First time building a pc need some advice

[lololitas]

But afaik I5s loose quite a lot of functionality. Now that doesn't matter that much to most people though. I know it's a matter of cost, but if you start talking costs think about costeffectivness as well. If you get an I5 now i can assure it will run great for at least 2 years, but if you get an i7 it might last more than twice that time. I'm saying that because back when I built my current rig a lot of people recommended me to go with the cheaper I5 750. It sure was enough at the time (aug 2009) but I'm currently still using my i7 920 and it still works. It was an investment that lasted and I still can't fully use it for games. if you get a future oriented MB as well you'll only need to upgrade ram and graphics over time, if you buy a solid power supply you won't need to worry about the aging either, so it's longer lasting. It's up to you wether you want to save money now or later, when you won't need to upgrade.

However do note that I'm not guaranteeing an upgrade free gamer life, especially with the new consoles touting 8core processors that might up the quality of games at teh cost of processing power.

[kitamesume]

Let me just say I think you are overshooting on the equipment. You could save a lot of money here and still have a system that feels just as powerful. Some key things to change:

• 16GB of memory is overkill - start with 8GB first, if you find that you need more later on, the stuff is cheap so just pick you up a couple more sticks. Anything over DDR3-14900 is a waste of money. For one, it is just overclocked 1866Mhz with terrible latency at 3-5 times the price.
• Good lord that video card! Drop to the 600x series and save 50-60% on the cost for a minimal drop in performance. FYI, NVIDIA has less driver hassles than ATI, but ATI is cheaper.
• Power supplies should be the one thing you don't skimp on cost with. 750-850W single rail is the way to go. I recommend PC Power and Cooling for the 5yr warrenty on their products.
• The Samsung 840 pro SSD is quality stuff. I could go into all the specifics of the firmware controllers, but it's sufficient to say that is the best SSD on the market atm. I'm using the 120GB variety, and I found that to be enough for just my OS and drivers. It's up to you on the size, either will work great.
• As far as your motherboard goes. This is something of a research matter. Usually how I select a MB is first I list the features I want, then find a board that matches those. Then I look at reviews. I'm attempting to find out how many of these are dead on arrival (DOA), and the issues other people have had with them. After weighing my options, I look for the best priced one and cross my fingers. This should take up most of your time during the purchasing phase. Just makes sure whatever you are getting has the right socket chipset, and supports your memory type without having to be overclocked in the bios. I also recommend opting for a UEFI enabled motherboard.
• Look into the 1.5TB WD Caviar green drives. They run cooler, longer, and on less power with only a tiny drop in performance. They are also around $50-70.
• Finally, the CPU....dun dun dun. Intel i7's are nice, but way too expensive for my taste. Look into going doen to the i5 series. I cannot remember off the top of my head atm, but one the i5's can be overclocked to the same specs of an i7 for about 30% of the cost. Also, don't overlook AMD as an option too. I've had no problem with the FX6300 series and it was half the price of an i5.

factoring out freak accidents and parts dying, overspec'ing the PC parts always meant to last you a few more years, yes years.

since you're only buying once every 3~5years, or even longer, why not get what strongest you can afford(without force stretching the budget), no?


for the record 8GB of total ram is small, too small.

GTX770 is faster than GTX680 yet cheaper, so saying to drop to 600series is actually spending more, not wise.

[Honemi]

Seriously, for a simple gaming system, 8GB of RAM is fine. If he (you're a guy?) needs more than that, he can buy some more. 8GB is not small or tiny unless you're doing media creation or some other memory intensive activity on your PC. For just gaming, 8GB is enough. I won't fight you about 16GB, though. Just go with 1866MHz or 1600MHz RAM. You're literally paying a $60 premium for ~5FPS (best case).

As far as i7 vs i5 goes, take a look at this bench. That is between the high performing Lynnfield Core i5 and Core i7. Look down at the games in the benchmark, the performance difference is tiny. The only thing you're losing from getting a Core i5 instead of a Core i7 is HyperThreading. Take a look at this techPowerUp page. You're only getting a ~9FPS advantage at similar clocks. For gaming, an i7 is wasteful. I'd said it before, and I'll say it again: That is $100 you could be spending on a better graphics card setup; you'll see a bigger performance increase there. Of course, with MicroCenter in the picture, if you can save money by getting an i7 or if it only costs like ~$20 more, then you should get that.

I'm saying that because back when I built my current rig a lot of people recommended me to go with the cheaper I5 750. It sure was enough at the time (aug 2009) but I'm currently still using my i7 920 and it still works.

