Hi /u/El_Pinguino_Maldito, you're not shadowbanned, but some of your comments/submissions were removed. Comments/submissions may be removed automatically by spam filters and not necessarily by human moderators.

Reviewed most recent 250 comments/submissions. Found 10 removed.


Comment: /r/me_irl, 2018-11-16, "me irl", 1pts:

> REEEEEEEEEEEPOST





Comment: /r/u_Lexiehewitt007, 2018-11-14, "Can You Find What's Wrong In This Picture?", 1pts:

> 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😩😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😩😂😂😂...





Comment: /r/me_irl, 2018-11-14, "me_irl", 1pts:

> I guess I’m gay then





Comment: /r/me_irl, 2018-11-13, "Me_irl", 1pts:

> Jigglytrump





Comment: /r/AskReddit, 2018-11-11, "- Serious How old were you when you realized you were gay?...", 1pts:

> Not gay, but I figured out I was a furry at about 14. I just found that floofy anthros were more attractive.





Comment: /r/AskReddit, 2018-11-11, "Reddit, whats your most biggest and most recent first world...", 1pts:

> Buy a USB extender on Amazon. [Here’s one that’s 16 feet long and costs $13.](https://www.amazon.com/CableCreation-Extension-Extender-Repeater-Booster/dp/B0179MXKU8/ref=mp_s_a_1_1/135-8523871-4760609?...





Submission: /r/explainlikeimfive, 2018-11-11, "ELI5: How do bitwise operations work?", 1pts





Comment: /r/AskOuija, 2018-11-10, "This bitch is going into the dungeon until she _____ and...", 1pts:

> Goodbye





Comment: /r/me_irl, 2018-11-10, "me_irl", 1pts:

> I’m reposting this to r/furry_irl





Submission: /r/Showerthoughts, 2018-11-09, "Running in the 90’s was a meme on two separate occasions", 1pts








^^I'm ^^a ^^multi-function ^^bot. ^^My ^^home ^^is ^^at ^^/r/CommentRemovalChecker ^^- ^^find ^^out ^^if ^^your ^^comments/submissions ^^have ^^been ^^silently ^^removed ^^without ^^your ^^knowledge!

Here I have my current setup. The headphones are my Beyerdynamic Custom Studios, the DAC is an Audioengine D3, and the AMP is a Fiio A3 Portable Amp. The entire setup cost me $268, but as of now I believe the Custom Studios are discontinued, so you could replace the headphones with some alternatives in that price range (Audio Technica M40x/M50x or Philips SHP9500.) Anyways, here’s a review for everything.

Beyerdynamic Custom Studio (80 ohm)


Used to be $163, now they are [$250] (https://www.guitarcenter.com/Beyerdynamic/Custom-STUDIO-Headphones-1392652270585.gc)
I bought these headphones around July of 2017 as my first pair of “real” headphones. Initially, I was disappointed, but this was only because I was not used to the sound of these headphones at the time. After about a month of listening to them, I went back to compare them to some old Apple Earbuds and at first, I couldn’t believe the difference. Everything about these headphones was amazing. There’s a great amount of detail in them, the imaging is absolutely amazing, but soundstage is very narrow due to them being closed back headphones. As closed back headphones, they do a fantastic job of not allowing sound to leak about and making sure outside noise stays outside as long as the volume is higher. I use these at the library in my school when I write papers and never get complaints. I’ve tested them before by placing them on my friends’ heads and playing music at a loud volume, but nothing leaks out.


I found the comfort to be alright, but the fault was due to the velour. I really do not like velour as I find it to be very itchy, however, many other people praise the earpads, so it just comes down to preference. I instead replaced the pads with some [Brainwavs HM5 Sheepskin earpads] ( https://www.amazon.com/Brainwavz-Sheepskin-Leather-Memory-Earpad/dp/B01J53KM32) and fell in love with the comfort. The pads increased bass a little and made them incredibly comfortable. I use a [V-Moda Boom Pro] ( https://www.amazon.com/V-MODA-BoomPro-Microphone-Gaming-Communication/dp/B00BJ17WKK/ref=sr_1_1?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1524357476&sr=8-1&keywords=vmoda+boompro&dpID=41WfbQw%252Bp8L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch) with it when I game and these never become uncomfortable, even after playing for hours on end. The clamp on these is very strong, but I like it that way as it prevents them from falling off my head.


The unique thing about these headphones is that it has bass sliders on each cup, which allows you to adjust the bass from (Low bass, neutral, vibrant bass, and max bass.) I tend to keep it on neutral and the bass there is more than enough for me (and I love bass.) I use these for just about everything, including gaming and I never have any issues. I wear glasses and these are fine for anyone who may wear glasses.


After trying out different headphones at CanJam this year, I now know where these headphones can improve, but these still manage to keep up with everything else above its price range. You can run these off a phone and get some good volume, but I like music loud, so I use them with an amp at all times. Overall, I’m glad these are my first pair and I plan on keeping them as my closed back pair of headphones after I move on to more expensive headphones.


Audioengine D3 DAC+AMP


[$45 Refurbrished] (https://audioengineusa.com/shop/factory-refurbished/d3-24-bit-dacheadphone-amp-2/)
I bought the Audioengine D3 as the last piece of the puzzle in terms of headphones, amps, and dacs. It is a USB DAC that comes with a ¼ inch adapter and a sleeve to carry it. This is actually what motivated me to listen to music on my laptop as I used to listen to music on my phone. I really have no complaints about it. When it released, it was priced at $200 and was one of the few USB DACs that could compete with the Dragonfly DACs, and from what I’ve read online, a lot of reviewers actually prefer the D3. I saw it on Massdrop a month back for $70ish and wanted it, but I wanted to read reviews about it first. That’s where I found that you can get it for $45 straight out of their website with free shipping included. There really is no reason to look for another DAC when this one is available for such a steal. There is no kind of sound when music is not playing and it is driverless, meaning you can just plug it in to your computer and it’s ready to go. One thing to note is that it gets really hot, but it isn’t a problem, so long as you keep your fingers off of it. I felt like I noticed an improvement in songs, but it could just be a placebo (A B test your gear and see if you can notice a difference.) However, I really like having it around and I don’t listen to anything on my laptop without it.


