So, I'm finally building a PC..

[Graf Zahl]

What? You really want to tell me that the difference between 120fps and 60fps is more significant than between 30fps and 60fps? Sorry, the math alone makes that nonsense.

[Tapwave]

Now, now, let's not get off topic, alright? I don't need anything over 60hz and 120/144hz monitors are out of my budget anyway.

This is my final build with all peripherals. Disregard the lack of audio, I have a headset already.

[wildweasel]

This is my final build with all peripherals. Disregard the lack of audio, I have a headset already.

And even if you didn't, Gigabyte motherboards nearly always have onboard audio that tends to work just fine.

I don't see any major issues with this build, honestly!

[Rachael]

One thing's for sure...

You won't be upgrading that just to play GZDoom in the next 10 years.

[Hellser]

You really don't need a soundcard. This isn't the early '90s where you need a Soundblaster to get any kind of sound. The onboard audio market is monopolized by the rather nicely made RealTek "High Definition" Audio.. codec.. thing. ALC888 and similar. Also, nearly all motherboards have some sort of onboard audio.

[Graf Zahl]

And even if you didn't, Gigabyte motherboards nearly always have onboard audio that tends to work just fine.

Is there even such a thing as a motherboard without an audio chip? The last time I had a dedicated soundcard was in the system I had between 2002 and 2004.

[Rachael]

The onboard audio market is monopolized by the rather nicely made RealTek "High Definition" Audio.. codec.. thing.

It's a piece of crap. Dedicated sound cards are still viable - even if they come in the form of a USB plug that just has an audio and microphone jack.

[Trance]

What makes the onboard Realtek chip crap? It's never sounded bad to me, and I've been using onboard sound for years.

[Rachael]

It's probably just my experience but the sound frequently cuts out or gets too quiet in certain situations - I noticed a huge difference in switching to a dedicated sound card.

[wildweasel]

Pretty much the only time onboard sound has ever failed me was when I bought a substandard motherboard where the speaker jack actually came disconnected from the board.

[SouthernLion]

What? You really want to tell me that the difference between 120fps and 60fps is more significant than between 30fps and 60fps? Sorry, the math alone makes that nonsense.

I don't know if I would use the term more significant, because of the perception of motion in the lower numbers, but you can most certainly distinguish 60 from 90 and 90 from 120.

Anyways, apologies for straying off-topic.

About the on-board sound, I always like to use a soundcard, but that's because I'm an audiophile and end up spending crazy amounts of money on optical audio receivers and things like that. It's not really worth the investment unless you are mixing music in SONAR and F.Loops or something. I mean I think most motherboards support 7.1 natively, to be honest. I agree that you don't need one, it's just something for the crazy people.

Not to mention, I believe it was something like less than 0.1% of CPU threading is used for audio in games now. Back in the day you freed up CPU cycles by having a dedicated sound card, but that doesn't really matter anymore.

[Graf Zahl]

Pretty much the only time onboard sound has ever failed me was when I bought a substandard motherboard where the speaker jack actually came disconnected from the board.

Ditto.

Never had any problems with it aside from bad connections. Of course bad connections are just as easy to get with a dedicated sound card.
I have my PC connected to a relatively good stereo system and it sounds just as good as playing a CD.

[Tapwave]

Pretty much the only time onboard sound has ever failed me was when I bought a substandard motherboard where the speaker jack actually came disconnected from the board.

Ditto.

Never had any problems with it aside from bad connections. Of course bad connections are just as easy to get with a dedicated sound card.
I have my PC connected to a relatively good stereo system and it sounds just as good as playing a CD.

I mostly had issues where my sound driver crashed silently, but this happened to me like.. three times in about two years.

Glad to hear the build's good now, though, if sales turn out to be very good this year, I might get a higher-end mobo, or 32gb of ram. Or both. Then I'll be set for quite a while.

[Rachael]

Good luck with the system. It looks like a very nice one, indeed!

[4thcharacter]

That setup makes me green with envy. I put the total price into some currency converter and it costs around 100,000 + around here. Jesus.

Real-top notch build though.