You know you're comparing a Lynnfield processor with a Gulftown processor, right? Or in other words, the comparison you're actually making is an Extreme chip versus a mainstream chip. The comparable i7 would be a i7-880(/875K). If you were doing a straight gaming setup, the i7-880 would've been smarter. Not only that, going with one of these current Extreme chips today would be straight up dumb considering that i5/i7 have better performance for video games.

You don't need Gold efficiency on your PSU, but if you really want that, you should consider the XFX 850W Pro Series. Its literally a rebadge of your current pick. Only $110 (w/ Rebate) at NCIX. Or get the Corsair HX850 which I believe is also the same PSU.

On the GPU front, if you're only planning on 1080p a 760/670 (same performance) or 7950 is fine, but if you're planning on higher resolution gaming, ditch the 4GB 770 and go with two 4GB 760/670 in SLI.

Do not get an AMD processor. The only time you should be using one of them is if you're building a HTPC or if you're building a gaming machine and you're too poor to afford an i3 or i5, custom build or prebuild. (If it is the former, get one of their budget APUs; you're looking at one of their newer Athlon II X4, but you should be actually saving up then rather than trying buy a gaming pc right now).

Also make sure you have enough money for backup. Getting a NAS solution for backup is popular these days.

[Speaker Rob]

factoring out freak accidents and parts dying, overspec'ing the PC parts always meant to last you a few more years, yes years.

since you're only buying once every 3~5years, or even longer, why not get what strongest you can afford(without force stretching the budget), no?


for the record 8GB of total ram is small, too small.

GTX770 is faster than GTX680 yet cheaper, so saying to drop to 600series is actually spending more, not wise.

Every system I've built needed to be replaced because of new technology requirements, before the actual components gave out. So I wouldn't worry too much about that. As long as you do your research and pick up good stuff (which doesn't always mean high-priced), you should be fine.

8GB of ram is plenty. The only time you would NEED 16GB is if you are doing one of the following:

• 3D model renderings
• video compiling (authoring DVD's/Blu-rays)
• video editing
• running virtual machines
• running a server (16GB minimum then, recommend 32GB or more

I'm not sure what you are doing that requires more than 8GB of ram, but for casual gaming and computer use 8GB is fine, and by casual gaming I mean playing games for fun, not to benchmark. However, since RAM is one of the cheapest components to upgrade, if you need 16GB to rest easier at night, do it.

You might be right on the video card prices though. I haven't checked them in over 6 months. Really the important thing to note, is that buying the latest and greatest is a waste of money in the computing world. You can usually drop down to the high-end model of a previous series to get better components at half the cost. Typically, I would rather have two cards in SLI/Crossfire than one $400-500 card. Two cards will out perform one at that price range and save you $100-150.

I've been building systems for 15 years, just trying to provide some tips on saving money. A lot of people get wrapped up into the hype of specs without actually understanding the real impact they have in performance vs. your wallet. If I can take a 15-30% drop in power to save enough money to buy a second monitor, or a better monitor, or another video card. Hell yeah, I'm doing it. Real world, you won't notice the drop in casual use, only when benchmarking.

[Gh0st93]

Basically everything has been discussed on literally the first page, So all you would of had to do was read through the first page (Actually basically my posts) And you would see why the things that got chosen were chosen. But hey I'm a nice person and will reiterate why.

16GB Ram vs 8GB Ram = 8GB is fine for a sole gaming machine, For right now but More things not just games are using up more ram so might as well have it now with the ability to still upgrade later on. Also anyone who properly read Syko's post would see that they intend to get more into the IT side of things which will probably also involve running VMs.

i7 vs i5 = Syko lives near a microcenter so the i7 is heavily discounted so any argument on performance is completely invalid.

Graphics card :

600 series vs 700 series = Yes the 760 is a rebrand from the 600 line but Syko is buying the 770 which is new, Also it will be going into SLI so that renders the 600 series completely useless.

4GB Vram is to much!!! = No in fact it is not, all the fucking idiots running around screaming 2GB VRAM is enough (There were a lot on the internet in general I'm not speaking to people here, well unless you do that.....). Guess what, new games(BF4 but more will follow) are already recommending 3GB VRAM as ideal now can it run on 2GB sure but it could also run on 512MB so why shoot yourself in the foot now for literally an extra $50 dollars a card. Also the 770 in sli beats the titan kind of. The low VRAM will cause it to freak out and drop below a titan but bumping up to 4GB Will put you past a single titan by a very good bit pushing near 780 and subsequently the titan in SLI. Also at 4GB a card in SLI you will as much VRAM on your graphics cards that next-gen consoles have in general.



Edit : Also the Reason why I put up 2133MHz ram over 1866 is the fact that it's $3 Dollars more, So yeah....

