PC Gaming

[Vader AL]

dang those are high temps for water....mine are usually around 30-35.

I'm trying to set up a water loop this year. Was about to then the Kinpins came out and I chose them so the loop is delayed which is fine since there are no water blocks for it yet anyway.

 

[Solidus]

Oh sorry, I meant under full load, it reaches 50 degrees. Usually, my processor stays anywhere from 28 to 40 degrees on idle.

 

[darthviper107]

There are some fan/heatsinks that do a better job than the self contained water systems.

 

[Vader AL]

Oh sorry, I meant under full load, it reaches 50 degrees. Usually, my processor stays anywhere from 28 to 40 degrees on idle.

Ohhh...yeah. Normal use mine is usually mid 30's but it's oc'd from 3.5 to 4.4 I think...heavy load stuff gets to low 50's like yours.

 

[JonD7]

I just turned it on for the first time and installed Windows, didn't know the audio section of the motherboard had LED's, is this common with newer boards?

I am insanely happy with this build, now I gotta bench test it.

 

[DeadLeaves]

Yeah, my ASUS board has red LED's in the audio "trace". It also makes an annoying buzz when anything moves on screen, so I use an Audio Engine D1 DAC for speaker sound.

 

[Solidus]

I've noticed something immensely weird with my GTX 780. Whenever Zone Alarm detects and starts "treatment" for a virus or adware, I can hear the fans for my 780 beginning to throttle up in speed. I've monitored it with Asus GPU Tweak, and I've seen the temperatures spike about six degrees (on average) from idle whenever ZA is doing something in the background.

So, I've been wondering, what the heck is this correlation between my anti-virus and graphics card?!

 

[Brainiac]

I've noticed something immensely weird with my GTX 780. Whenever Zone Alarm detects and starts "treatment" for a virus or adware, I can hear the fans for my 780 beginning to throttle up in speed. I've monitored it with Asus GPU Tweak, and I've seen the temperatures spike about six degrees (on average) from idle whenever ZA is doing something in the background.

So, I've been wondering, what the heck is this correlation between my anti-virus and graphics card?!

maybe the UI for the program is poorly coded and requires additional GPU power

 

[Solidus]

I'm not sure why it would even access the GPU, but it's so strange.

 

[DarthChrisDK]

Just got my new Audio-Technica AD700X headphones. Going to be using them for gaming in WoW, BF4 and Elite: Dangerous. Anyone else got these? They are performing really well, and I feel that I am actually hearing things that I didn't before in games like BF4. Might upgrade with a MixAmp from Astro as well.

 

[Solidus]

Nice headphones. The Astro A40 MixAmp and those would go nicely together. But, if you already have a Dolby or DTS enabled sound card or motherboard, you should be able to utilize simulated surround sound and other features (without the need for the MixAmp).

 

[DarthChrisDK]

Currently, all I got is my Blue Yeti that I use for sound output. I don't really know if that is better than my onboard sound output. In any case, I bet the MixAmp would be an upgrade.

 

[Solidus]

Yeah, the A40 MixAmp will work great, too. I'm actually using an Astro A50 for my PC, and the MixAmp is routed to my motherboard via a Optical Out connection.

 

[DarthChrisDK]

Sounds really nice, Solidus. I also looked a lot at the A50. But again, I have a Blue Yeti mich, and it just makes a lot more sense to not ignore that.

I think I will try and get an A40 MixAmp soon. But my list wish list in terms of hardware is growing, hehe. Also really want a HOTAS for Elite: Dangerous. Argh!

 

[Solidus]

Yeah, that's the thing with PC gaming; you'll always have a need for better hardware and upgrades . It sounds like you've got a fantastic sound set-up planned, and you really can't go wrong with an Astro MixAmp and audiophile headphones. I'm not sure if you're into horror games, but definitely test that baby out with Alien: Isolation if you get the chance. There are so many nuanced sounds in the game that you'll only notice with a headset.

Mentioning joysticks, I think I'll need to pick up a new one sometime soon. I'm still using my Sidewinder Precision Pro from 2001 -____-.

 

[DarthChrisDK]

Yeah, that's the thing with PC gaming; you'll always have a need for better hardware and upgrades . It sounds like you've got a fantastic sound set-up planned, and you really can't go wrong with an Astro MixAmp and audiophile headphones. I'm not sure if you're into horror games, but definitely test that baby out with Alien: Isolation if you get the chance. There are so many nuanced sounds in the game that you'll only notice with a headset.

Mentioning joysticks, I think I'll need to pick up a new one sometime soon. I'm still using my Sidewinder Precision Pro from 2001 -____-.

I definitely need to do a playthrough of that game! Heard such good things.

 

[Solidus]

I definitely need to do a playthrough of that game! Heard such good things.

It's the best game of 2014 I've played.

 

[Solidus]

Are any of you guys planning to get the TitanX?

Review from Anandtech:

AnandTech | The NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X Review

 

[Kibagami]

Are any of you guys planning to get the TitanX?

Sure? 1K!? Drop in the bucket.

NVIDIA's latest and greatest GPU will cost $999

Yeah, right.

 

[Solidus]

But dos FPS bruh! Oh sheeet.

"Overall then it should come as no surprise that from a gaming performance standpoint the GTX Titan X stands alone. Delivering an average performance increase over the GTX 980 of 33%, GTX Titan X further builds on what was already a solid single-GPU performance lead for NVIDIA. Meanwhile compared to its immediate predecessors such as the GTX 780 Ti and the original GTX Titan, the GTX Titan X represents a significant, though perhaps not-quite-generational 50%-60% increase in performance."