Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Since each persons budget and goals a different I thought it would be safe to start my own thread about this.

►Goals:
◘I want to build a rig almost entirety around making GC/Wii games as pretty as possible (after all, if it can do that at a solid speed running Crysis3 maxed out should be a cinch right?)
◘I am also excited to see if the Nvidia Shield's PC Streaming abilities will prove to be a good match for playing GC/Wii games. I make note that I want to build this right to perform well with it, as I am not sure what things would support it more then others.
◘I run a single 100" HD Projector as my primary monitor, I will be aiming to optimism 1900x1080res.
*at this time I do not have 3D, but at a later time the option for going to a 3D projector might come up.
My budget: $1200-$1500, I could bend a bit more if it's really worth it.
*NOTE: When I do my shopping I will be using ebay, Craigslist, and will be hunting for used hardware to squeeze as much value out as I can. So market prices will not be so black and white. I will buy new things too but I will buy somethings used if trustworthy.

►OS
◘Windows 7 or 8?

►CPU
◘Haswell
*i5 4670k
*i7 4770k
*I don't do much with my PC that is hardware intensive aside from gaming, but I do want to be a little future proof.

►GPU:
Nvidia only.
◘ 770gtx 4gb and with the option open for later going sli with a second 770gtx
*note I am unsure if an SLI Option has any negitive effects on Dolphin
◘ A single 780gtx 3gb

►Motherboards: I never follow mobos very closely to know much difference between them.
◘I know I want an other Asus. So please help me pick one. (asus and only asus please.)
◘Sound cards: [color=#333333][color=#000099](this might be a different topic all together so don't get hung up on it)[/color]
Reliable sound is VERY important for me, I run my audio thru to a Home-Theater reviver digitally. I have ALWAYS always always had problems doing it this way. Even with the best of sound cards/HT amps (at the time) I have always had, I guess would be, "Handshake" issues.[/color] [color=#666666]Right now i'm using an "auzentech prelude"(X-FI) and tho it can separate surround sound in games or movies, it always has glitches trying to do sound tests and often the drivers/services crash randomly. [/color]
Bottom line, whether it be on-board or independent, if you know a specifically repeatable option please mention it.

►Ram: (Something I almost know nothing about other then "more is better")
◘How much should I am for?
◘What kind of configuration is best?
◘Are there specific latency numbers I should use?
◘What brands hold the best value?

►SSD: I defiantly want my first SSD drive in my next rig. I can't tell much difference between one SSD from the next. I'm looking for best value over all. As for size, around 128gb give or take.

►PSU:
Aside from the above mentioned hardware above, I will also be running 3 or 4 standard HDDs a LG Bluray burner and a few standard accessories.
I currecntly run a enermax liberty 500w, only this last week has some issues come up that may put it in question, but I am unsure as of yet if it is it or something else entirely. I am also unsure if it will be enough to power the new modern rig.
◘If i do upgrade my PSU, I say go big to last me a few builds, so 700w-1200w? I don't need to get too carried away but Its something I don't like to upgrade every build.
◘Looking for good value and solid build.
◘I don't want to tie up more then $200, so under $200 would be great.

►Cooling: [color=#000066](again maybe a topic for an other time)[/color]
◘ I don't think I will be doing much OC for a while so standard stuff might be fine, I might be able to fit my current tower cooler on the next gen cpu as it is semi universal.
◘I would love to have a quieter PC tho, I dont know what advancements are in the water cooling department but if there is anything worth mentioning please feel free.

Thank you for reading my long winded thread, and for any suggestions provided.

I wouldn't recommend buying used hardware like that, just buy it all from one place new:

http://www.newegg.com/

Vote for GTX 780 'cause Dolphin only use 1 GPU
Latest Intel 335 SSD for durability

Quote:Ram: (Something I almost know nothing about other then "more is better")

Nope , higher bus speed = better
GSkill Ripjaws 4x4GB 1600MHz should be more than enough

Quote:Haswell
*i5 4670k
*i7 4770k
an Ivybridge ?