Fiio A3 AMP


[$59.99] (https://www.amazon.com/A3-Portable-Headphone-Amplifier-Black/dp/B00Z9BIODA)
I bought the Fiio A3 when I bought my headphones because I read that an amp was almost required for anything at 80 ohms and higher. Since then, I’ve loved this little beast of an amp. It has a low and high gain switch to control volume (I keep it on high gain when connected to my phone and low gain when connected to the D3.) It also has a bass boost switch which I really like when I feel like being basshead (The bass boost here + max bass setting on the Custom Studios = Madness.) It has a life of about 16 hours before needing to recharge and it has a blue led that blinks when it needs to charge. It makes headphones very loud very fast. It is also built like a tank. I tried carrying it around in my pocket when I walked on campus and it slipped out. It only took a cosmetic hit, but in terms of functionality, it is untouched.


The only reason I still use it is because I like being able to control audio through a knob as opposed to a digital slider. The only annoying thing about it is that it has a hissing noise when the knob is turned up without any music playing, but when music starts to play, the hiss disappears. Overall, I absolutely recommend this amp if you want something to start with as it will do nothing but impress you every time.


This is my setup and being a broke college kid, I could not be happier. In terms of the things that this sub shows off, I find this to be a very budget friendly setup. Even when I upgrade everything, I still plan on keeping it as I do not want to forget where I started in terms of this hobby. For anyone that may be wanting to jump into the world of audio, I absolutely recommend these products as places to start. I’ve provided straight links for anyone that may want to check out the products.

So I woke up and these are the links to the videos and some pointers and what not.

ALL LINKS IN THE BOTTOM

Here is the first video for 150 dollars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dj5G0isn9Y

These are the 50 dollar headphones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fD-M1F6L4g

These are the really high end for 200-1000 dollar sets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgTnJ3JQQ0E

Open vs Closed

Closed

Closed which is what I use right now but am looking to get an open pair for 150 bucks. Now closed is where the sound outside your headphones do not come in, as much. Now some are completely noise cancelling then others and some you can still hear but not too well. It has a less of a sound stage so it is harder to know where somethings is by hearing it.

Open

Open is where the vibrator (forgot the name) is directly exposed with little noise cancelling materiel and sometimes none. The offer a much larger sound stage where you can tell where hostiles are, where the birds are, tanks, etc. They also are much better sounding. However, if you live in a loud place with a lot of things going on, get closed. Open also allows for people to hear what you listen to, from 2 or 3 feet away but not behind a closed door.

Microphones

One of the things that you need to be weary about is desktop mics. They are good sounding, great everything. However if you have a small desk get an attachable arm. If you have a mechanical keyboard or hit your table a lot get an arm. But arms can be expensive 20-40 dollars or even more. The solution is getting a Antlion Modmic 4.0 for 40 bucks, great sound, nice and clear and noise cancelling so it won't pickup outside noise. Desktop mics I'd get is a Blue Yeti, Snowball, Audio Technica 2020 is also great, Snowflake microphone, etc.

Ad-dons for audio

So if you want to get better audio, louder, etc. Get an AMP/DAC mix. They are a DAC/AMP connecting VIA USB plug to the PC and then the headphones connect to the DAC with a quarter inch with some 3.5mm connectors but not recommended. These offer a much better experience but at a cost for 80-200 dollars for good ones. Some pads too add bass or take away from treble, mids or bass or add to. But not that much but it is always great to get better pads then stock ones on some stuff for more comfortable wearing.

Headphones

Probably why you are here reading this. Now if you have 80-100 dollars here are my recommendations

Takstar HI 2050 open back headphones and a modmic 4.0 come in at just 100 dollars, they are great headphones. VERY comfy pads from Bererdynamic, honestly I don't know how they aren't losing money they sound like 200 dollar headphones.

Superlux 668B's they are good headphones, they sound high end, are very tough, etc. However they are semi-open and have a fairly large sound stage. My biggest 2 problems are, they are very treble heavy and uncomfortable for larger heads and ears. If I got these I'd need the velour ear pads Amazons sells for them because the stock are hard plastic. The other problem is they aren't very big either and I have a very large ear and head so they is a minus for me. Which is why I love the Takstar HI2050's.

Now if you want to drop more money then get these AKG Q701's which are VERY open. They offer the largest sound stage in the price bracket and more then almost all 500+ headphones. They are very comfy and big for big ears. Very good sound.

For some alternatives in that price bracket for open are DT 990's pros for 150 dollars, they are a bit treble heavy but still are very great. They are 150 on Amazon for the 250 OHM one which can be used in quarter inch and 3.5mm plugs by unscrewing the quarter inch adapter. They have very deep ear pads and very comfy ones too.

Now if you want closed for 30 bucks and still good audio get these Monoprice 108323. Now these earpads aren't very good IMO so I'd get Brainwavz replacement pads for 20 dollars. They are deep, comfy and overall nice. Sound I don't know too much about but they still beat gaming headsets.

For the last pair of closed backs I can think of are DT 770s, bass heavy, VERY big headphones from Beyerdynamic and overall good but not a good sound stage get these for 170 on Amazon.

Another honourable mention is Audio Technica M50x's, they are ok. Better then gaming headsets but don't offer much compared to 990's or 701's but still good. They are 160 I believe.

Now get a modmic or whatever mic you want with these, I'd get a desktop mic w/ arm personally but modmic is nice.

Links

• http://www.modmic.com/collections/modmic Modmic
  
  
• Blue yeti http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Microphones-Yeti-USB-Microphone/dp/B002VA464S I'd recommend a pop-filter too.
  
  
• Snowflake http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Microphones-Snowflake-USB-Microphone/dp/B0012AUHXW
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Razer-Seiren-Elite-Digital-Microphone/dp/B00QXT5M3C This isn't much more then the Blue Yeti, in fact a bit worst and very expensive. I'd stay away but worth a mention.
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Microphones-Snowball-Condenser-Microphone/dp/B006DIA77E
  
  
• AT2020 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AS6OYC/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3?pf_rd_p=1944687582&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0006H92QK&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0ZVM8GGV5TDXFE02QPWP
  
  
• DT 990 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0011UB9CQ/ref=twister_B00WU2V08C?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
  
  
• DT 770 http://www.amazon.com/Beyerdynamic-770-PRO-250-ohms/dp/B0006NL5SM
  
  
• ATH M50x http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-M50x-Professional-Monitor-Headphones/dp/B00HVLUR86/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1457973618&sr=1-1&keywords=m50x
  
  
• Takstar HI2050 http://www.amazon.com/Takstar-Monitor-Headphone-Gaming-Computer/dp/B009PIQUB6/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1457973640&sr=1-1&keywords=Takstar+hi+2050
  
  
• Superlux 668b http://www.amazon.com/Superlux-HD668B-Dynamic-Semi-Open-Headphones/dp/B003JOETX8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1457973655&sr=1-1&keywords=668b
  
  
• Velour pads for 668B's http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Velvet-Replacement-Cushion-Headphones/dp/B00KLPRQMO/ref=pd_bxgy_23_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0Z33W5JHBVD65A9T5YGD
  
  
• Brainwavz pads http://www.amazon.com/Brainwavz-Replacement-Memory-Foam-Earpads/dp/B00MFDT894/ref=pd_sim_23_36?ie=UTF8&dpID=41vuwIZESZL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=14DP2XANDMR7AFMC1QMY Make sure these fit I am postive but check /r/headphones to know.
  
