new build for 18 y.o

[carnageX]

That post made me lol.

"Fine - if you won't decide, I get the nice stuff."

 

[acerinpa]

Yep- EXACTLY !!!!

OK looking at the MOBO's and frankly several of them have reviews that scare me. RMA's, dead after 2 months, etc. Don't want to spend $$$ ,but rather spend more to get a good stable MOBO. Need some advice on this one. I definitely want upgraded Audio as my current MOBO's audio out of the HDMI is not all that great.

 

[PP Mguire]

HDMI audio regardless is straight digital from the source, so your motherboard wouldn't have an impact on that anyways.

Also, I thought the i5 and 290 combo was your sons and it was the 2500k that you thought died..... Bit confused here, or did you both have the same setup?

 

[acerinpa]

Yep. Both had same setup. So , the "better" audio i am reading about on these mobo's is not going to help? I am not so sure about that. My current setup always has the left channel at least 20% louder than the right, along with requiring me to balance this error. It also requires me to nearly max my volume on my Sony home theater unit. However when i use hdmi from a ps3 , my audio sounds great. Yes i have tried changing the hdmi cable , switching ports, etc. It is definitely a problem in the PC. Maybe ut is the gpu. I dont know.

 

[acerinpa]

PP once ibuild my new pc , give him my current PC . I will send u the sandybridge cpu out of his current PC..

 

[PP Mguire]

Yep. Both had same setup. So , the "better" audio i am reading about on these mobo's is not going to help? I am not so sure about that. My current setup always has the left channel at least 20% louder than the right, along with requiring me to balance this error. It also requires me to nearly max my volume on my Sony home theater unit. However when i use hdmi from a ps3 , my audio sounds great. Yes i have tried changing the hdmi cable , switching ports, etc. It is definitely a problem in the PC. Maybe ut is the gpu. I dont know.

Talk about confusing LOL but ok.

The better audio they talk about is for the analog out, the 3.5mm ports. They talk about better things such as headphone amp, DAC, OPAMPs, supporting certain Dolby technologies ect. Think of HDMI audio like an optical setup except it's lossless when hooked to the right device, purely a digital signal. Since you said you had that hooked to the board I'd definitely hook it up to your GPU instead, it also helps to have the audio settings in Windows set right. You can individually change each channel output manually.

PP once ibuild my new pc , give him my current PC . I will send u the sandybridge cpu out of his current PC..

Alrighty then.

 

[acerinpa]

OK well its good to know the audio issue I have been having is probably the GPU ,not the MOBO. Can you suggest a 1070 GPU for me, and a MOBO. As I said MOBO reviews are dismal on the cheaper models.

 

[PP Mguire]

They always will be because ignorant people tend to buy more of the cheaper models when they're unsure then have something to complain about that's usually their fault.

I linked this one earlier. If you want to go a little more expensive lmk.
ASRock Z170A-X1 LGA 1151 Intel Z170 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com

1070 = eVGA as always.

Also I don't think your audio issue is a hardware issue.

 

[acerinpa]

"Not hardware" - please explain?? When listening to music online, in stereo via headphone port on the case , balance is good. When listening to music ( 5.1 ) via GPU -> HDMI -> to receiver the left channels are 50% louder than the right. Yes- I can go into Windows and reset each of the 5.1 channels volumes to make the sound balanced and pretty good. However, I have to turn down the left front and back channels in Windows so far that now the receiver has to be turned up to over 75% of max to get decent volume. When using the same HDMI port from a different source ( also 5.1) I do NOT have any issues. So, my conclusion is the sound being send to the receiver is messed up - unless I "doctor " it in Windows. So - either the sound being send from the MOBO is messed up - or the GPU is messed up. Based on your prior post I suspect it is the GPU. But unless I put another GPU in PC - or put the GPU in a different PC - I cant know for sure. Anyhow- no big deal since i assume the new PC will not have the issue either way.

GPU = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...48&cm_re=1070_GPU_EVGA-_-14-487-248-_-Product

currently they have a combo with that mobo , Gskill Ripjaw 16 GB DDR4 RAM , a 500 GB Samsung EVO III SSD, and the Skylake i5 6600K for $615.

 

[PP Mguire]

If you're plugging the HDMI cable into both the motherboard and the GPU then that's 2 different sources. The HDMI on the motherboard is using the IGP from theCPU, and the HDMI on the GPU is of course the 290. If you plug headphones in it takes out 2 common denominators, the receiver and software digital out, leaving analog out from the onboard audio codec (which would be motherboard audio). In Windows, each output is a separate set of controls, and each one is a different driver/software. Considering you're doing 5.1 out from both it leaves 1 of 2 things or both combined. The receiver isn't playing nice with the signal, or you have them setup wrong in some way. Considering you would obviously do the same setup for both in the audio (and the PS3 is hard setup to do one of two things which works right) I'd say it's software and setup in Windows causing your audio issue.

That's why I said I'd say not hardware, because HDMI audio out is nothing more than a straight digital signal from the source to the destination. There isn't anything processing, and little to no hardware involved. The likelihood of messing up something in setup is quite high though. Which if new hardware is purchased the error being scrubbed from a fresh setup I'd bet my money on happening.

Combo looks good to me.