Ivy Bridge is much slower clock for clock in Dolphin
i5 = i7 in Dolphin
-> i5 4670k

PSU : SeaSonic M12II 850 (850W - 130$) with Japanese Caps

Cooling: Intel Stock cooler suck , Just get CM Hyper 212 Evo + Arctic MX-4

I also choose this case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811147107

Quote:Windows 7 or 8?

64 bit is a must


Motherboards : MSI Z87 G45 Gaming 'cause it has highest review score

Edwii Wrote:after all, if it can do that at a solid speed running Crysis3 maxed out should be a cinch right?

Not necessarily. Dolphin requires a very fast cpu but does not require a very fast GPU to run well. Crysis 3 (and most high end PC games) requires a very fast GPU but does not require a very fast cpu to run well.

It is entirely possible to build a system that runs dolphin almost perfectly but struggles with medium settings on crysis 3. Just as it is entirely possible to build a system that maxes out crysis 3 effortlessly but cannot run dolphin well at all.

Edwii Wrote:I am also excited to see if the Nvidia Shield's PC Streaming abilities will prove to be a good match for playing GC/Wii games. I make note that I want to build this right to perform well with it, as I am not sure what things would support it more then others.

You need a fast cpu (which you will have). A GTX 650 or higher GPU (which you will have). At least 4GB of ram (which you will have). Windows 7 or 8 (which you will have). The latest nvidia drivers and a proprietary streaming application from nvidia (which you will have). And a fast wifi network to stream over (which you might not have but probably do).

As far as the wifi network goes 802.11g is the minimum. 802.11n dual band is recommended. What does your current router support?

And make sure your wifi adapter for your new desktop is 802.11n capable.

Edwii Wrote:*at this time I do not have 3D, but at a later time the option for going to a 3D projector might come up.

Most 3D projectors use passive 3D or proprietary active 3D. If you buy a projector that uses nvidia 3Dvision for 3D then you won't really need to do anything special to set it up. But if like most 3D projectors it doesn't support 3Dvision then you might need to buy nvidia's 3Dplay driver. I believe it's $40. Other than that you shouldn't run into any problems.

Edwii Wrote:*NOTE: When I do my shopping I will be using ebay, Craigslist, and will be hunting for used hardware to squeeze as much value out as I can. So market prices will not be so black and white. I will buy new things too but I will buy somethings used if trustworthy.

Since you are buying hardware that has been on the market for less than a year I would strongly advise against it. Since it's so new you're not going to get enough of a discount for it to be worth the lack of warranty, the wear and tear, and the potential lack of accessories that comes with buying used hardware. This will also make it a bit harder for us to help you.

Edwii Wrote:►OS
◘Windows 7 or 8?

Doesn't matter. Whichever one you prefer.

Edwii Wrote:►CPU
◘Haswell
*i5 4670k
*i7 4770k
*I don't do much with my PC that is hardware intensive aside from gaming, but I do want to be a little future proof.

I agree with admin. Get the 4670K and save some money.

Edwii Wrote:►GPU:
Nvidia only.
◘ 770gtx 4gb and with the option open for later going sli with a second 770gtx
*note I am unsure if an SLI Option has any negitive effects on Dolphin
◘ A single 780gtx 3gb

I'm not quite sure what you're asking here so I'll answer all possible interpretations.

Honestly a normal 2GB GTX 770 is fine. A 4GB version won't offer any benefit over a 2GB version. The extra memory will just go unused. The GTX 780 will offer only minimal benefit in some PC games and none in dolphin for a $200 (50%) increase in cost. Which doesn't really seem worth it to me.

SLI has no effect on dolphin. Dolphin simply won't use it and therefore it won't provide any benefit.

Edwii Wrote:►Motherboards: I never follow mobos very closely to know much difference between them.
◘I know I want an other Asus. So please help me pick one. (asus and only asus please.)

