with that. Following Andorski's idea you will end up spending the same amount as the CPU you have already selected, but now get to run the risk of damaging your components. It is not worth it.

@MistaSparkle: Usually boxed CPUs come with a fan.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007671%2050001157%20600005573%20600095610&IsNodeId=1&name=LGA%201155

If you go to the boxed CPUs in the list, and head to specs, it will tell you the a heatsink and fan are included.

Where did you find the i7 for $250? Links in your list would be helpful for letting us know exactly what you plan on getting. Are you sure it is boxed, it may actually be OEM and if that is the case then you will only get a CPU and not a heatsink/fan, but your description does say boxed. That is just a really good price.

@MistaSparkle You can save the $30 and not get the bigger CPU fan. The stock fan that comes with the boxed CPU is more than efficient. You aren't going to be overclocking and you are on a budget. Put the $30 towards an upgraded version of a component in the list or save it for shipping. You are already at $911 + Tax + Shipping and you haven't found a PSU yet.

@MistaSparkle said:

I've decided that I don't want to be shackled to all the crazy stuff that these consoles force you into.

Consoles don't really force you into much, but I supposed if you buy used games, I could see how online passes could upset you. With PC games you now have to deal with DRM and making sure you are connected to the internet at most times while also getting X number of activations for a game. Now for the most part, I love Steam and most of the stuff sold does not have the insane DRM tied to it like if you were to buy the physical copy, but once in awhile a game will get put on Steam that still has StarForce. I have not tried Origin and so I won't say anything about it.

To your questions at hand:

Tips

• If you can, get an Anti-Static Wrap. I personally have built computers on the carpet wearing socks and have not had any issues, but it will definitely help.
• Take your time and be gentle. Don't rush. Especially since this is your first.

Gear Reccommentations

• I have absolutely love this case. And just a note on it, the HDD cage can't come back out from the inside once the motherboard is in. You need to pull it out from the front once you remove the plates.
• These headphonesare great and if you don't care about speakers, you can use these instead of buying speakers and a sound card. That's called saving money =)
  Been using them for almost 2 years, as I have the 5.1 model.

Get your stuff from Newegg as their return policy is excellent and have never had an issue when I needed to RMA something. I have built my last 5 gaming computers from there since 2004 I believe. But you will always want to shop around when you are on a budget. Just make sure you factor in shipping because the item may cost less at one spot, but more in all when shipping is factored in.

As for your pricing -- not at all. $1000 you can get yourself a pretty good machine, but you may have to skimp on some of the more fancier items like cases and peripherals. You will want to put most of that money inside the rig. Make sure you get a good CPU (I recommend an i7 if you can) a decent motherboard, ignore SSDs and just make sure you get a non-green hard drive. And the most important part when gaming.... the video card! I would recommend a GeForce 570 IF you can afford it. I mean, the card alone is the price of a console =)

I wish retail stores would allow for returns. Especially BestBuy since they now swipe your ID (at least the one near my house) everytime you return something to make sure you aren't frequently returning products.

@Mordukai: haha Thanks. I love the movie and name so it kind of just worked out. Oh, and it is 5 o'clock somewhere so drink up!

Donny, shut the fuck up.

@137 said:

@TyCobb said:

@137 said:

@Lunar_Aura said:

@137 said:

@Mordukai said:

For the past couple of days I've been having some hard time trying to get my games to play in surround. I am going through the optical of my mobo but so far I've only had luck with getting DD and DTS through dvd's but no games though.

So my question is as such. Can I have surround through my on board optical or do I have to have a sound card and if so a spacific type of sound card.

in short without making things too complicated or mind boggling, while the optical port is cool, it will not pass true 5.1 sound to anything you have it plugged up to.

What's the long explanation? I'm surprised that you can't get true 5.1 via optical out on PC

This should shed some light.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1635772

Sorry, but optical audio does pass true 5.1 surround, along with 6.1 and 7.1. There is nothing in that link that says otherwise. What do you think was used before HDMI existed? Coax and Optical.

You need to make sure you told Windows you are using 5.1 speakers. More than likely your movies are always sending out 5.1 signals, but because games are all about performance they checked your Windows settings and capped the signals off of what was found for the active playback device which more than likely is 2 speakers.

I do computers for a living, I wouldn't tell someone the computer is not capable of something unless I was 100 percent sure. If I have to go as far as providing screenshots for you I would be more than glad. The only true 5.1 signal your pc is going to pump out is through the analog audio outputs if you're using onboard sound. That is how the onboard sound is DESIGNED, you can use optical and it sends out 11010010101010101's it does not send out information on different channels, an amp can encode a dts 5.1 simulation such as the astro a40 mix amp (which amplifies the weak signal) but it is not true surround and will change based on the application presenting the sound. You will not get any type of true 5.1 sound out of an optical output.

The HDMI output is a completely irrelevant comparison because that is just a cleaner analog signal, still dts simulated.

I understand what you're talking about with telling windows you're running 5.1, 7.1, etc audio but that only works..... with the analog 6 jack box on the back of the pc, not with the optical and not with hdmi. Those are both hardware simulated dts.

Now if you bought an aftermarket card which advertises such then that is a different story. But the OP clearly stated his was asking about onboard audio

Whoops. Looks like I was mistaken. Your post made it sound as though you were saying Optical Audio in general wasn't capable of sending 5.1 and up. Although, I will admit I thought onboard optical would still be able to send the signals, it just wouldn't be able to decode the more advanced bitstreams and would most likely require an external decoder. Checked my own optical settings on my PC and it does appear as though I am able to only send L & R signals. That's good to know if I ever decide to dump money back into computer audio. Past few years I have grown to really enjoy using the Logitech "Surround Sound" headphones. Audio quality isn't great, but decent and mimics 5.1 very well. My last PC build a month ago I didn't even put in my X-Fi card.