  
• Monoprice headphones http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-108323-Headphone-Gold-Plated-Accessories/dp/B007SP2CO2/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1457973687&sr=1-1&keywords=monoprice+8323
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/AKG-Signature-Reference-Class-Premium-Headphones/dp/B004444OFK
  
  Make sure to look at reviews.
  
  Feel free to ask any questions too.

Thank you. This helped a lot to make the right decisions.

1. MicroCenter is awesome for some products. So we are sure to make use of this.
   If you pick up certain CPUs from MicroCenter. You get $30 off any compatible motherboard. I also looked for other parts to pick up at both of these MCs and only could find the monitor.
   
2. Okay, you don't want to use a sound card for this. Instead, you want an external audio interface. I've included a very well regarded in the build.
   
3. You would like to invest in an IPS monitor later down the road. When using a TN monitor as a secondary, the colors tend to shift a fair bit when you look at it from an angle. I sadly did not have the budget left to include an IPS monitor, but they cost around the $100-125 for a start.
   
4. Okay, this will do for now. I doubt that you've had any complaints about these headphones & monitors?
   If you want to get a very neutral (best for recordings!) sound signature from a headphone, then consider the Sennheiser HD598. I personally use these myself and they're freaking amazing. You can find a lot of reviews of this microphone where they praise it.
   
5. Hah, that's.. a shame. But in terms of microphones, there are a couple of big names in the industry. Audio-Technica, Blue, Sennheiser, MXL, AKG & Neumann (lol pricing).
   A couple of my favorites that I suggest frequently.
   

• Audio-Technica AT2020 - Sound sample / comparision with AT4033a note: they've used an expensive audio interface & EQ settings to get this sound out of it. But it's possible with lesser equipment as well!
  
• Blue Yeti - Sound sample #1 & Sound sample #2
  

• MXL 770 - Sound sample
  

  
  

  ---
  

  
  

  I'll provide you with my standard list of videos to help you understand why I suggest these products.
  

  I'll also give a couple of great guides to help you build the PC.
  

  
  

  PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
  

  
  

  Type|Item|Price
  

  ----|:----|:----
  CPU | Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor | $339.99 @ Micro Center
  CPU Cooler | CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler | $34.50 @ Newegg
  Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $120.00 @ MicroCenter
  Memory | G.Skill NT Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory | $53.99 @ Newegg
  Storage | A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $58.99 @ Amazon
  Storage | Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $69.99 @ B&H
  Video Card| GTX1080| $599.00 @ Nvidia (MSRP)
  Case | Corsair 100R Silent ATX Mid Tower Case | $59.99 @ Amazon
  Power Supply | EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply | $79.99 @ Amazon
  Operating System | Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) | $85.99 @ Amazon
  Monitor | Acer XG270HU 144Hz 27.0" Monitor | $399.99 @ Micro Center
  Audio Interface| Focusrite Scarlett 2i2| $130.00 @ Amazon
  | Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
  | Total | $2032.42
  | Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-10 02:47 EDT-0400 |
  
  ---
  
  ####Learn about cool technology in only a couple minutes!
  
  ---
  
  

• What is overclocking?: Here - 2:32 minutes.
  
  
• What is the difference between i3, i5 & i7?: Here - 4:32
  
• What is hyperthreading?: Here - 4:47
  
• What is turbo boost?: Here - 4:05
  
• CPU shopping guide: Here - 5:01
  
• GPU shopping guide: Here - 4:11
  
• How many cores do I need for gaming?: Here - 8:18
  
• Which motherboard is the best to buy?: Here - 10:07
  
• Premium motherboards, worth it?: Here - 5:18
  
• DDR3 vs DDR4 speeds: Here - 8:01
  
• What are benchmarks?: Here - 5:21
  
• Pre-built vs building your own?: Here - 6:04
  
• Optical vs laser mouse: Here - 2:10
  
• SSD vs HDD: Here - 4:05
  
• What is resolution?: Here - 5:22
  
• Different panel types: Here - 2:29
  
• Monitor refresh-rate: Here - 5:46
  
• What is G-sync?: Here - 5:52
  
• What is Shadowplay?: Here - 3:59
  
• Case air pressure: Here - 5:21
  
• Case fan orientation: Here - 3:42
  
• What is a NAS?: Here - 5:06
  
• What PSU to buy?: Here - 5:12
  
• What does 80+ mean?: Here - 3:02
  
  Likely that TechQuickie got even more video's that you can have a look at to get answers. It's a great YouTube channel for easy, quickly explained questions about PC tech.
  
  
  ---
  
  

  Guides
  

  
  ---
  
  Now before you have a look at all these guides. The best guide in most cases will always be your MANUAL. Some manuals are garbage, but most of them are more than good enough to be able to help figure out most problems.
  
  

• How to build an Intel 115x socket PC?
  This is my personal favorite because it goes in depth, but still keeps the video relatively short.
  It also got great camera work so you are able to follow all the steps very well.
  I would suggest to install the aftermarket CPU cooler right away, then you don't have to clean the thermal paste.
  I decided to skip the start of the video. The reason being that the video is posted on 17th of May 2013, he gives the rationale of his selected parts at the start. This is a very long time ago, so the parts are very old, so no need to hear this out. But building a PC is still pretty much the same. No drastic changes.
  There are a lot of different build guides on the internet, but I really like this one. It's easy to follow.
  
  
• How to install a 115x CPU?
  Very simple and easy to follow guide again.
  
• How to install Windows 8(.1) or 10 from an USB drive?
  You have to download "media creation tool" which is located at the bottom of the page (blue button). Run that program with a 4GB+ USB flash drive plugged into a PC. Then follow the simple steps and the program will make the USB drive bootable. After that all you have to do is build the PC and boot from that USB drive to install Windows.
  
• How to set up your SSD & HDD?
  This video is another older video, but it works pretty much the same in Win 8/10.
  