You're being very close minded but I'll abide by this rule. This is a list of (more like an advertisement) asus's z87 series motherboard on their official website: http://www.asus.com/microsite/2013/MB/z87_series/

There is a comparison chart near the bottom. Honestly any well rated Z87 board will do. You don't really need any of the fancy features of the high end boards. So just get the cheapest well rated board you can find. Here's a list of asus z87 boards on newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLis...&name=ASUS

Edwii Wrote:◘Sound cards: (this might be a different topic all together so don't get hung up on it)
Reliable sound is VERY important for me, I run my audio thru to a Home-Theater reviver digitally. I have ALWAYS always always had problems doing it this way. Even with the best of sound cards/HT amps (at the time) I have always had, I guess would be, "Handshake" issues. Right now i'm using an "auzentech prelude"(X-FI) and tho it can separate surround sound in games or movies, it always has glitches trying to do sound tests and often the drivers/services crash randomly.
Bottom line, whether it be on-board or independent, if you know a specifically repeatable option please mention it.

We're going to need a lot more info. than that. What connection are you using to run audio to the A/V receiver?

Honestly these days integrated audio is fine if you're using an A/V receiver since you can just push the signal through HDMI or optical spdif.

Edwii Wrote:►Ram: (Something I almost know nothing about other then "more is better")
◘How much should I am for?

At least 4GB. Since RAM is so cheap these days I would aim for 8GB. 16GB would be future proofed for a VERY long time but might be a bit overkill depending on how much you're willing to spend.

Edwii Wrote:◘What kind of configuration is best?

It honestly doesn't matter.

Edwii Wrote:◘Are there specific latency numbers I should use?

No.

Edwii Wrote:◘What brands hold the best value?

There are a lot of good RAM brands. Too many to list here. If it has good ratings on newegg it's trustworthy.

Edwii Wrote:►SSD: I defiantly want my first SSD drive in my next rig. I can't tell much difference between one SSD from the next. I'm looking for best value over all. As for size, around 128gb give or take.

There are a lot of good SSDs and SSD brands out there. The biggest two SSD companies right now are Intel and Samsung. My preference is samsung personally. You could buy the 840, 840 Pro, or 840 EVO. The 840 is the cheapest. The 840 Pro is more expensive and has the same read speeds but three times the write speeds. Keep in mind that read speeds are far more important than write speeds for system performance though. The 840 EVO is in the middle cost wise and has similar performance to the 840 Pro but slightly less endurance (lifespan). All three would be good choices. Just get whatever you can afford.

Edwii Wrote:►Cooling: (again maybe a topic for an other time)
◘ I don't think I will be doing much OC for a while so standard stuff might be fine, I might be able to fit my current tower cooler on the next gen cpu as it is semi universal.
◘I would love to have a quieter PC tho, I dont know what advancements are in the water cooling department but if there is anything worth mentioning please feel free.

Well what cooler do you have?

Edwii Wrote:►PSU:
Aside from the above mentioned hardware above, I will also be running 3 or 4 standard HDDs a LG Bluray burner and a few standard accessories.
I currecntly run a enermax liberty 500w, only this last week has some issues come up that may put it in question, but I am unsure as of yet if it is it or something else entirely. I am also unsure if it will be enough to power the new modern rig.
◘If i do upgrade my PSU, I say go big to last me a few builds, so 700w-1200w? I don't need to get too carried away but Its something I don't like to upgrade every build.
◘Looking for good value and solid build.
◘I don't want to tie up more then $200, so under $200 would be great.

There is way too much to talk about here and I don't have time right now. I'll save this section for tomorrow.

In the meantime here's a power calculator to help you figure out how much power you need: http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psuca...orlite.jsp

Admin89's suggestion is an excellent choice. Seasonic is a good brand. And that particular model is modular and should provide enough power for all but the most overkill of builds. And it falls well below your price limit.

Also what about the chassis, optical disk drive, and hard drive?

Jesus that was long:



Edit: Oh right and peripherals. We'll need to talk about that at some point too. You'll need a bluetooth adapter and IR emitter for dolphin.

