new build, some questions

  I want to keep the computer a little quieter that is why i chose the silent pro, any other suggestions you have about adding or subtracting components woulld be appreciated. I need to keep the budget at $1250 incl shipping.    Thanks!

  thank you for your feed back,  I will check out those other components you describe. The only thing I am not sure about is the sound card, I have found that the integrated sound is muddy even with the latest drivers,  I used an xtreme creative 96khz 24 bit  for about 60 bucks in my last computer and was blown away with the sound, maybe it is because you can shape the base and shape surround sound which you cannot do with realtech (no surround sound), Thanks for your advice and I will get back to you.

Hello eddieg501,

Just to add to Joe's post, he's absolutely correct. Onboard audio has come a long way and the processing by the CPU is no longer as intensive as it was on the older chips. CPU's nowadays can handle onboard audio without breaking a sweat, making the sound card obsolete for basic audio needs

However, if you consider yourself an audiophile and you want that extra quality not found in the onboard chips, then getting a soundcard capable of 192kHz (or higher) is recommended.

Some people purchase sound cards not for audio quality alone, but also multitude of ports that allows them to plug in different audio equipment for media editing and composition.

If you don't see yourself using these features and only needing the basic audio that supports multi-channel speaker setup, then most onboard audio chips will work for you.

Let us know if you have any other questions. Otherwise, your configuration looks superb!

eddieg501,

Hello Eddieg501,

Edited by Jmundy - 27 Aug 2012 at 3:46pm

Joe- is there a time limit registering a EVGA 690. I got it in June and was going to put it in present rig but, decided to put it in new rig.

Hello eddieg501,

I'm happy to hear that you're enjoying your system, which is playing games perfectly! That ATI 7870 graphics could should be able to pump out some excellent frame rates on high-to-extreme settings. It will vary; depending on the game and how well the development studio designed it to handle graphics cards (most development studios build the graphics engine in favor of NVIDIA or ATI graphics cards).

I'm happy to hear the system is also much quieter for you. You have the advancement in PC components to thank for that, as they tend to become less noisy as they are improved per year, and also our production department, for ensuring your components were assembled optimally for performance and noise levels. There's no sense in building a PC if you don't build it right.

Overclocking is a toss-up, and unless applications really use a CPU fully, then it will make a minimal difference. If you go the extreme route, then you may notice large difference in performance, but mild overclocks usually don't get you very far outside of bragging that your CPU is overclocked, stable, and cool.

If you want to dabble with overclocking a bit, keep in mind that it's at your own risk, but the motherboard BIOS should have some auto-overclock features for you to take advantage of. Remember, anytime you make changes make them in very, very small increments. That last thing you want to do is boost your CPU multiplier, or voltage, and damage the CPU without a way to revert back. Every time you create an overclock, make sure you save the settings using the profile option before applying any changes. This way, you are able to revert back to the previous settings without any large headaches involved.

As always, feel free to post on the forum if you have any questions or thoughts you wish to share!