[Speaker Rob]

Basically everything has been discussed on literally the first page, So all you would of had to do was read through the first page (Actually basically my posts) And you would see why the things that got chosen were chosen. But hey I'm a nice person and will reiterate why...

I admit I didn't even bother reading the first page. I just saw that 80 responses had been posted already. 

I still think he would be fine with 8GB. Even if he is an IT student, I don't expect him to be running a VM 24/7 even while he games, which was more or less what I was talking about. I run a linux VM in the background on my setup that handles a VOIP server and wiki. So it is always on, and more memory is on my list of things to do (just waiting for sales). Even still, it works. The trade off is that I can't allocate as much space for my RAMdisk.

If cost is no object and OP has access to really great deals, sure. I'd opt for the better hardware too. However, he mentioned a budget of $2000, and that just made my heart stop. I rarely spend over $700 for my machines, and they never hiccup on games and last for at least 5 years, until some new standard comes out that requires an updated MB. That is a savings of almost $1500. I don't know about everyone else, but I don't scoff at $1500.

Like I said before, people get wrapped up into performance too much. Will item A outperform item B in this situation over this one? Yes. However, will the person ever notice that during casual use? Probably not.

[kitamesume]

8GB of ram is plenty. The only time you would NEED 16GB is if you are doing one of the following:

• 3D model renderings
• video compiling (authoring DVD's/Blu-rays)
• video editing
• running virtual machines
• running a server (16GB minimum then, recommend 32GB or more

I'm not sure what you are doing that requires more than 8GB of ram, but for casual gaming and computer use 8GB is fine, and by casual gaming I mean playing games for fun, not to benchmark. However, since RAM is one of the cheapest components to upgrade, if you need 16GB to rest easier at night, do it.

the same thing applies to "2x8GB -> 4x8GB" but you can't go from "2x4GB -> 4x8GB" without trashing the first two 4GB sticks.

PS: just read these - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-ram-endurance,3475.html
(includes details about VRAM) http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ram-memory-upgrade,2778.html

[Speaker Rob]

the same thing applies to "2x8GB -> 4x8GB" but you can't go from "2x4GB -> 4x8GB" without trashing the first two 4GB sticks.

PS: just read this - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-ram-endurance,3475.html

Sorry, I don't think I understood what your point was. I think you were saying it is important to know what your final max RAM will be? If that's the case you are 100% correct. That way you don't waste sticks. Anything 16GB and below shouldn't be a hassle, as most DDR3-1600, and above, is found in 4GB sticks (4x4GB = 16GB). A lot of MB's these days even have six memory slots, so you could even go up to 24GB with no problem.

[Honemi]

nVidia has released their 700 series price competitive to their 600 series. Their 760, for example, is actually cheaper than their 670 even though they share the same performance. The 770 performs better than the 680 while being cheaper still. Their only overpriced cards are their 780 and Titan. AMD cards are similarly priced. Buying an older card wouldn't be thrifty in this situation.

You can get 16GB of RAM for as low as $125 (1866MHz). That's hardly a $3 difference.

Also, that Monitor. I didn't notice before, but . . . SykoDragon, are you sure you want skimp on your monitor? It'll be your longest lasting component by far. With the money you're considering spending, you could be getting a top of line 27" 1440p monitors ($600). Or a quality 24" 1080p monitors ($300). Your current monitor is not even an IPS (or PLS).

[Gh0st93]

the same thing applies to "2x8GB -> 4x8GB" but you can't go from "2x4GB -> 4x8GB" without trashing the first two 4GB sticks.

PS: just read this - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-ram-endurance,3475.html

Sorry, I don't think I understood what your point was. I think you were saying it is important to know what your final max RAM will be? If that's the case you are 100% correct. That way you don't waste sticks. Anything 16GB and below shouldn't be a hassle, as most DDR3-1600, and above, is found in 4GB sticks (4x4GB = 16GB). A lot of MB's these days even have six memory slots, so you could even go up to 24GB with no problem.

I'm sorry but that's fucking hilarious, They don't make motherboards with six ram slots anymore and they haven't for a long time. You can have 2, 4 or 8 ram slots, Dual or quad channels. What kitasume was saying is this. Why buy an 8GB then need another maxing out your slots. Then finding out you need anymore, It's putting your self in a corner that will render the first two sets of ram useless.

You can get 16GB of RAM for as low as $125 (1866MHz). That's hardly a $3 difference.

I was talking about the G.Skill Trident X Series, But if you wanna just pick some random ram then yes the prices won't be anywhere near there.

[kitamesume]

the same thing applies to "2x8GB -> 4x8GB" but you can't go from "2x4GB -> 4x8GB" without trashing the first two 4GB sticks.