Quote:Dolphin requires a very fast cpu but does not require a very fast GPU to
run well. Crysis 3 (and most high end PC games) requires a very fast
GPU but does not require a very fast cpu to run well.
It is
entirely possible to build a system that runs dolphin almost perfectly
but struggles with medium settings on crysis 3. Just as it is entirely
possible to build a system that maxes out crysis 3 effortlessly but
cannot run dolphin well at all.


Honestly a normal 2GB GTX 770 is fine. A 4GB version won't offer any
benefit over a 2GB version. The extra memory will just go unused. The
GTX 780 will offer only minimal benefit in some PC games and none in
dolphin for a $200 (50%) increase in cost. Which doesn't really seem
worth it to me.

SLI has no effect on dolphin. Dolphin simply won't use it and therefore it won't provide any benefit.

◘I did kinda exaggerate about this being only about the dolphin but you
picked up on it, and informed me to knowing that GPU isn't as critical
as I once thought for it, that said; of course I will be playing other
modern PC games and will want to have top end graphics.

◘Granted Idon't truly understand how certain specs on hardware effect things in
the grand scheme, I picked the 770 4g over the 2g simply because it's a
$50 difference, and if I ever find myself wanting to mess with
multi-montiors/higher-resolutions it might be nice to have those extra
2gbs right? It's not something I really see in the near future
happening, but most rigs I buy span 5+ years, a lot can happen. So a dab
of future-proofing with out going crazy.

Quote: As far as the wifi network
goes 802.11g is the minimum. 802.11n dual band is recommended. What does
your current router support?
EDIT: Haswell or Ivybridge? From the sounds of it the Haswell will be better stock, but the Ivy would be fast OCed, What do you reccomend if over clocking is a factor?

And make sure your wifi adapter for your new desktop is 802.11n capable.

This stuff I'm a little vague on, Network stuff is something I know just a hair more then enough to get by.

◘I have a
Linksys WRT150N, which if I understand right is a 802.11n single band?
And I am hardwired into the router so I wont need a wifi adapter right?
If
I'm right, that means I can use the shield with my current older
router, but wont be optimal, which means It could be a optional upgrade
that I could do before or after the main rig build.
◘I have had great
success with my ol'Linksys but other members of my house complain about
the range in certain rooms(of which my wireless hardware i use never
act up, but maybe i'm just lucky) So, I am open for an upgrade for sure.
◘Taking
into consideration the shield and how I have read that range from the
router shows to be a weakness. We have a pretty big house and the router
is in my bed room, off to one side of the house. I am open on going a
bit over kill with an upgrade. I am also very good at DIY things, and
quite handy with a soldering iron, I could attach bigger/better antennas
to the upgraded, dual band router?
►I could use a few suggestions on
what routers to choose from, Range, stability, and Speed are highly
valued, I strongly believe in having a rock solid router.
◘ I would consider this to be separate from the rig budget, $200max but would like to aim at the $125 range if possible.

Quote:You're being very close minded but I'll abide by this rule. This is a
list of (more like an advertisement) asus's z87 series motherboard on
their official website:
http://www.asus.com/microsite/2013/MB/z87_series/

There is a
comparison chart near the bottom. Honestly any well rated Z87 board will
do. You don't really need any of the fancy features of the high end
boards. So just get the cheapest well rated board you can find.

►I would like to commend you for being so polite about how I am closed minded, and really I am, I have had painful experiences with gigabyte and msi in the past, and my asus stuff just doesn't let me down. In the spirt of keeping an open mind, if you have a noticeably better option to offer from a differnt brand I would be glad to listen, but now knowing where to target my choices in asus I have one solid source to fall back on.
◘A s mentioned before, I put very high value in having a good sound-card in one form or the other, so if no other feature on a motherboard was relivent, that alone could be the deciding feature.(i have more details as reguards my current sound setup below)

◘I am going to be overclocking at some point in time, maybe none at first but in time it will happen, so stability is important from that aspect. At the first stage of the build I am a bit shy to invest in extra cooling that might be needed for it.

Quote:Well what cooler do you have?
Also what about the chassis?

