lightning101

He is officially a nerd now

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Yep 2nd class Nerd at the moment. Soon to be promoted into Geekdom.

Tiggs

i have ordered cables as extras (needed some long LAN leeds anyway so ordered them all - LAN leads because my network in the home office is too slow to use wirless (54mps) so going to hardwire it)


last nerdy question.....sound cards - i will have onoard sound, do i need to upgrade???? - all i will do with sound is listen to itunes on my little PC speakers that have a seperate sub unit......thats good enough isnt it?


also - asked pc builder for a neon fan but he refused! i thought neon fans were all the rage, am i behind the times

jpor

iTrader: (1)

On-board sound is totally fine. Most on-board sound cards now have 2.0, 2.1,5.1 and/or even 7.1 sound support, and out match the sound cards you can usually buy from manufacturers like Creative. So your covered on that.

Put it this way All my PCs are run off the internal sound card and the sound for games is fantatstic. So are MP3's etc..

Tiggs

cool!


now i just need to order Battlefield 2 then im done

Iain Young

Onboard sound isn't bad at all, but it can't compare with a decent sound card, like a XiFi for example. The hardware accelleration (which takes processing away from the main processor), allows more channels of sound, and when combined with a decent set of speakers the difference is amazing. With cheaper speaker setups you may not notice as big a difference however...

DrEvil

What he said... even the X-Fi Extreme Music makes a massive difference in games, compared to the likes of the Audigy 2 ZS.

The other big benefit as said, is that it frees up CPU time, as the processing is done by the sound card.

Be rude not to if you're spending a few quid anyway

jpor

iTrader: (1)

You would think by now. Manufacturers of Motherboards would be able to provide this sort of feature on the board. Considering it uses the same PCI bus.

Iain Young

If you are being like that though, why not provide eveything onboard (sound, video etc). Onboard sound is provided in the same way that a lot of motherboards provide onboard video. It's basic, but good enough to get the machine running. If you want to specialise / improve the machine, you then have the option of disabling the onboard stuff and buying an expansion card.

Tiggs

my speakers set was £25....think on borad will be fine for now

DrEvil

Yep.. you're right about that!

jpor

iTrader: (1)

True. But what I'm getting at, is that most upgrade devices slot into the PCI port (aprt from AGP Garphics cards). So you'd think the technology would there to be included on the motherboard, and when technology progresses disable the on-board and opt for the upgrades. Maybe one day.

Iain Young

Not sure what you are getting at because what you are describing already happens. Most (if not all) motherboards these days have onboard sound and graphics. You can use this if you like, but if you want something of a higher quality you can stick in an upgrade card and disable the onboard stuff.

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Sorry. I wasn't being clear. What I am replying to is that Mobo manufacturers don't make full use of sound and graphics, and as you have commented, they tend to pull too much on the Processor and/or share RAM from the main board. Why can't the MOBO manufacturers make boards with Sound and Graphics which equal something that you can buy to add on via the PCI slot.

Iain Young

Because then nobody would be tempted to buy the upgrades. It'd make a serious dent in the peripherals market, which the mobo manufacturers also have a serious investment in. It's all down to economics...

lightning101

Plus, if a new technology comes out (like X-Fi ) you need a new motherboard as well

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Damn that economics....

Tiggs

everything is here!!!

2 X 19's on the desk (went for a samsung in the end with a 4mps rate...budget? what budget????) and the PCcase is cool! all black and shiny with windows and wires and stuff!!


its like PC ****

jpor

iTrader: (1)

So what are you waiting for? Get it connected up and running

Tiggs

i have one screen running on the current system.....rest has to wait for my bro to get the OS on it etc

ohh...and battlefield 2 just arrived from play.com as well

jpor

iTrader: (1)

What are you waiting for? Get your Bro around to get it up and running.

Tiggs

he's one of these odd ***** that goes to work though!

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Inconsiderate of him

Never mind.

Tiggs

i will have to pass the time by gazing longingly in my case window ahd ohhhhhing at the all the shiny bits

jpor

iTrader: (1)

What ever floats your boat