PS: just read this - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-ram-endurance,3475.html

Sorry, I don't think I understood what your point was. I think you were saying it is important to know what your final max RAM will be? If that's the case you are 100% correct. That way you don't waste sticks. Anything 16GB and below shouldn't be a hassle, as most DDR3-1600, and above, is found in 4GB sticks (4x4GB = 16GB). A lot of MB's these days even have six memory slots, so you could even go up to 24GB with no problem.

I'm sorry but that's fucking hilarious, They don't make motherboards with six ram slots anymore and they haven't for a long time. You can have 2, 4 or 8 ram slots, Dual or quad channels. What kitasume was saying is this. Why buy an 8GB then need another maxing out your slots. Then finding out you need anymore, It's putting your self in a corner that will render the first two sets of ram useless.

he was talking about "2x4GB + 2x8GB" which isn't really ideal.

[Gh0st93]

the same thing applies to "2x8GB -> 4x8GB" but you can't go from "2x4GB -> 4x8GB" without trashing the first two 4GB sticks.

PS: just read this - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-ram-endurance,3475.html

Sorry, I don't think I understood what your point was. I think you were saying it is important to know what your final max RAM will be? If that's the case you are 100% correct. That way you don't waste sticks. Anything 16GB and below shouldn't be a hassle, as most DDR3-1600, and above, is found in 4GB sticks (4x4GB = 16GB). A lot of MB's these days even have six memory slots, so you could even go up to 24GB with no problem.

I'm sorry but that's fucking hilarious, They don't make motherboards with six ram slots anymore and they haven't for a long time. You can have 2, 4 or 8 ram slots, Dual or quad channels. What kitasume was saying is this. Why buy an 8GB then need another maxing out your slots. Then finding out you need anymore, It's putting your self in a corner that will render the first two sets of ram useless.

he was talking about "2x4GB + 2x8GB" which isn't really ideal.

Yeah I thought about that also but you really can't run that and it be stable enough. But I'm really  sure he was talking about tri channel boards. Because of this.

A lot of MB's these days even have six memory slots, so you could even go up to 24GB with no problem.

[kitamesume]

hmm yeah i didn't notice that.

[Honemi]

I was thinking of the Ripjaws X series when I posted that price. The only advantages the Trident X series seem to have over the Ripjaws are overclockability (as in it overclocks better, maybe) and removable fins. I wouldn't recommend overclocking RAM if a person is new to overclocking in general (especially because the main benefit seems to be it benchmarks better), and the heatspreader issue is already solved since Sykodragon is going with liquid cooling. Maybe there is something else to it that I'm missing?

Of course, I'd say get any pair of RAM by any decent vendor, and you're golden. I know people here don't exactly share my "RAM is RAM is RAM" philosophy, though.

Oh, I'd also recommend getting an UPS. The 840 Evo may corrupt some files if it shuts down unexpectedly while writing.

[lololitas]

Afaik the only mainstream line to offer triple channel was the X58 chipset based Nehalem architecture+derivatives (Bloomfield, Westmere-EP, Nehalem-EP, Gulftown, essentially first-gen i7) so you won't find those anymore.

If you are looking for cheap ram, see if they have some CNMemory ram left over. Since the company went bankrupt from selling their products cheaply I managed to pilfer 3x4GB DDR3-1600 a month ago for approximately 51€ (75$). Although that might be hard since it was a german company that I think only sold their products within the EU, but the reliability always was outstanding for their pricing (plus the local mediamarkt guaranteed that they are taking over the guarantee, which is 5 years of safe ram).

If you live in an area with unstable power/frequent lighning strikes with unprotected circuits, then you should definetely get an UPS with an SSD.

[SykoDragon]

I updated the first post so that people know what I've purchased. I really don't think its that bad considering I bought a monitor, extra fans, lights, and a couple of other extra stuff. I'm still currently deciding on the motherboard and a new headset since the one I found isn't really a headset.

I'd rather not dumb my build down. I have a friend who did that and his PC wasn't that great and he already has to build a new one. Hes only had it for 2-2 1/2 years at most. This is what I really don't want.

And Gh0st93 says you blocked my PMs.

[kitamesume]

concerning about headsets, if i found my reply i'll link it here.
either case, refrain from buying USB headsets or surround-sound headsets.

first things first though you need to know how far you can distinguish "quality", if you got a local showroom for headphones then participate in it.

-----

now for multi-channel headphones, they really aren't the best thing for listening to music, most of what they'd do is apply real-time spatial effects without software aid, yes it may be superior to software spatial effects but the sound-quality suffers tremendously.
as far as listening to their "best" quality, you outa go with stereo headphones + good audio cards.

now their difference as to why stereo headphone gets more "quality" than multi-channel headphone is that a stereo headphone have their drivers to solo their own chambers, they can put up large drivers that has the advantage of higher SPL without distorting itself, and they can reproduce bass more reliably than smaller drivers.
and since multi-channel headphones squashes multiple speakers inside of each side, the speaker's overall diameter suffers a lot and the chambers shrinks, without proper design the overall sound-quality plummets from decent to horribad.