◘Thermotech bada : http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling...0-review/1
*It's specific feature is how short it is compared to standard aftermarket coolers. It makes up for it by having quite a loud fan :/ . I need this shorter cooler because of my current unique case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811204039
◘Which unless I have no other option, will be my reusing in my next build, I love this case, even if a wood case isn't conducive for a cool environment.
I haven't snooped around in my case in a while, but I can tell you it is quite roomy, just the drive bay storage is right over where the cpu sits, I may be able to do some modifcations to squeeze a bit more room but I can't be sure.

Quote:We're going to need a lot more info. than that. What connection are you using to run audio to the A/V receiver?

◘ I used to run an optical cable from the sound card to the amp directly, but found a better way by running wires from the digital coax to to the sound hookup on the gtx260, then the gtx260 goes to a monster-cable dvi -> hdm cable into the amp.
◘ I cant be 100% sure which amp model is have, but i think it's a Marantz SR4003 (something I don't plan on changing unless absolutely necessary.
◘ I run the sound card in Doubly Digital Live mode and not DTS Connect, as I find it works much better for channel separation, tho my amp supports DTS it doesn't ever sound like surround coming from the PC.
*It's been a while but, when i played a few bluray movies on the ol'PS3 via HDMI to the A/V receiver, I think I used DTS, and I think it sounded ok, but it's been years since then.
◘I also run a set of Sennheiser HD650's off the sound card directly when I don't want to disturb the rest of the house.
* they have an impedance


300 Ω, which if you don't know, means they need a good chunk of power to power them properly. The "auzentech prelude" card I currently run has above average power in there preouts for such a headphone, not the most ideal but work quite well. chances are if i go with a run of the mill sound solution I will have to get a headphone amp. Not a big deal but something to consider. Also, I am not going to be transplanting my current soundcard into the next rig, It hasn't proven to be stable enough or very well supported, and may not even fit in current mobos.

Quote:Optical disk drive, and hard drive?

Again more things that will be transplanted from my current rig,
◘Hard Drives:
2 Western Digital: 750gb black 1tb black and a WD 3tb green
◘Optical Disk Drive:
1 LG Bluray burner
► A future SSD will be running the OS and games tho of course.

Quote:Peripherals. We'll need to talk about that at some
point too. You'll need a bluetooth adapter and IR emitter for dolphin.

◘I have a generic bluetooth dongle, but it's not great, and could use a good valued upgrade. Might be nice to have something with some range, I may want to play with streaming audio thru the house at some point.
◘I have a usb IR emitter, works great.

►The more I talk about this stuff the more excited I am getting to start building, I am trying to hold off till some bargains pop up later on. I am also kinda trying to break things up a bit hear and there.
◘ Shield: I am probably going to be getting sooner then later, as I can play with it as a stand alone device.
◘ PSU: I mentioned before that my current PSU is in question, and according to the PSU Calculator, using the heaviest setup i would possibly go with, under 700w would fit my needs. Tho, I dont know how much of a draw extra cooling would amp it up to, but the suggested Seasonic sounds like it would be enough to last me a good long while.
*Currently my PC can run all day idle, never a hiccup. I haven't been gaming much this summer, but i picked up playing a couple games recently (batman AC and Payday2) after a random amount of time while playing these games my computer shuts down, power light goes out, then boots back up. no blue-screen, no error messages or post reports, just off. After some light research it may be that the PSU is failing, which bums me out as I thought "enermax" was a good brand, but it wouldnt be enough power for the next rig any way, so an early upgrade shouldn't be a problem.
◘I live in Canada, and for the most part, we are taxed to death on the west coast, and almost everything is much more expensive then it would be in the states. I buy 90% of everything in the US and have it shipped to an shipping faculty in near the boarder, so I have the best of both worlds at times, but duty and tax at the border can be a gambit. If you can stay under $300per trip, often they will wave you thru, but just as randomly pull you in for extra fee's. Just thought I would mention that if it might change anything.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★Amazing reply★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Thank you very much for bearing thru my long winded post, and for such a thorough and detailed reply.

