Hardware Discussion Thread

[kirbypuff]

(08-07-2015, 09:03 AM)NKF98 Wrote: i would get a dedicated sound card but my priorities are probably different

Onboard (Realtek) audio sounds amazing if the implementation by the motherboard manufacturer is decent, (e.g. no noise, distortion, crackle or pops when you move the mouse cursor, stress the CPU/RAM/IO, turn on the PC or plug your headphones into the hph / line-out jack). A good implementation with a crappy chip sounds much better than a poor implementation with the best/most expensive chip, premium audiophile-grade caps, tube amp and whatnot.

Most people don't need anything better than onboard audio for music/video playback, games and voice chat.

A dedicated soundcard is necessary if you want to do *more* than just basic playback or recording, such as:

* driving high-quality headphones with low sensitivity / high impedance that need a lot of "juice" to reach decent volume levels with minimal distortion / optimal frequency response.

* cool features like multiple *virtual* sound devices. You can have different apps play or record audio from different inputs/outputs at the same time. It's like having several soundcards installed in your PC.

* if you really find 'jack sense' annoying/unbearable (a feature that automatically disables audio devices when nothing is plugged into the analog outputs to save power). It breaks/crashes most apps that expect an audio device to be always present. To work around this, you must always have something plugged into one of the output jacks. Most dedicated soundcards don't have this annoying feature.

* using the card to actually *create*, not just consume music/audio. You need a decent native low-overhead, low-latency diver and multiple high-quality analog inputs.
You can use WASAPI or a WDM audio wrapper to reduce latency with the Realtek, but it's far from optimal. This is for Windows, of course. Linux audio is a totally different story.

[NKF98]

hence "my priorities are probably different"

[NaturalViolence]

DatKid20 Wrote:From the benches I've seen. Yes. Skylake doesn't play well with lower frequency DDR4 ram

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph9483/76353.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph9483/76355.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph9483/76357.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph9483/76359.png

The data you linked does not support that conclusion at all.

DatKid20 Wrote:Heatspreads look good. Isn't that why you buy certain ram?

That's basically what happened. RAM manufacturers started realizing that adding a $2 heatsink made their modules sell much better in the retail market and so they started including them on almost every module regardless of whether they are actually needed. This is because ram with fancy heatsinks is seen as a more high end/premium product by consumers. In other words consumers buying electronics are as dumb as ever.

KirbyPuff Wrote:Onboard (Realtek) audio sounds amazing if the implementation by the motherboard manufacturer is decent, (e.g. no noise, crackle or popping when you move the mouse cursor, the CPU/RAM/IO is stressed, when you turn on the PC or plug your headphones into the hph or line-out jack).

True but all but the crappiest sound cards will still be better and those boards cost a fortune. They're not cost effective and you can't move the hardware to a new system if you ever upgrade. I'm not paying $300 for a board with good built in audio when I could just buy a $150 board and use the other $150 for a kickasss audio card that I can move to a new system when I upgrade.

KirbyPuff Wrote:Most people wouldn't need anything better than onboard for music, videos, games and voice chat.

People don't need HDTVs or fancy cars either.

Quite frankly I'm amazed that so few people have them. I could never go back to integrated audio. Everyone spends hundreds or thousands or dollars on TVs, monitors, graphics cards, game consoles, etc. to have good video quality yet nobody seems to spend any money on audio. Look at all these PC gamers with $1,500 desktops using $750 graphics cards and a $500 monitor.....and they're plugged into crappy $20 speakers with 2" paper cones running off an integrated realtek ALC 898. It baffles my mind yet it's so common.

[DatKid20]

(08-08-2015, 12:57 PM)NaturalViolence Wrote:

DatKid20 Wrote:From the benches I've seen. Yes. Skylake doesn't play well with lower frequency DDR4 ram

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph9483/76353.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph9483/76355.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph9483/76357.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph9483/76359.png

The data you linked does not support that conclusion at all.

Yeah it kinda does? Considering how Skylake on DDR4-3600 doesn't tie/perform close to Haswell/Broadwell in most cases.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/08/05/intel_skylake_core_i76700k_ipc_overclocking_review/6#.VcI6TdRwa70

[NaturalViolence]

You're right it doesn't, it performs much better. As evidenced by yet another link. Which contradicts your claim.

[MayImilae]

(08-04-2015, 03:13 AM)Garteal Wrote: Skylake box has been leaked. Looks pretty ugly imo (but who looks at it after opening it? ;p)

Hmm... this looks familiar.

[TurboK]

(08-09-2015, 05:03 PM)MaJoR Wrote: Hmm... this looks familiar.

Hey, that's my old processor from, like, year 2003. The box design may be timeless, but the chip is a _bit_ past its ultimate desktop and game crunching days.

[piccolo289]

I think that we should talk about how a cpu from 8 years ago can still play some of todays games at 20+ fps on medium settings.

https://youtu.be/WaRGeHe3xYI


https://youtu.be/F-yrdsxHIgE

[lamedude]

Q6600>console CPUs /discussion

[DacoTaco]

(08-09-2015, 07:58 PM)piccolo289 Wrote: I think that we should talk about how a cpu from 8 years ago can still play some of todays games at 20+ fps on medium settings.

https://youtu.be/WaRGeHe3xYI


https://youtu.be/F-yrdsxHIgE

play some mortal kombat

game is horrible on pc's though... (not optimised at all)