My new PC build

[mudrummer99]

The time has come. It is finally time to build a new computer. After about 2.5 years I have finally out grown what this machine is capable of. While mainly a gaming computer, I do quite a bit of music listening and some audio editing (entry level recording mainly for my wife). I do think I will be doing some streaming to my system in the next room. That's where you guys come in. Hardware I'm good with, but some of the extra things to make everything awesome I sometimes miss. I'm looking at putting in a Radeon 4870 card with a CPU with plenty of power. So what I think I want is a way to run HDMI out of my computer into my system. What do I need to make this happen. I've read a little about video cards being able to distribute audio for this purpose through HDMI, is this worth it, or would it be more beneficial to get a better audio card and run the signals separately? I'm not sold on any sound card yet, but I am looking at the M-audio 1010 LT mainly for the I/O capabilities. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance.

Mike

 

[Wafflesomd]

I'd rather go for an EMU card. Like an 0404 or 1212m, better DAC's.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I would get the new Radeon 5xxx series graphics cards.

I would definitely get a great graphics card (like the new Radeon 5xxx series) that has HDMI 1.3 - awesome video and awesome audio - bitstreaming of HD audio like PCM, TrueHD, and DTS-HD MA.

Forget the stand-alone sound cards. I don't think they are worth it. I've used a premium stand-alone sound card (Burr-Brown PCM-1796 DAC) before, and I was not impressed.

I don't care if they put a flagship Burr-Brown PCM-1796 DAC in a sound card. It's still a $200 sound card. Your receiver or pre-pro will most likely have better sound. So just bitstream all the sound to your pre-pro or receiver. Let the receiver/ pre-pro do the DAC.

 

[HDPCsound]

Radeon series are state of the art graphics cards for gaming, considering that Intel plans to release new graphic cards soon.

 

[mudrummer99]

So...it's been a while since I updated this. I built my comp, I'll have pics up later this week in my thread in members gallery. As of now, I am video card-less. The build went great, everything installed perfectly, only had to reseat the RAM 2x (a record for any ram install I've done) and I didn't even have to flash the BIOS. It was by far the smoothest build ever.

Until 2 days ago, when the hd 4870 I put in it caught fire. Not like the exaggerated "smoking so I'll call it fire" but actual sparks and fire and flames and ozone. fortunately I was sitting right next to it when it happened and was able to keep any of my other equipment from getting damaged.

So that brings me back to searching for gear. Depending on what the AMD is going to do about this card (I bought it through and accommodation) will depend on which way I go. Graphically it worked great for the 3 days it ran, so if they replace it, awesome. If they don't, and they just refund, I have my eyes strongly set on a 5850. Any reason to step up to the 5870? I mean, it's the difference between the fastest single gpu on the market and the second fastest gpu on the market, so performance wise I'm sure they'll out do anything I need. Any input? Thanks as always for reading and your feedback.

Mike

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I have my eyes strongly set on a 5850. Any reason to step up to the 5870?

I don't think so. Pretty much any of the 5xxx Radeon cards should be great for bitstreaming TrueHD & DTS-HD once PowerDVD comes out with the patch at the end of this month.

Just make sure they physically fit your PC since some of the high-end ones are pretty big in size.