Quote:I want to build a rig almost entirety around making GC/Wii games as pretty as possible (after all, if it can do that at a solid speed running Crysis3 maxed out should be a cinch right?

Classic misconception.

Sorry but it might take a few days to get to this post. It's quite long and my reply will be much longer.

(08-15-2013, 06:51 PM)NaturalViolence Wrote: [ -> ]Sorry but it might take a few days to get to this post. It's quite long and my reply will be much longer.

That's cool, I look very much forward to it. I'm pretty much making my entire shopping list from your advise.

A question I want to throw in that I keep coming back to in debates around the web.
► If im going to be running Overclocked all the time, do I go with Ivybridge or Haswell?
◘ Which is better for dolphin?
◘ Which is better in general?
◘ is .2gz really going to make that big of a difference if I want to push dolphin hard?

Haswell

Round 2.

Edwii Wrote:◘I did kinda exaggerate about this being only about the dolphin but you
picked up on it, and informed me to knowing that GPU isn't as critical
as I once thought for it, that said; of course I will be playing other
modern PC games and will want to have top end graphics.

◘Granted Idon't truly understand how certain specs on hardware effect things in
the grand scheme, I picked the 770 4g over the 2g simply because it's a
$50 difference, and if I ever find myself wanting to mess with
multi-montiors/higher-resolutions it might be nice to have those extra
2gbs right? It's not something I really see in the near future
happening, but most rigs I buy span 5+ years, a lot can happen. So a dab
of future-proofing with out going crazy.

Please take a few things into account when making your decision.

Performance and performance per dollar (cost efficiency). Cost efficiency continues to increase exponentially as price increases up until a certain point, then it begins to reverse. This apex point is the "sweet spot" of maximizing performance per dollar. Typically it is around $250. Anything above that and you start seeing larger and larger increases in cost for smaller and smaller increases in performance. Below that you see drastic increases in performance for tiny increases in cost. For example a $75 card can easily be 4 times as fast as a $50 card and a $100 card can easily be twice as fast as that. The difference between a $300 and $600 card on the other hand can be as little as 20-30% for a $300 increase in cost. This is how the economics of graphics cards works. People who pay top dollar for graphics cards aren't really getting there moneys worth. They are getting very poor performance for dollar in exchange for having (temporarily) the fastest hardware. Problem is their top of the line hardware will be outdated before they can blink. Making that title short lived.

Many of them justify this with "well it will last longer". This I believe while technically true is a poor way to make purchase decisions. While the performance difference between top of the line and midrange graphics cards is actually pretty small the performance difference of GPUs in each price bracket year to year is very large. By next year a $300 GPU may be much faster than your $600 GPU. Consider the fact that GPU models at each price point nearly double in performance every year and that extra 25% performance for $300 doesn't really seem like a wise decision in the long run now does it? It's not enough of a difference to significantly extend the lifespan. It's much better to buy a midrange gpu and upgrade it every 2-3 years instead of swapping out a top of the line card every 5 years. Your card will be outdated in a few years either way and you'll spend the same amount of money. The only difference is that with the first option you can keep your rig up to date enough to max our your games every year without having to worry. While with the latter option you'll have to start turning down settings after the first 3 years. Even if you buy top of the line hardware within 3 years it's going to be considered garbage compared to the current midrange hardware that games are designed for. I would only advise top of the line hardware for people who can actually afford to keep it up to date by buying new top of the line hardware to replace it every 2-3 years. I know people hate upgrading hardware every once and awhile and prefer to have long lasting stuff but it really is not ideal in my opinion.

As for video ram. If you plan on not upgrading it for a very long time your right. With the next gen. consoles right around the corner 4GB might be a good idea. However there is a high chance that by the time games need that much video ram your GPU will be horribly out of date and too slow to run them well anyways.

Edwii Wrote:This stuff I'm a little vague on, Network stuff is something I know just a hair more then enough to get by.

◘I have a
Linksys WRT150N, which if I understand right is a 802.11n single band?

Yes.

