pio

The Klipsch 2.1 sets are okay for an all in one box set for PC speakers. Sure. But there's soooo much better you can do for that price point for clarity and sound quality its silly to think about a boxed PC speaker set. And he's got a decent budget for something good. No reason to settle. Definitely don't just listen to me though, I'm not that smart. Everyone here has good ideas. It's just whatever fits his desk, his budget, and his ears the best.

Major Update Kinda AthlonXP rig is finished kinda. It has XP installed and everything shows up in device manager. I haven't done drivers and things yet, but all of these parts have been tested prior anyway. Specs: And also we have this: My AMD K6-2 era build is also nearing completion in about the same manner! It too has Windows XP SP2 installed as of right now, no drivers, but everything is showing up in device manager (and most parts were pre tested). So it should also work fine now! Yes, I need to paint the black 5.25 to 3.5 adapter beige, and I will when I paint my 95 case. I'm not going to bother painting anything else on this one, its fine as is and slightly yellowed. It doesn't look horrible, and its not broken. It's a functional Win98 box! Specs:

Here's where I'd start at personally if I were building myself a new setup. SMSL AD18 DAC / Amp / Headphones Amp: https://www.amazon.com/S-M-S-L-AD18-Amplifier-Bluetooth-Subwoofer/dp/B071JN7GXN Dayton MK402X Speakers: https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-MK402X-4-2-Way-Bookshelf-Speaker-Pair-300-465?quantity=1 $225 ish total cost there + whatever subwoofer you choose. I'd also grab some 12-14ga speaker wire, maybe some banana plugs, and however long of a subwoofer RCA cable you'll need to reach wherever you want to place your sub at. Parts Express will have all of that stuff in stock with the speakers, and you'll save with the free shipping that way. You can literally add any subwoofer you want to that setup, and you might find that you might not even need a subwoofer with the MK402X's. You probably will though. There's tons to choose from. Monoprice and Dayton both have good budget options to get you going. Again, if you want more functionality than the SMSL AD18, you can always look at a used (or new) receiver as well. But that'll be about the same functionality, but a tiny desktop footprint. That's why I chose it.

Make it easy on yourself. You can still do this easily without going with a out of the box 2.1 set that is still going to leave you wanting more later anyway. Look up Dayton, SMSL, Shitt (spelling?), Fosi, Lepai, Topping, etc for DAC / amp combos. Try to find one that has a subwoofer pre-out if you can, that'll make adding a subwoofer easy. If you find one you like but its missing a sub out, no big deal we can fix that later when you're adding your subwoofer. There's still methods. You'll also want one that has digital inputs such as USB, optical, or HDMI. A receiver will also work in this place as well, give you more input options, surround abilities later, and crossover options, but at the expense of space. Your call there. Pioneer, Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, Sony.....I mean just about any mid-range or higher name brand receiver from the last decade should "work" (so long as its got digital inputs and at least 5.1 proper output). Speakers? Seriously, you can pickup any set of bookshelf speakers. Anything. If you want a cheap budget option that'll sound fantastic to get you going, look at the Dayton MK402 set. Even better, you can look at center speaker options (the Dayton set is also fantastic for this), and buy a matching pair of center channels too if you want a little extra lower end extension out of your fronts. Subwoofer? If you have a subwoofer pre-out on your amp above, you can choose literally any powered subwoofer. Dayton again makes solid budget choices, but there's tons you can choose from. Again, in this regard you'll want to look for something with some power, and with as low of an extension as you can possibly find. The lower your subwoofer extends, the better. Subwoofer pt 2? Still want more "thump" in your chest and that pounding feeling still? You can always add bass shakers off an amp to your chair. If you happen to pick a subwoofer that doesn't give you enough low end oomph too, these are useful in the lower frequencies to help you really feel the lower subsonic frequencies. Of course you can always add more than one sub too with a DIY setup as well if you just want more sound output too. --------------------------------------------------- Start off with your DAC / amp combo (or a receiver if you want to deal with a receiver). If you want a subwoofer (sounds like you do), make sure whatever you pick has a subwoofer out to make it easy. Make sure your DAC-amp / receiver has digital inputs, not analogue only. You can literally choose any speakers and any sub once you've made that decision. Personally, I'm using a small SMSL AD18, that'll do exactly what you're asking for too and I love my little DAC / amp combo.

From what I can tell on the rules for Stage 1 Nvidia: Only use videocard from the GeForce 600 series family. Use 2 videocard core(s) in total. Processors with a socket LGA1200, LGA1700 socket, AM5 socket socket are forbidden. An UL benchmarks verification link is required From how that reads to me, I'd say GTX 690 would qualify for that bench. Maybe @Bastiaan_NL or @Avacado can clarify? That's how it reads to me though.

I mean I'd buy the FX 9590 off you later on. I already have a Sabertooth and lots of DDR3 though.