----

as for getting your "best" setup, you'll need to invest on the following first, sorted by which affects sound-quality the most.

• your hearing
• music files
• headphone
• audio card
• amplifier
• ambiance condition (electricity, static and noise interference)
• cables

1) you'll have to test your own hearing to find out how far you can distinguish "quality".
2) find your best copy of music files, a garbage copy would sound like garbage obviously.
3) headphones have their flavors(neutral, high pitched, boomy, etc.) find what you prefer, some even sounds like a tin-can megaphones (sounds bad). starting with a neutral headphone works best since you get to hear the music "as-is".
4) a matching audio card that can reproduce your music as accurate as possible, usually what pushes the audio card's price the most is how well it is made, how good it's shielding is, and it's brand name. the latter causes the most price-bloat.
5) amplifiers are good, they may be able to let you attain your headphone's max loudness which usually stock audio card's output can't achieve, although this only applies to high impedance headphones. be careful with badly designed amplifiers, they introduce tons of distortions although some prefer it like that, they call it flavors.
6) ambiance conditions affects your sound quality, bad power conditions could make it hum, tons of noise interference introduced into your audio card does create a static sound as well.
7) cables... as far as you're concerned with this, most of the arguments are myths, at best you only need a well shielded copper wiring, you don't really need a $1,000 silver-litzwire cable...

-----

could you tell me your current setup? (eg headphone, audio card[onboard?], etc.)

ALC889 and ALC898 are decent enough to be on-par with budget audio cards like asus xonar DG. actually they may even be preferable just because of superior driver stability, that is if the motherboard in question didn't botch their component placement.

you may go ahead with purchasing the superlux HD668B, its cheap enough for a try-it headphone, has enough sound-quality to even rival some $200 headphones, it is a neutral & semi-open design, and are brutally accurate in sound reproduction.

stereo headphones doesn't support DTS(well its digital signals and all ) although you can get spatial effects (pseudo 5.1/7.1) with software Dolby headphone or so.

concerning about headphones, you'll need to state your tastes(genres), each of the headphones have their own flavors that matches music's genres(e.g. a bassy headphone for rock, a warm headphone for classic, etc.).
as for all-around'er a neutral headphone works best, monitor headphones are a good example of neutral headphones.

as for the SNR-dB, it only represents the amount of electrical noise it can tolerate, it doesn't do much on how the sound quality will become, it only guarantees that what you'll hear is clean from outside noise.

now i've got no experience on headphones and soundcards over $100 since i didn't pay attention to them (didn't really plan on getting one) but i'll try to piece a few that i've heard from people or reviews being great.

now onto categories -

(click to show/hide)

soundcards:
[$n/a]ALC889 - the minimum onboard soundcard i can recommend, it rivals Asus Xonar DG/X in terms of sound quality.

[$n/a]ALC898 - formerly the highest quality on an onboard soundcard you can find, its nearly equals that of Asus Xonar DSX in terms of sound quality.

[$n/a]ALC1150 - the epitome of quality on an onboard soundcard, its nearly equals that of Asus Xonar DX in terms of sound quality.

[$39.99]Asus Xonar DG/X (DG[PCI] or DGX[PCI-E]) - cheapest possible soundcard you can get, minimum soundcard i can recommend.

[$59.99]Asus Xonar DSX - a cut-down version of the DX, its one of the best budget cards out there.

[$77.99]Asus Xonar DX - the epitome of budget cards, i have this one and its quite a good card, the only qualms i have is Asus's shitty drivers.

[$169.99]ASUS Xonar Essence STX - milder variant of the Xonar ST.

[$199.99]ASUS Xonar Essence ST - it is the epitome of quality/price of soundcards, based on reviews its even better than Asus STX. anything noticably better than this is retardedly expensive(over $400).

headphones:
[$54.99]Superlux HD668B - cheapest "quality" headphone you may find, well at least on my area.

[$89.30]AKG K142HD Studio High Definition Semi-Open Headphones - i've heard of good things about this headphone, although i haven't tried it yet...

[$121.98]Audio-Technica ATH-M50 - its quite a popular mention in head-fi.org, so might as well put it here.

[$132.82]Audio Technica ATH-A700X - quite a popular suggested "neutral headphones".

[$179.99]Shure SRH840 - its the most suggested "neutral headphones", i've heard of it once from an open showroom, i would've bought one if it was $100 cheaper.
comparison between Superlux HD668B is that this one sounded more consistent, or more like i don't need to move the headphone around my head as much as with superlux to find the sweet spot.

