Building a computer? Need advice/suggestions? Come here!

[Dwood]

Quick question: Do video cards/mobo's do sound passthrough these days? I knew they were starting to do that around 2010/2011 for output via hdmi cables.

and 2nd: if so, do those hdmi outputs do surround sound as well? Or just stick with headphones?

3rdly: sound card?

[Cortexian]

yes
yes, personal preference (do you like headphones for those late night gaming sessions or noise cancelling? Or do you like speakers for their sheer awesome and other attributes?)
no

[Dwood]

yes
yes, personal preference (do you like headphones for those late night gaming sessions or noise cancelling? Or do you like speakers for their sheer awesome and other attributes?)
no

Headphones for immersion, surround for movies/blu ray... all of the above? While headphones would be more practical in the immediate situation (i'm talking like super nice dr. dre's or something, no in-your-ear crap) eventually I would like to experiment with surround (the home I live in has a receiver and full surround)

Edit:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1vxSl

So far, looking at $750. With that kind of price, I'm thinking of adding either a nice gaming keyboard or monitor. Midrange monitors anyone?

I may look at more nVidia GPU's, as well, as con suggested. I want to get an oculus rift and play Amnesia: Dark Descent on it.

Edit x2: I realized there's a computer with a working PSU in my basement I can salvage. BRB, checking wattage- i'll run it by you to see if it'd be enough.

X3: wattage on it is crap, 350W. I'd consider using perhaps 2 in one machine, but it's huge already, I don't think it would fit.

[Donut]

I assume by Dr. Dre you mean "Beats". They're ridiculously overpriced. You can get better stuff for a lot less. Or at least my friend says so, and he has llike 20000 dollars worth of audio equipment, so I'm inclined to believe him.

[Dwood]

I assume by Dr. Dre you mean "Beats". They're ridiculously overpriced. You can get better stuff for a lot less. Or at least my friend says so, and he has llike 20000 dollars worth of audio equipment, so I'm inclined to believe him.

Does he have any suggestions?

Edit, check my current build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1vK7e

i took out the monitor because i won't get it until after the computer is build, most likely. I'd love to have my other monitor that's in california b/c it was super nice. It wouldn't eliminate the need for a new one, but would alleviate it for a time.

[Cortexian]

Yeah don't get the Beats or the new Monster audio stuff. If you want a good headset for gaming use, look into the Logitech G35/G930 or some of the offerings from Razer (Tiamat, etc).

[Donut]

Does he have any suggestions?

$200 - 300 price range, he says Beyerdynamic DT880s, AKG K701, or K702 are nice. They would likely please you if you like the aesthetics of beats. He also says the K702 has a better sound stage, so those might be good if you're looking for super immersive sound (i.e. the headphones handle all ranges of sound frequencies well). You can probably find them used for 175 bucks, and if the ear pads are nasty you can replace them cheaply. Buying used also "opens the drivers", which I guess is the equivalent to "breaking them in".

Something cheaper, in the 70 - 160 dollar price range, Grado SR80i or SR60i, AKG K240, or Sony MDR-V6. He didn't say much about how those perform, but I was looking to buy an SR60i a while back. As somebody who takes a competitive approach to game play but also appreciates the fullness of game sound (as well as music), those SR60i's seemed to fit the bill really well. Plus they're less than 100 bucks, whereas a lot of those other ones are 200+ (which is fucking crazy if you're not an audiophile imo).

[Dwood]

If Flibit was still here i'd pester him- surely someone has flibit on steam?

[Warsaw]

To Zeph you should listen. Save you he can!

[Dwood]

To Zeph you should listen. Save you he can!

I am I am, it was harder than I thought to find (updated) GPU benches. Now I've seen that the Nvidia cards destroy ATi in almost every benchmark, i'm looking it up.

The latest ones are on anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU13/583

Edit: I'm looking for the best price/perf ratio. I have a CD/DVD drive alread, so let's drop the Blu-Ray for now. What else can I canibalize? My thoughts are to buy high-end CPU/GPU/MoBo w/ a decent PSU, and the rest doesn't really matter. I want performance before function!

Phase-building a computer is harder than I thought. I'll take a peek at the benches of intel vs AMD in the proc section, as well.