• How to overclock an Intel 1151 Skylake CPU?
  Again a simple video and not too long. They used an Asus motherboard which got different names in the BIOS compared to other brands. So you might have to look around a little bit. But in general they're named very similar. I would personally start with a 1.2V & 44 multiplier. I might have been unlucky with the CPUs that I overclocked but 4,6GHz wasn't running at 1.2Vs that often, just one so far.
  
• How to use Ninite?
  This video explains it very well, as well as their recommendations. For security I advise to only get Avira (if you don't mind to get an add every day; if you do mind - just use Microsoft Defender) & Malwarebytes. If you want to pay for an anti-virus; Webroot! Light weight; very high detection rate.
  
  

  Hope you like it and If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
  

Not OP but I can help you out here. Let's break this down by component:

1. Speakers - There are two types: active and passive. Active = amplifier built into each speaker (i.e. most dedicated "computer" speakers from the likes of Logitech, Creative, etc.). Passive = 90% of speakers out there, must be connected to an amplifier to work. Typically passive speakers will get you a better speaker for a given price for an active but you have to figure in the cost of an amplifier. For a passive speaker set up, the cheapest system recommended over at /r/audiophile is a SMSL SA-60 amp and Micca MB42X Bookshelf Speakers. If your budget is higher, ask in the daily purchase advice sticky there (read the rules/suggestions thoroughly). I don't mess around with active speakers so I can't recommend any.
   
   
2. Microphone - For simplicity's sake, I will recommend you look into USB connecting condenser microphones as they are affordable and have good sensitivity. Something like the Audio-Technica AT-2020 or Blue Yeti are popular mics for under $100. I have the Yeti and can attest that it is a very good and sensitive multi pattern mic. They can be hooked directly up to your PC or if you want to get really fancy, check out an audio interface like the Focusrite Scarlett Solo or Scarlett 2i2. The nice thing about an interface is it allows you get a nice mic with an XLR connector (generally better than a USB connection) and it will work with your PC.
   
   
3. Headphones - Don't waste your money on "gaming" headphones. A nice 2 channel pair of cans with a standalone mic like I listed above will hands down outperform the likes of Turtle Beach and Razr headsets. /r/headphones has a really good wiki with more info than I can provide here and headphones broken down by price range and characteristics. Plus, then you can use them both for gaming and general music listening and have a good experience, something you don't get with dedicated "gaming" headsets. The amp I listed in the speakers section is fine for headphones but Schiit makes absolutely fantastic headphone amps and DAC (digital to analog converters, check out both /r/audiophile and /r/headphones for more info on them and why they are good for your set up) with very respectable price tags.
   
   Hope this helps. Higher quality audio equipment can be confusing and daunting, what with all the technical details, wide price ranges, parsing through all the marketing bullshit and the sometimes snobby attitudes of some "audiophiles". I wish you luck and feel free to ask me if you have any questions.

Somewhat upgrade-able:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor | $199.99 @ Microcenter
Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | $154.99 @ NCIX US
Memory | Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $71.99 @ Amazon
Storage | Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk | $122.99 @ NCIX US
Storage | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $59.98 @ Outlet PC
Video Card | EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card | $409.99 @ NCIX US
Case | Corsair 650D ATX Mid Tower Case | $159.99 @ Microcenter
Power Supply | Corsair Enthusiast 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply | $79.99 @ Newegg
Optical Drive | LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer | $15.99 @ Microcenter
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) | $89.73 @ Outlet PC
Monitor | Dell S2340M 60Hz 23.0" Monitor | $159.99 @ Adorama
Keyboard | SteelSeries 6Gv2 Wired Standard Keyboard | $98.98 @ Outlet PC
Mouse | SteelSeries Sensei RAW Wired Laser Mouse | $44.99 @ NCIX US
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available. | $1669.59
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-03 01:55 EDT-0400 |

More upgrade-able:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor | $229.99 @ Microcenter
Motherboard | Asus P9X79 LE ATX LGA2011 Motherboard | $224.99 @ Amazon
Memory | Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $71.99 @ Amazon
Storage | Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk | $122.99 @ NCIX US
Storage | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $59.98 @ Outlet PC
Video Card | EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card | $409.99 @ NCIX US
Case | Corsair 650D ATX Mid Tower Case | $159.99 @ Microcenter
Power Supply | Corsair Enthusiast 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply | $79.99 @ Newegg
Optical Drive | LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer | $15.99 @ Microcenter
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) | $89.73 @ Outlet PC
Monitor | Dell S2340M 60Hz 23.0" Monitor | $159.99 @ Adorama
Keyboard | SteelSeries 6Gv2 Wired Standard Keyboard | $98.98 @ Outlet PC
Mouse | SteelSeries Sensei RAW Wired Laser Mouse | $44.99 @ NCIX US
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available. | $1769.59
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-03 01:58 EDT-0400 |

This is all based on speculation, but I don't think that the LGA 1150 socket (the socket that the i5-4670k uses) is going to be around for a long time in comparison to the socket used in the more upgradeable build (LGA 2011).

The i7 used in the LGA 2011 build is going to help improve performance, but it isn't going to make a big difference in gaming. However, I would say that the LGA 2011 socket is going to have better longevity, if that's what your after.

Other than the CPU and motherboard, the primary components of both builds are pretty much the same. You have your motherboard. In the i5 build, the motherboard is good enough to support overclocking quite well, as long as you aren't too extreme with it. In the more upgradeable build, the motherboard is also good enough to support overclocking, but the CPU will not be overclockable due to it not being an Intel "K" variant.

The SSD I have included is pretty much the best SSD on the market right now, and you have 128GB of it. That's pretty nice for storing your OS and programs that you're going to frequently access. The Hard Drive is for big data and files like Music and Videos.

The GTX 770 is the second best single GPU card out today. It has the best price:performance ratio of any card and will ravage any game.

The Corsair 650D is one of the nicest mid-tower cases out there. It isn't massive, but it isn't small either. It has a nice window so you can see inside. If you want, get some Logisys cathodes to light up your case for a quick mod that makes things look cool.

The monitor is a decent budget IPS display. If you want to focus more on the monitor, I can shift some of the budget to it. It has a pretty nice bezel.

It's finished off with a nice set of steelseries gear. The 6gv2 is the nicest mechanical keyboard I've used, with the exception of possibly the das keyboard. It doesn't light up, have extra buttons, or have any other frills. It's just a really nice mechanical keyboard. The mouse is the sensei [raw], which is a slightly lesser version of the sensei, but it's all you need. It has an ambidextrous design, which some of the right-handed people don't like. Just thought you should know that.