From everything you're describing, yeah it sounds like receiver + a really good 2.1 setup. Subs, you can always use more than one to gain the effect you're looking for, or one that has really good range + some transducers on your chair to get the "impact" even with lowered volumes. Either way, definitely want the lowest frequency extension you can possibly get within your budget. Speakers, there's so many to choose from, or you can even look at DIY options too. If you're into that idea, go browse around parts express for a while. I'm always super budget, so I can't speak on the higher end prebuilt sets, but even budget options like Daytons or Micca's would probably blow you away in comparison to Creative stuff. Depending on how you want the setup to sound too, you might consider watching the lower frequency ranges on the speakers too. Personally I like my sub crossed over around 60Hz or so, so I usually want my speakers to extend down to at least 60. Something to think about at least, is that you want the sub and speakers to blend well at your crossover point. Don't knock out the smaller desktop DAC / amps either, there's several of those out there that support proper 2.1 with USB input as well. Some even have a headphones amp too, my SMSL AD18 does. Receiver will definitely be more powerful usually though, and have a lot more functionality to it than a small desktop amp though. Just other options to think about with a 2.1.

I'd use a digital signal from your pc (USB or hdmi), and use a built in dac on a receiver or amp. You don't need to separate the dac and amp. Most receivers have a fantastic dac. But like others have said, it all boils down to your use and creativity. How much space do you have? 2.1 or are you wanting to push for surround (can you PROPERLY setup surround?). What size speakers do you want? What frequencies do you want the setup to reach (example, most apartment people probably don't want a subwoofer capable of 20hz). Do you require headphones amp capability in the same setup as well? That'll effect what amp(s) you pickup too. And yeah, don't say creative sounds good again. We'll fix that line of thinking real quick!

Why does Jan going there 18 times a day effect what you're seeing?

Unfortunately no. Extended clocks seem to be working, but voltage control was a no go. Best I could get was 950 core, 960 would crash it. GPU was peaking at a whopping 54*C core under load, so wasn't really a temperature thing. Definitely needed more vcore.

Alright, got my 6850 ran. Placed 10th (so far) in Heaven and Firestrike, and 9th on Vantage. Probably won't keep those places as that's all this poor card has in it without a vmod. Was fun ruining my install for a few hours of benching though!

Yeah its probably getting to the point to look at Ryzen 5000 series and maybe 12th gen Intels going forward for used stuff probably.

Alright, I'm preparing myself to wipe the main rig and pop this 6850 in there..... Sigh. You guys are monsters.

Yeah it actually was a CD copier device from the 1990's. The IDE cable plugs into a little motherboard inside, and into the 2 CD drives. You turn it on, there's a POST beep that comes from it. You then pop a blank in the writer and your source in the top drive, and once both drives are populated it begins the copy process on its own. Another loud beep from the PC speaker when its done, and your copy pops out. It was kind of neat. It was worth $9 just to say I tried it once.

I saw that, great work so far! Don't worry, I'm sure @Avacado and @Bastiaan_NL will be around soon enough to blow you out of the water. My card will just be on software / stock cooler, but hey....points are points!

People still use OCN? Yeah ouch, that's definitely a new thing I don't remember seeing there before. I had an overclocked account for years and years over there, but when they took that away, I haven't been able to login since. Oh well.

In! Wait, I'm not doing that right am I? I've got a 6850 incoming, I'll be joining soon.

That would actually be a pretty neat car to show off. Beat up, yeah sure.....but it travelled.

Oh okay that makes sense now. The opporater contrals the drones.

What's an opporator? Sorry, I'm not too up to date with the AI terms. Regardless, I always said AI is a tool. Nothing more, nothing less. So long as we respect that tool, and use it to better our lives, then I see nothing wrong with it. I think just like Crypto (at least for now), its probably here to stay. I don't think it's comparable though, one is a form of currency, and the other is a tool.

I can't tell which one's which in your screenshot there, but it LOOKS like your dedicated card is working? 42% GPU usage at 1040MHz core clock, that sure looks like a GPU? CPU usage is at 92% usage. You're being CPU bottlenecked in that particular environment it looks like. Unless the GPU's are listed backwards in the overlay there? I can't really tell for sure either.

Did you burn it up again????

Learn something new everyday, thanks Pook! I haven't tried direct connection in a long time anyway, but good to know if I ever need to again.

Honestly and sadly, its nothing new. My 6900XT is a good example of last gen having the same problem. Mine's actually faulty thermal pads though, so a simple re-TIM wouldn't fix anything on mine. XFX I believe learned the same lesson the hard way so many years ago when they switched to AMD cards. So long as they're operating "within temperature" they deem them as fine since it'll fail just outside of warranty anyway. To be fair, this isn't just an AMD thing either. Nvidia and Intel I'm sure both do it just as much.