Edwii Wrote:And I am hardwired into the router so I wont need a wifi adapter right?

Yes. You'll still need to setup a wifi network for the nvidia shield to connect to though.

Edwii Wrote:If
I'm right, that means I can use the shield with my current older
router, but wont be optimal, which means It could be a optional upgrade
that I could do before or after the main rig build.

The signal strength is what's important here. 802.11n is good enough for the shield as long as you can provide good signal strength to where ever you're using the shield from.

Edwii Wrote:◘I have had great
success with my ol'Linksys but other members of my house complain about
the range in certain rooms(of which my wireless hardware i use never
act up, but maybe i'm just lucky) So, I am open for an upgrade for sure.
◘Taking
into consideration the shield and how I have read that range from the
router shows to be a weakness. We have a pretty big house and the router
is in my bed room, off to one side of the house. I am open on going a
bit over kill with an upgrade. I am also very good at DIY things, and
quite handy with a soldering iron, I could attach bigger/better antennas
to the upgraded, dual band router?

Most high end routers have detachable antenna's that screw in. Soldering isn't needed to swap them out. High end routers come with some of the best antenna's around anyways so there really isn't much point is swapping them out either.

Edwii Wrote:►I could use a few suggestions on
what routers to choose from, Range, stability, and Speed are highly
valued, I strongly believe in having a rock solid router.
◘ I would consider this to be separate from the rig budget, $200max but would like to aim at the $125 range if possible.

Well I recently bought an asus rt-N66U ($140). I like it a lot and it has great range. It's dual band 802.11n. I would advise testing both bands on the shield before determining which one to use. While is may sound like 5GHz is better than 2.4GHz in most cases 2.4GHz will give you better signal strength. Try both out before you decide.

The asus rt-ac66U ($190) is basically the same router except it supports 802.11ac. Which will replace 802.11n in the future. So it's more future proof. Truth be told it's still going to be a few years until 802.11n replaces 802.11g in most devices and even longer for 802.11ac to begin replacing 802.11n so you certainly have a lot of time.

Edwii Wrote:►I would like to commend you for being so polite about how I am closed minded, and really I am, I have had painful experiences with gigabyte and msi in the past, and my asus stuff just doesn't let me down. In the spirt of keeping an open mind, if you have a noticeably better option to offer from a differnt brand I would be glad to listen, but now knowing where to target my choices in asus I have one solid source to fall back on.

Understandable. MSI in particular used to be quite poor. They have cleaned up their act though. ECS is the new MSI.

In my opinion asrock has overtaken asus in quality and features. Asus, asrock, biostar, gigabyte, and msi all make good z87 boards though.

Edwii Wrote:◘A s mentioned before, I put very high value in having a good sound-card in one form or the other, so if no other feature on a motherboard was relivent, that alone could be the deciding feature.(i have more details as reguards my current sound setup below)

For outputting to an a/v receiver digitally there is zero difference between integrated audio and discrete audio these days. A high end motherboard will however have a built in headphone amp that can drive your headphones without the need for an audio card.

Edwii Wrote:◘I am going to be overclocking at some point in time, maybe none at first but in time it will happen, so stability is important from that aspect. At the first stage of the build I am a bit shy to invest in extra cooling that might be needed for it.

Now that the VRM has been integrated into the cpu die there is almost no difference between different z87 motherboards in terms of overclocking potential. Unless you're going for competitive level overclocks which you aren't.

Edwii Wrote:◘Thermotech bada : http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling...0-review/1
*It's specific feature is how short it is compared to standard aftermarket coolers. It makes up for it by having quite a loud fan :/ . I need this shorter cooler because of my current unique case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811204039
◘Which unless I have no other option, will be my reusing in my next build, I love this case, even if a wood case isn't conducive for a cool environment.
I haven't snooped around in my case in a while, but I can tell you it is quite roomy, just the drive bay storage is right over where the cpu sits, I may be able to do some modifcations to squeeze a bit more room but I can't be sure.

By "drive bay storage" you mean the 3.5" bays for HDD?