The last part is the gaming headset, and this is the reason why there's a sizable chunk of money at the end of the i5 build. There wasn't enough money to put in a GTX 780, overclocking, AND headphones. I should let you know that I don't believe in gaming headsets. A high-end gaming headset approaching $100 is essentially a $20-30 headphone with a microphone attached to it, sold at a large markup. It's all hype, and most people buy into it. The best solution is a nice pair of cans with a clip-on mic. I'm partial to the V-moda Crossfade M80 with this zalman clip-on mic, but on-ear headphones may not be your thing. The M80 has nice bass that is perfect for video games. Let me know.

www.amazon.com/V-MODA-Crossfade-On-Ear-Noise-Isolating-Headphone/dp/B005HSDLCO/
www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ/

That said, if you're dead set on a pair of gaming headphones you can't go THAT far wrong with a Logitech G35 or Steelseries Siberia V2. You just aren't getting what you pay for with the sound quality.

i5s tend to perform a bit better than equivalent Ryzen CPUs for gaming, and the motherboards are a bit cheaper. So I'd go with an i5 7500 and a B250 motherboard. If you have your own Skylake CPU to use to update the BIOS in the motherboards, go with a H110 or B150 motherboard to save ~$15-20 per computer, but otherwise, the B250 is the best choice. (You don't want to risk getting an older motherboard that isn't updated to boot with the newer CPUs)

I'd swap out the 2 x 4 GB of RAM for 1 8 GB stick so that you can add more in the future when games start needing more than 8 GB of RAM.

A SSD isn't really necessary at this budget, as they're low on storage and all they do over a cheaper HDD is reduce boot times by 30 seconds and load times by 15-60 seconds in some games. A 1 TB WD Caviar Blue is $50, so you save some money over the SSD and get over 4x the storage space.

I switched the RX 480 model to a very similar one because the one you picked doesn't have a price showing. Just get the cheapest 8 GB RX 480 from a reputable brand and site.

The EVGA PSU went up in price, so I changed it to a very similar model that's $20. You could switch the PSUs with 420W Seasonics if you want better durability and build quality.

For a Wi-Fi adapter, I added a $20 USB TP-Link ac adapter. You're probably better off with an ethernet network switch/splitter if your cousins have a wired connection in their house/apartment, though.

> Personalized cases (doesn't need to be extravagant, something like personalized LEDs for each computer?)

Maybe get these RGB LEDs? They're fairly cheap

This build, which uses my suggestions above, ends up saving you about $100 per PC excluding the RGB LEDs and Wi-Fi adapters which add $40 per PC. So you're at $4200 total for the 5 PCs with RGB and Wi-Fi.

> Mice (4)

This is up to personal preference. I use the Logitech G502 but it's a bit expensive at ~$70-80 USD each if you're buying 5 of them. I'd recommend looking at Logitech's gaming mice in the $40-50 range. The G602 is on sale for $40, and the G502 is on sale for $60, so I'd get one of those two. The G602 is wireless, and the difference doesn't seem to be too big, so I'd go with the G602.

> Mousepad (4)

I'd heard good things about the Steelseries Qck and Qck+, and the Glorious PC Gaming brand of mousepads, which are more affordable. I personally use a Logitech G240 mousepad, which I've had for a few years, though the rubber coating on the bottom had started to fall off, so I'm planning on replacing it with a Glorious PC Gaming Extended mousepad. The advantage of the Steelseries mousepads seems to be that they are from a more reputable brand, but the Glorious mousepads are stitched at the edges to prevent the rubber part from falling off (Which seems to be common with cloth mousepads after a lot of wear), and are a bit cheaper.

> Keyboard (4)

I personally use a Corsair STRAFE. If you want to get a mechanical keyboard, the Corsair Vengeance K65 keyboards seem to be a great budget choice at $60 each.

> Monitor (5)

I'd get 23/24" 1080p monitors with low response times (Preferably 5 ms or lower). At $85 each, this 23.6" Acer seems good.

> Microphone and Headphones/ Or Headset (4)

Headsets tend to be overpriced with poor sound quality. Something from the r/headphones wiki in the below $50 range for headphones should be excellent for the price.

Mic-wise, a cheap clip-on mic such as this one for just under $10 should be fine.

If you want to cut down costs more, you could use onthehub.com to get cheaper Windows keys if your cousins' schools are on there. It's a site partnered with Microsoft to give discounts to students and teachers. I personally used it for Windows 10 and I haven't had any problems with my OS (I've been using the key for about 6 months now.)

After peripherals, if you spend $40 per each pair of headphones, and $87.89 on Windows, you're at $1085 per PC or $5425 total. You save $270-320 or so total if you can get the Windows keys from onthehub for $10-20 each. Here's the parts list excluding the mics, headphones, keyboards, monitors, mice, and mousepads.

I'd go with /u/RatchetRussian's suggestion of using Jet.com. I'm Canadian, so I've never used the site, but it seems to be pretty reputable.

> Should I build the computers myself or ask a professional?

You can build it yourself easily with a good YouTube tutorial. I'd recommend this Newegg tutorial or this PCPer tutorial from the sub's sidebar.

> Should I gift them individually or all at once? Christmas or random summer day?

I'd just give them all at once when you finish all of the PCs so that everyone can start playing at the same time, but do whatever you think is best.

I'd also go with /u/Clintosity's suggestion of making sure that there's enough room for 5 PCs. If there's issues with space, you can switch the cases to mATX cases and build smaller PCs.

Hopefully this helps, and good luck with the PC building!

If you want, I can copy-paste the response I usually give to people asking about gaming headset. Hope it will help you.

Wall of text ahead. Please, read only if you are really interested...


What I usually recommend when someone ask for advice about gaming headsets is: Gaming headset are crap 99% of the time. They provide very poor sound quality, and any good headphone (literally, even 40$ ones) will sound far better than expensive 300$ headsets. The question is not if headphones are better than headset (the answer is “Hell, YEAH”). The question is, are they better for you?


What are you planning to use your headphones for? Just for gaming, or for gaming and music listening?


If the answer is “just for gaming”, then ask yourself if a Hifi headphone is what you need. Usually games don’t really need high quality headphones, since they provide low quality sound, and you will be more concentrated gaming than listening. In that scenario, everything will serve you, and gaming headsets have the advantage of the integrated microphone.