[$184.25]Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO, 250 ohms its one of the top shelf headphones, go figure.

[$194.00]Audio Technica ATH-AD900 its one of the top shelf headphones, go figure.

[$209.00]Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO - its one of the top shelf headphones, go figure.


notes:
you might wanna get some of the following opamps below and swap the stock opamps on the soundcards, then find which you like most.
ad823 - (free sample?)
AD8397 - (free sample)
AD8620 - (free sample)
OPA2132P - (free sample)
OPA2277 - (free sample)
[$141.75]Burson HD Dual Opamp (8 Pin DIP socket) - best opamp that i know, be warned that it's insanely expensive...

as for build orientations:
---- budget
$95 - [$39.99]Asus Xonar DG/X + [$54.99]Superlux HD668B
$115 - [$59.99]Asus Xonar DSX + [$54.99]Superlux HD668B
$132 - [$77.99]Asus Xonar DX + [$54.99]Superlux HD668B
$167 - [$77.99]Asus Xonar DX + [$89.30]AKG K142HD
$200 - [$77.99]Asus Xonar DX + [$121.98]Audio-Technica ATH-M50
----- good
$211 - [$77.99]Asus Xonar DX + [$132.82]Audio Technica ATH-A700X
$258 - [$77.99]Asus Xonar DX + [$179.99]Shure SRH840
$262 - [$77.99]Asus Xonar DX + [$184.25]Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO
----- best
$333 - [$169.99]ASUS Xonar Essence STX + [$132.82]Audio Technica ATH-A700X
$380 - [$169.99]ASUS Xonar Essence STX + [$179.99]Shure SRH840
$384 - [$169.99]ASUS Xonar Essence STX + [$184.25]Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO
----- a little too overkill
$394 - [$199.99]ASUS Xonar Essence ST + [$194.00]Audio Technica ATH-AD900
$409 - [$199.99]ASUS Xonar Essence ST + [$209.00]Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO

notes: the ones bolded are which i deem a great combination.
note2: i own the one highlightened in red.

notice: before you pull the trigger on these forms of build, you may want to ask other people's opinion first.

notice - before i had a few HT|Omega on that list, i removed them due to Asus's Xonar outpricing them.

[Gh0st93]

And Gh0st93 says you blocked my PMs.

Sorry about that I fixed it.

Also I wouldn't bother with an internal sound card, First try the Audio boost you'll get with your motherboard then if that's not good enough we can go from there.

[Honemi]

I was trying to urge you towards getting a 2x760 SLI setup. That'd gotten you performance above the Titan for less than the price of the 780. But since you already bought the 770, the point is moot.

Now, for the motherboard question, its just a value question. The MPower has two extra USB3 rear ports and comes with WiFi 802.11n (dual-band?) and Bluetooth 4. The G65 has better headphone audio due to its built in amplifier. Do you think the extra two USB3 ports and wireless connectivity are worth $30? If you do, get the MPower, it will serve you well. If you don't, get the G65 and save a couple of bucks. I'd probably choose the G65 if only because wireless connectivity is useless to me, and I'm in my penny-pincher mindset. (If you can find the Maximus Hero for a similarly discounted price, it's also a nice option.)

As it turns out, the MPower buttload of VRM may not improve its overclocking as it would first seem. techPowerUp So don't let that affect your decision too much.

For your processor, get the i7. The main reason I was advocating for the i5 is because the performance difference (when gaming) for the i5 and i7 is not particularly significant and your money would have been better spent on a better graphics card setup. Since you already bought your 770 and are probably not too eager to drop another $450 for SLI, the point is moot. Get the i7 while its hot. There's no point in the i5 at this, uh, point unless you just want to save that $80.

Also, I'm not trying to get you to dumb down your build; I'm trying to get you to optimize your build within your budget.

Even though I am not particularly fond of Head-Fi, they have two great guides on gaming headphones. One is by Mad Lust Envy for console gaming (but still very nice to read) and the other The Nameless Guide to PC Gaming Audio. These may be a great place to look if you're still haven't decided on your current pair.

[SykoDragon]

(click to show/hide)

concerning about headsets, if i found my reply i'll link it here.
either case, refrain from buying USB headsets or surround-sound headsets.

first things first though you need to know how far you can distinguish "quality", if you got a local showroom for headphones then participate in it.