And yeah I would expect a full sized ATX chassis to be quite roomy which is why I'm surprised you had to use a smaller HSF (heatsink + fan). Can you snap a photo of the inside so I can see how much space you have? I'm going to have a look at your case's manual later on to see how much height clearance is listed for it in there.

Edwii Wrote:◘ I used to run an optical cable from the sound card to the amp directly, but found a better way by running wires from the digital coax to to the sound hookup on the gtx260, then the gtx260 goes to a monster-cable dvi -> hdm cable into the amp.

Oh god monster cable. Please stop using them. They're horribly overpriced for no good reason.

And I'm assuming that what you did was wire the internal spdif output on the sound card to the internal spdif input on the graphics card. Then used the graphics cards spdif passthrough feature to pass the spdif signal out through one of the dvi ports. As far as I know this is the only way to get digital audio output from a GTX 260 reference design.

"Digital coax" makes it sound like you used an actual coax cable. And I have no idea what a "sound hookup" is so I'm assuming that's what you meant to say.

Edwii Wrote:◘ I cant be 100% sure which amp model is have, but i think it's a Marantz SR4003 (something I don't plan on changing unless absolutely necessary.

Please be sure. It should say the model number somewhere on the receiver.

Edwii Wrote:300 Ω, which if you don't know, means they need a good chunk of power to power them properly. The "auzentech prelude" card I currently run has above average power in there preouts for such a headphone, not the most ideal but work quite well. chances are if i go with a run of the mill sound solution I will have to get a headphone amp. Not a big deal but something to consider. Also, I am not going to be transplanting my current soundcard into the next rig, It hasn't proven to be stable enough or very well supported, and may not even fit in current mobos.

I am well aware of what ohms are. I study computer science. I'm surprised you stuck with auzentech for as long as you did given their reputation for crummy drivers lately (as you've seen first hand). Well you can either get a high end motherboard with a built in headphone amp or an audio card with a built in headphone amp. The former is a bit cheaper but is not portable and may produce inferior quality/features depending on whether you decide to go for a high end audio card. Audio cards have the advantage of being portable. So you can move it into any future builds. High end audio cards can deliver better audio quality than high end motherboards with integrated audio but also cost significantly more. It really depends what level of audio quality you're ok with and how much you're willing to pay.

Edwii Wrote:◘I have a generic bluetooth dongle, but it's not great, and could use a good valued upgrade. Might be nice to have something with some range, I may want to play with streaming audio thru the house at some point.

Well is it a class 1 bluetooth adapter? Can't get much better than that. Here: http://www.amazon.com/Azio-BTD-V201-Micr...th+adapter

Edwii Wrote:I dont know how much of a draw extra cooling would amp it up to

What do you mean by this? Do you mean how much more power would you need if you installed a better HSF? Almost nothing. Fans only use a few watts of power at the most.

Keep in mind stronger PSUs will be quieter since the PSUs built in fan increases its speed as the power draw increases. More power draw produces more heat and therefore requires more cooling. PSUs rated for higher wattages will be under less load and will require less cooling. I do think an 850 watt PSU would be fine for you though.

Edwii Wrote:*Currently my PC can run all day idle, never a hiccup. I haven't been gaming much this summer, but i picked up playing a couple games recently (batman AC and Payday2) after a random amount of time while playing these games my computer shuts down, power light goes out, then boots back up. no blue-screen, no error messages or post reports, just off. After some light research it may be that the PSU is failing, which bums me out as I thought "enermax" was a good brand, but it wouldnt be enough power for the next rig any way, so an early upgrade shouldn't be a problem.

It could be either the motherboard or the PSU. But the PSU is far more likely. How old is the PSU? Even good units eventually die. Especially when they are regularly put under heavy load.

The quality of the product/model is more important than the brand. Companies like Enermax can very well put out good units and bad units (and they have). It's important to look at the specific product when deciding what product to buy. Brand loyalty only gets in the way of this.

You should check out this site when you're planning your build: https://pcpartpicker.com/
It's a great resource for compiling everything.