So, if you want something good for gaming, and just for gaming, with integrated microphone, then the only two headsets with good enough quality sound (aka don’t suck) are:


HyperX Cloud (70$)


Sennheiser G4me One (170$)


Both are good choices. Or go with any fancy RGB headset you find (Logitech, Razer, Corsair, Steelseries, etc), you will most probably don’t notice the difference while gaming.


BUT, if you plan to use them for music listening besides gaming, then keep reading.


About the microphone problem


Hifi headphones for gaming have the disadvantage of having to deal with the micro thing. None of them have microphone incorporated, and you must find a workaround to the problem. Options available are:


1- Use a desk microphone like this


2- Some headphones have detachable cable. If the connector is a 3.5mm jack, you can substitute the cable with this V-Moda micro. That way you can have a microphone attached and still use a single cable. Main problem is that you must use this cable, no matter what, and if you end buying an amplifier, you can no longer use this microphone, as amplifiers don’t have micro input. Also, not all headphones are compatible, as not all use 3.5mm jack connections (Audio-technica and Sennheiser headphones are NOT compatible with V-moda Boom micro, cause they use 2.5mm jack)


3- use a modmic like this one or if your budget is tight, something like this.


The first option requires desk space and it’s expensive. The second one is not compatible with every headphone, and forces you to use this cable. The third one are detachable micro, with an extra cable you’ll have to deal with. Any of them are a nuisance. Any solution is annoying. All of them are an extra expense that must be accounted. If micro is a must and you are not willing to bother with this solutions, please, go back to HyperX Cloud or G4me One.


Ok, so, you really want some damn good headphones, that also can be used for gaming! Keep reading, please (are you bored yet?).


You can choose Closed back headphones (the classic ones you have already used. Closed back models offer good isolation and do not leak sound. This is your choice when there are people around you, or you want isolation from noisy a environment.) or Open Back headphones (Open back models offer next to no isolation and will leak sound -and allow you to hear what happens around you-, but they are the best sounding models). Open headphones achieve the best sound, soundstage (feeling that sound is coming from around you) and imaging (ability to locate the source of one sound).


If you are here because you want to get a replacement for a gaming headset, I would recommend you Open back, but since they don’t isolate, you must choose. If isolation is required, get closed back, if that’s not a concern, go open.


Some closed back cans:


Audio-Technica ATH-M40x. 100$. Balanced headphones, very good feedback from lots of people. Typical entry level headphones to the rabbit hole.


Sennheiser HD 598Cs. 125$. Balanced, very very detailed, great instrumental separation. Comfortable as hell, very recommended.


Beyerdynamic DT770. 160$. V-shaped signature (lots of bass and lots of treble). Amazing soundstage (for a closed headphone). Great for explosions, movies, and rock. Treble can be harsh if you are sensible. Get the 32 ohm version, as the 80 (may) and 250 (do) need an amplifier to work properly.


Those are some examples of entry-mid level of closed cans. There are lots more, depending of your budget!


As for open cans:


Superlux HD668b. 40$. Those are THE CANS. The best quality for low budget you can get. Hands down. Great soundstage, Bass light. They are not too comfortable, but pads can be changed for a deluxe comfort (extra expense). You are not getting anything better at this price. For gaming in a budget, this are the headphones you were looking for.


Philips SHP9500. 80$. Mid-forward signature. Good soundstage, great comfort. Very detailed. Another amazing quality for the budget headphone. Due its popularity, they’re getting harder and harder to get.


Sennheiser HD 598 SR. 170$. Very similar to the HD 598Cs, but with open back. Wider soundstage, a little less bass. Very balanced headphones. Super-duper comfortable. Great for long gaming sessions.


Philips Fidelio X2. 250$. V-shaped signature. Those are in another league. Build quality is just.. OMG. Extreme soundstage and imaging. More comfortable than the HD 598. Bass is BOOOOOM!!!. A little pricey, and can be somewhat fatiguing to listen if you are treble sensible, due to high treble.


Well, that’s all. I have selected only headphones that don’t need an amplifier. Now is your turn to research, watch some Youtube videos, read some reviews, and give them a try.


All this headphones are GOOD. No trash here, and all them will make you open your eyes when listening your music if you are coming from standard headsets. You will notice sounds, instruments, that you never realized they were there, even if you had listened this song a thousand times before. Try them, and be amazed.


Welcome to the rabbit hole.

Yes it would be, I just asked because it would sense to invest in what you would use more, no sense pouring money into something you won't use all that much. And not necessarily, but some of the prices of my "go-to" gear has increased a little bit, which did make this just a little bit harder.

Okay so, this is what I came up with. Speakers are usually $40 but they are $50 right now for some reason, so that is why it's about $8 dollars over. also if you had any of these cables lying around it would definitely put you under $100.

Speakers - Dayton Audio B652 Amazon | Easily the best ~$50 book shelf speakers out there. Loud, with great sound quality, good imaging, and just all around outstanding for the price. They are kind of big though, so take into account desk space.

Amplifier - Lepai 2020A+ Amazon| You will need these to power the speakers, connected with speaker wire. It's a great little amp. It's buit out of metal, which is great given it's price tag, and the knobs feel great. Has tone controls that has a button that lets you toggle between using them or bypassing them. Provides ample power for speakers in this listening situation. It isn't really made for "party level" volume so just be careful, as you CAN blow speakers if you crank it too high on the AMP/computer. I personally use this and works great. Price is also a little higher than what I've seen them go for ($15).

Cables/Wires Amazon, cable Amazon, wire- A standard 3.5mm male to male cable that will connect the amp to the computer, and 50FT of 16 gauge speaker wire to connect the speakers to the amp. If you have a 3.5mm cable already you won't need to buy another.

Headphones - Sennheiser HD201 Amazon | Sennheiser makes great headphones, from their $1000 HD800 right down to the $20 HD201. Great headphones for music, and okay for gaming. They are closed back, which means the sound stage will not be as broad, but they will isolate outside noise. $10 dollars more will get you these Superlux HD681s which are open backed, which will result in a bigger sound stage, which is helpful for the directional aspect of audio while gaming. they sound pretty good too! Both headphones will perform well for music, and gaming when you use them. Not the best but they're better than most "gaming headsets".

Mic - Zalman Clip on Mic Amazon | A basic mic that clips on to your headphone's cable. what's great about this is you can use them for any pair of headphones, or when you're not even using them! the clip can also hold it to your shirt.

Total cost is about $108. If you are diligent/patient the speakers may drop back down to $40 sometime.

