This ^ . I have a decent pair of headphones and the only extra "noise" I can hear comes from monitoring the microphone which I have quite loud in order not to shout to hear my own voice during a fight. The hum is inaudible when there's something else to hear in the phones, or if I check the mute box for microphone monitoring. A separate sound card may produce some special effects for ear candy, but to true audiophiles any sound device inside the computer case is a definite no.
Bizman, Sir, what do you mean by True audiophiles not wanting any sound device / add-on cards / etc... inside the computer case? Are you referring to the Sound Card using a PCI or PCIe slot on the MB inside the PC?
just curious
I've always been in the belief that if the windows login tune crackles, there's something potentially unwanted going on in the background, eating resources. Or just too little oomph in the computer to be able to run the startup tasks in due time.
I agree to a degree, with you Bizman, but also think that it shows signs of something wrong going on in the PSU department of the Computer..... Challenge was the person to originally bring this to my attention, when I had gotten a hold of a PC Power & Cooling PSU after they were bought out ( think it was actually an OCZ PSU with PC Power and Cooling decals, iirc )
Nimrod, I agree with eagl, regarding possibly waiting on the soundcard , to see if you are ok with the onboard sound provided by the MB
as for the ASUS Xonar Sound card, I love the 2 models I have, and one of my PC's has the same model you are wanting to purchase/have listed in your build /order sheet
I'm glad you got away from that Rosewill PSU and went with the Seasonic PSU
As for PC Cases, Their are some cases that are made pretty darn good, without having the Corsair, Thermaltake, Antec, Cooler Master, etc... Brand Names..... I do however prefer my Thermaltake Level10 GT model cases and also my Antec 900's & 1200's both the Thermal take and the antec cases have some of the best cooling abilities, comes with more than enough cooling fans both intake and exhaust and the added features of each fan has it's own easy pull filter screen.... the cases ( especially the Level 10 GT ) cost somewhat more... but you do really get what you pay for in this particular matter...
As far as Going with a 6 Core CPU verses a Quad Core ( 4 core ) CPU... mostof the AMD CPU's I have purchased since 2011 have been able to unlock and go from like my AMD 555 dual core will actually run as a quad core, and my AMD Phenom II Q975 3.6 GHz quadcore will unlock and run as a 6 core......... the Q975 will run easily at 4.8GHz on Air and stay well under its Max Temp. Limits even when unlocked and using 6 cores ........ I had it to go 5.1 on Air and it ran stable , but I only left it their for bout an HR......... then I turned it back to it's default....
I do not see any advantage in having a 6 core, I am of the opinion that quad core is more than enough and to add, I do not care for having any type of GPU ( or APU ) built in with the CPU........ I wish I had bout the i7 CPU that did not have the on chip graphics....... I don't have a need or use for it.... just my thoughts on the matter
I still would encourage you to seriously think about going at least with the Western Digital "Black " series HD, and suggest you shy away from that Seagate HD
as for your DVD RW burner...... I have used that particular model in every build going back to when it was IDE before SATA, then I stepped up to BluRay Burner rewriter w/ Lightscribe by ASUS
Good Luck in your First Build, Nimrod
TC