-----

now for multi-channel headphones, they really aren't the best thing for listening to music, most of what they'd do is apply real-time spatial effects without software aid, yes it may be superior to software spatial effects but the sound-quality suffers tremendously.
as far as listening to their "best" quality, you outa go with stereo headphones + good audio cards.

now their difference as to why stereo headphone gets more "quality" than multi-channel headphone is that a stereo headphone have their drivers to solo their own chambers, they can put up large drivers that has the advantage of higher SPL without distorting itself, and they can reproduce bass more reliably than smaller drivers.
and since multi-channel headphones squashes multiple speakers inside of each side, the speaker's overall diameter suffers a lot and the chambers shrinks, without proper design the overall sound-quality plummets from decent to horribad.

----

as for getting your "best" setup, you'll need to invest on the following first, sorted by which affects sound-quality the most.

• your hearing
• music files
• headphone
• audio card
• amplifier
• ambiance condition (electricity, static and noise interference)
• cables

1) you'll have to test your own hearing to find out how far you can distinguish "quality".
2) find your best copy of music files, a garbage copy would sound like garbage obviously.
3) headphones have their flavors(neutral, high pitched, boomy, etc.) find what you prefer, some even sounds like a tin-can megaphones (sounds bad). starting with a neutral headphone works best since you get to hear the music "as-is".
4) a matching audio card that can reproduce your music as accurate as possible, usually what pushes the audio card's price the most is how well it is made, how good it's shielding is, and it's brand name. the latter causes the most price-bloat.
5) amplifiers are good, they may be able to let you attain your headphone's max loudness which usually stock audio card's output can't achieve, although this only applies to high impedance headphones. be careful with badly designed amplifiers, they introduce tons of distortions although some prefer it like that, they call it flavors.
6) ambiance conditions affects your sound quality, bad power conditions could make it hum, tons of noise interference introduced into your audio card does create a static sound as well.
7) cables... as far as you're concerned with this, most of the arguments are myths, at best you only need a well shielded copper wiring, you don't really need a $1,000 silver-litzwire cable...

-----

could you tell me your current setup? (eg headphone, audio card[onboard?], etc.)

ALC889 and ALC898 are decent enough to be on-par with budget audio cards like asus xonar DG. actually they may even be preferable just because of superior driver stability, that is if the motherboard in question didn't botch their component placement.

you may go ahead with purchasing the superlux HD668B, its cheap enough for a try-it headphone, has enough sound-quality to even rival some $200 headphones, it is a neutral & semi-open design, and are brutally accurate in sound reproduction.

stereo headphones doesn't support DTS(well its digital signals and all ) although you can get spatial effects (pseudo 5.1/7.1) with software Dolby headphone or so.

concerning about headphones, you'll need to state your tastes(genres), each of the headphones have their own flavors that matches music's genres(e.g. a bassy headphone for rock, a warm headphone for classic, etc.).
as for all-around'er a neutral headphone works best, monitor headphones are a good example of neutral headphones.

as for the SNR-dB, it only represents the amount of electrical noise it can tolerate, it doesn't do much on how the sound quality will become, it only guarantees that what you'll hear is clean from outside noise.

now i've got no experience on headphones and soundcards over $100 since i didn't pay attention to them (didn't really plan on getting one) but i'll try to piece a few that i've heard from people or reviews being great.

now onto categories -

(click to show/hide)

soundcards:
[$n/a]ALC889 - the minimum onboard soundcard i can recommend, it rivals Asus Xonar DG/X in terms of sound quality.

[$n/a]ALC898 - formerly the highest quality on an onboard soundcard you can find, its nearly equals that of Asus Xonar DSX in terms of sound quality.

[$n/a]ALC1150 - the epitome of quality on an onboard soundcard, its nearly equals that of Asus Xonar DX in terms of sound quality.

[$39.99]Asus Xonar DG/X (DG[PCI] or DGX[PCI-E]) - cheapest possible soundcard you can get, minimum soundcard i can recommend.

[$59.99]Asus Xonar DSX - a cut-down version of the DX, its one of the best budget cards out there.

[$77.99]Asus Xonar DX - the epitome of budget cards, i have this one and its quite a good card, the only qualms i have is Asus's shitty drivers.

[$169.99]ASUS Xonar Essence STX - milder variant of the Xonar ST.

[$199.99]ASUS Xonar Essence ST - it is the epitome of quality/price of soundcards, based on reviews its even better than Asus STX. anything noticably better than this is retardedly expensive(over $400).

headphones:
[$54.99]Superlux HD668B - cheapest "quality" headphone you may find, well at least on my area.

[$89.30]AKG K142HD Studio High Definition Semi-Open Headphones - i've heard of good things about this headphone, although i haven't tried it yet...

[$121.98]Audio-Technica ATH-M50 - its quite a popular mention in head-fi.org, so might as well put it here.

[$132.82]Audio Technica ATH-A700X - quite a popular suggested "neutral headphones".