Overall this is great value for a little over $100, and will offer you much more all around than an $100 speaker set. The great thing about this is that everything is modular. If you want to upgrade your speakers you don't have to buy a new amp, and vice-versa. If you want to add a sub down the line, you don't have to ditch everything and get a new set; you just add it into the "chain". Headphones broke? No need to buy a new mic. Want nicer sounding headphones? No problem! Mic broken or lost? Don't need to buy a whole new headset. As you can see it is very flexible, and very easy to upgrade things as you go, which I feel is completely worth the $8 over your budget you gave me.

Sorry this took a while to get to you, lots of writing, linking, and searching! Hope this helps!

I actually don’t see the need for surround sound. That’s more of a marketing gimmick really, as the usb 7.1 dongles suck. If you really need surround sound, get Dobly Atmos on your computer.

But I don’t think you really need either. Most games have really good audio, and some games like rainbow six siege literally say don’t use surround sound because it’s broken. You need a headset with good soundstage.

What’s soundstage? Well it’s being not only able to tell the direction of your enemy, but also the distance. That’s why I recommend open back headsets for gaming, though they do leak sound and your mic may pick that sound up. Don’t worry about it though, because what I recommend is omni directional and will basically only pick up your voice.

I recommend the Philips SHP9500/SHP9500s. They are to same thing but the s has a little bit more bass. You also might have trouble getting the 9500 because it is discontinued and not many are left. I recommend these because:

Great soundstage

Very comfortable

Has a lot of treble which is good for hearing footsteps.

Has a detachable cable Incase the wire breaks and so you can use a mic

It is extremely well priced at 80USD. It’s probably the best for gaming under 150 USD. And most importantly it will definitely fit you.

For mic, I recommend the Vmoda BoomPro. You just unplug the cable from the headphones and replace it with the BoomPro which is just a 3.5 mm cable with a mic attached. This is a super good mic.

I also highly recommend an amp both for gaming and music. The one I recommend has a switch with T D and B. T is treble boost (for gaming), d is flat, meaning it won’t change anything, and B is bass boost. Which you want if you listen to music because the 9500 has little bass.
I recommend the Syba Sonic DAC/AMP. Link at the bottom. This will definitely help sound quality as it bypasses your pc soundcard.
IMPORTANT: DON’T use the included usb cord in it as it will cause a short in your computer. You’ll need a different mini usb cable as the provide a really bad one.

To use the amp: This is a usb amp, so plug the usb into your computer and the mini USB port into the DAC/amp. The will power it so it will drain laptop battery with a laptop. Then all you do is is plug your headphone jack into the big 3.5mm headphone jack. Don’t use the one for a split cable because your headset isn’t a split cable.

That’s it! The total is about 150 bucks and will surpass anything for the price.

Don’t get a gaming headset. They just use cheap divers and RGB and day gaming to trick you, as they are way overpriced.

Z Reviews on YT (total audiophile geek) recommends this as well. I invite you to spend more time researching on his channel and other places to understand the mic and amp better. He has a best gaming gaming headsets video from a year ago. This setup is at the very front and one of the first things he talks about. Also goes very in depth on the whole subject of sound for gaming at the beginning. Here are the links:

9500s-https://www.amazon.com/Philips-SHP9500S-Precision-Over-ear-Headphones/dp/B00ENMK1DW

Vmoda BoomPro Mic - https://www.amazon.com/V-MODA-BoomPro-Microphone-Gaming-Communication/dp/B00BJ17WKK

Syba Soni DAC/amp - https://www.amazon.com/Syba-Digital-Headphone-Amplifier-Coaxial/dp/B009WN7QT4

Remember you need a different mini usb cable. I’d throw the one it came with away because it’s garbage and possibly a fire hazard.

Please watch Z Reviews Gaming Headphone guise from a year ago. The first 25 minutes are all you really need to hear. They explain audio in-depth and talk about the headphones and this combo. Good luck!

Feel free to reach out to me as I can help with the setup or usage, but r/ZReviews is probably a better option. You’ll get help ASAP from a whole hutch of audiophiles who know their stuff.

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22. HOTEL SHENANIGANS - My boyfriend and I decided to rent a hotel room for a couple hours after a day of fun. We had tons of fun and I came so many times! The video is 24:44 minutes long and costs $40 for stream only. $60 for full download! (not available for GFE packages). http://www.gfycat.com/MenacingPoshIberianmole
    http://www.gfycat.com/TightSpecificKingsnake
    
    
23. TEASING YOU - I'm back! Listen to my soft, cute voice as I tease you with my tight little pussy and my cute fat butt. ;) The video is 7:16 minutes long and costs $10 :)
    http://gfycat.com/RewardingFlashyCockatiel
    
    
24. GROOL COLLECTING - Watch me fuck myself with my glass toy and collect all my grool in a tiny vial! ;) I haven't cum this hard with my toy before!! The video is 9:10 minutes long and costs $10 :)
    http://gfycat.com/FaithfulAjarJackal
    
    
25. SAILOR MOON - Oh no! My Halloween costume came a month late :( Thought I'd make use of it and make a premade! Watch me fuck myself with my cute glass toy as I try not to cum too loud because my roommates are home! Video is 6:50 minutes long and costs $12. http://gfycat.com/ReliableWetGermanspitz
    
    
26. JAMES DEEN DILDO - Yay! I purchased the James Deen dildo for myself and here is my first encounter with it! It's so big. Watch me try to fit it into my little pussy and my cute little mouth! Video is 6:20 minutes long and costs $12.
    http://gfycat.com/UglyThunderousKouprey
    
    
27. HAPPY SPANKSGIVING! - I've been a naughty girl...watch me squirm while my boyfriend spanks me for over 15 minutes! Video is 17:16 minutes and costs $25 :)
    http://gfycat.com/DearDelightfulCobra
    
    
28. ALONE TIME - I'm finally home from school! I love coming home to my boyfriend. We snuck away to fuck and the only place available was his garage. Hear me moan and cum over and over again! We fuck in sooo many different positions....reverse cowgirl, doggy style, missionary....He cums on me in the end and sticks his cock right back in me ;) Video is 13:34 minutes long and costs $15! http://gfycat.com/ElectricOptimalEthiopianwolf
    
    
29. HAIRBRUSH FUCKING & PANTY STUFFING - I'm desperate! I've been without my toys for almost a month! Watch my cum drip out of my pussy while I fuck myself with my hairbrush. Of course, I stuff my panties to soak up the yummy juices afterwards!
    Video is 10:30 minutes long and costs $15. http://gfycat.com/DrearyDamagedCod
    
    

Sonically, there's nothing about headsets marketed and advertised for gaming that makes them more suitable for gaming than regular headphones. The vast majority of them are widely perceived as bad or worse in the audio enthusiast community. After owning a HyperX Cloud II, Tritton Pro+, and Turtle Beach Ear Force XP Seven, I understand why. They have terrible price-performance ratio, build quality and comfort, except the Cloud; it has great build quality and good comfort.