[$179.99]Shure SRH840 - its the most suggested "neutral headphones", i've heard of it once from an open showroom, i would've bought one if it was $100 cheaper.
comparison between Superlux HD668B is that this one sounded more consistent, or more like i don't need to move the headphone around my head as much as with superlux to find the sweet spot.

[$184.25]Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO, 250 ohms its one of the top shelf headphones, go figure.

[$194.00]Audio Technica ATH-AD900 its one of the top shelf headphones, go figure.

[$209.00]Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO - its one of the top shelf headphones, go figure.


notes:
you might wanna get some of the following opamps below and swap the stock opamps on the soundcards, then find which you like most.
ad823 - (free sample?)
AD8397 - (free sample)
AD8620 - (free sample)
OPA2132P - (free sample)
OPA2277 - (free sample)
[$141.75]Burson HD Dual Opamp (8 Pin DIP socket) - best opamp that i know, be warned that it's insanely expensive...

as for build orientations:
---- budget
$95 - [$39.99]Asus Xonar DG/X + [$54.99]Superlux HD668B
$115 - [$59.99]Asus Xonar DSX + [$54.99]Superlux HD668B
$132 - [$77.99]Asus Xonar DX + [$54.99]Superlux HD668B
$167 - [$77.99]Asus Xonar DX + [$89.30]AKG K142HD
$200 - [$77.99]Asus Xonar DX + [$121.98]Audio-Technica ATH-M50
----- good
$211 - [$77.99]Asus Xonar DX + [$132.82]Audio Technica ATH-A700X
$258 - [$77.99]Asus Xonar DX + [$179.99]Shure SRH840
$262 - [$77.99]Asus Xonar DX + [$184.25]Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO
----- best
$333 - [$169.99]ASUS Xonar Essence STX + [$132.82]Audio Technica ATH-A700X
$380 - [$169.99]ASUS Xonar Essence STX + [$179.99]Shure SRH840
$384 - [$169.99]ASUS Xonar Essence STX + [$184.25]Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO
----- a little too overkill
$394 - [$199.99]ASUS Xonar Essence ST + [$194.00]Audio Technica ATH-AD900
$409 - [$199.99]ASUS Xonar Essence ST + [$209.00]Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO

notes: the ones bolded are which i deem a great combination.
note2: i own the one highlightened in red.

notice: before you pull the trigger on these forms of build, you may want to ask other people's opinion first.

notice - before i had a few HT|Omega on that list, i removed them due to Asus's Xonar outpricing them.

That was a lot of information x.x and I should have specified gaming headsets with mics. I don't think I need headphones for music since I have a pair of beats that I like. If I don't like the regular MB sound I'll look at one of the sound cards you suggested. Appreciate the help especially since I'm not as well informed on this particular subject.

I was trying to urge you towards getting a 2x760 SLI setup. That'd gotten you performance above the Titan for less than the price of the 780. But since you already bought the 770, the point is moot.

Now, for the motherboard question, its just a value question. The MPower has two extra USB3 rear ports and comes with WiFi 802.11n (dual-band?) and Bluetooth 4. The G65 has better headphone audio due to its built in amplifier. Do you think the extra two USB3 ports and wireless connectivity are worth $30? If you do, get the MPower, it will serve you well. If you don't, get the G65 and save a couple of bucks. I'd probably choose the G65 if only because wireless connectivity is useless to me, and I'm in my penny-pincher mindset. (If you can find the Maximus Hero for a similarly discounted price, it's also a nice option.)

As it turns out, the MPower buttload of VRM may not improve its overclocking as it would first seem. techPowerUp So don't let that affect your decision too much.

For your processor, get the i7. The main reason I was advocating for the i5 is because the performance difference (when gaming) for the i5 and i7 is not particularly significant and your money would have been better spent on a better graphics card setup. Since you already bought your 770 and are probably not too eager to drop another $450 for SLI, the point is moot. Get the i7 while its hot. There's no point in the i5 at this, uh, point unless you just want to save that $80.

Also, I'm not trying to get you to dumb down your build; I'm trying to get you to optimize your build within your budget.

Even though I am not particularly fond of Head-Fi, they have two great guides on gaming headphones. One is by Mad Lust Envy for console gaming (but still very nice to read) and the other The Nameless Guide to PC Gaming Audio. These may be a great place to look if you're still haven't decided on your current pair.

Sorry I wasn't specifically referring to you about the dumbing down my build, it was more towards Speaker Rob. A lot of the reviews I read had a lot of praise for the 770s so I decided to stick with those. And most of the stuff I haven't bought yet is because I can't go to MicroCenter just yet. I'll probably run through the gaming headphones links later on tonight and try to find something good. Thanks for your help!