There are three important sonic properties for gaming:

• soundstage: perceived space and environment of sound. It's width, depth and height. The best way I can describe the difference between a small and a large soundstage is that a small one feels closed/boxed in and congested. Loud and nearby sounds, it can be a tank or something small as a radio, typically sound very intimate, dominate and intense in either ear when you don't face them. A large soundstage creates more distance between you and the sound source, alleviating the unpleasant/fatiguing feeling of a sound being right inside your ear, and it makes the environment around you feel more open, spatial and expansive. I mean the type of soundstage that headphones produce. Games have their own soundstage, but headphones can greatly expand or shrink it.
  
  
• imaging: how accurately the directions of sounds/objects are reproduced. Soundstage and imaging are generally best achieved with open-back headphones/headsets, which means they have perforations/openings that let sound pass freely in and out. "Gaming" headsets are typically closed-back, which attenuate sound from passing through.
  
  
• separation: how you discern individual sounds from a range of overlapping sounds. You don't need to be concerned with this if you don't play competitively.
  
  Of regular headphones, I've used AKG K52, K1000, Q701; Audeze LCD-2 Classic, Mobius; Audio-Technica ATH-AD700X, AD2000X; Beyerdynamic DT990 Edition (600 ohms); Creative Aurvana Live!; Denon AH-D7200; Focal Clear; HiFiMan HE400i rev. 1, HE-500, HE-560 V2; Koss Porta Pro; Monoprice Modern Retro, Monolith M1060; Philips Fidelio X2, SHP9500; Sennheiser HD580, HD598, HD700, HD800; Sivga SV007; Sony MDR-HW700DS; Stax SR-L300; Superlux HD662 EVO, HD668B, HD669, HD672, HD681 EVO.
  
  I mainly use DT990 (600-ohm) and HD800, depending on whether I play competitively or casually. But even a cheap headphone like Superlux HD668B or HD669 get you, like, 80% of the same performance. Diminishing returns top out very early in games.
  
  As for microphones, you can attach an Antlion ModMic or a Massdrop Minimic to any headphone, which is very easy to do. These have much clearer, cleaner, crispier and more natural reproduction of voices than most "gaming" headsets and they have good/great build quality. When or if they break, you can replace the mic instead of the whole headset. If you get a new headphone, you can reuse the mic. The ModMic 5 and Minimic are modular, so they're very easy to temporarily remove. The cons with these mics are the additional cable and no in-line volume controls.
  
  Alternatively, you can use a V-MODA BoomPro mic, which is on par with the sound and build quality of the ModMic and Minimic. It plugs straight into the headphone, which replaces the original headphone cable, so there's only one cable running down from the headset. It has a volume control and doesn't require a Y-splitter. But the mic is only compatible with headphones that have a 3.5mm jack with a detachable cable and no proprietary mechanism or design that prevents the mic from inserting and staying in place.
  
  

  
  

  
  ---
  
  

  
  

  
  My go-to recommendations is Sivga SV007 with V-MODA BoomPro.
  
  SV007 has a well-balanced sound profile. The mid-bass, which is where boom and punch come from, is a little bit boosted. The sub-bass, which is how deep the bass goes and is where rumble comes from, is a little bit subdued. The treble is close to neutral with a slight boost.
  
  The bass doesn't sound muddy or distorted and is clean. The treble is clean, smooth and sparkly. By clean, I mean it's not washy or hazy. By smooth, I mean it's not sharp, harsh or splashy, but if effects, soundtracks or voices are recorded or mastered that way, then SV007 isn't going to take the edge off. And, by sparkly, I mean the treble isn't dull. The midrange is clear, not tinny or muffled. It's a very clean and clear sounding headphone.
  
  It has a large (but not huge) soundstage, very good imaging and separation, and great detail retrieval. I can hear microdetails like the rustle of a foe's uniform when he merely changes his direction; the flick of a switch when a foe changes his gun to alternative fire; the arm movement and "uhh" sound when a foe throws a motion sensor, and the impact of the sensor hitting the ground, a wall or other objects. All extremely helpful sound cues when you're about to pass by a foe that is hiding, or about to move as a foe employs a motion sensor. But if you were to play competitive shooters, I'd recommend a headphone that accentuates details somewhat more and makes them louder in the midst of gunshots, explosions and other very loud sounds.
  
  SV007 is open-back and over-ear. The build is sturdy and lightweight with wooden cups and metal yokes, hinges and headband. It has no flimsy or squeaky parts. The cups tilt and swivel and can lie flat. The pads fit around my ears without pressing them against the inside of the cups. They are plush and have a relatively high-quality coating. The headband has great weight distribution and doesn't cause hotspots on top of my head. The clamping force isn't loose or too tight. I have an average sized head and average sized ears. The build quality is excellent for the price and very good in general with even stitching, no sharp or rough edges, and has a near immaculate finish all around.
  
  

Weird the link worked for me. I just copy and pasted the post below, hope it's useful!



This is a guide that recommends headphones with an added mic and does not recommend gaming headsets (I'll explain what that means). I'm posting this because I found lots of info on headphones for gaming but not a proper setup for a console like the PS4.

If you're looking for a great quality headset for gaming, you might run into some trouble like I did. I define quality as being made with solid materials and having awesome audio while having a decent mic to chat with other players.

Options within the quality gaming headset category are both limited and expensive. Take a stroll over to r/headphones to get their two cents on how and why gaming headsets are often overpriced and actually underperform their ticket price. This post in particular was very thorough and linked out to other really useful resources like Z Reviews

When my old headphones broke I started exploring options for a new pair of cans. I wanted to get something great and didn't mind spending a buck on it. As I researched I began to learn more about different types of headphones and what they offered in gaming. The problem I ran into is that the best pair of speakers you can put on your head are almost all headphones, not headsets (meaning headphones do not have a mic equipped). But I'm playing on a PS4 so that changes the game some, PC might have some different avenues. The PS4 dualshock controller (as of 2016, possibly earlier) has proprietary restrictions as to what headsets can plug-in and work with it so creating a DIY headset (independent headphones and mic) was tricky. I tried a workaround with getting an aux plug-in adapter that had "4 poles " to use with the DS4 controller but it didn't trick the controller nor did unplugging and re-plugging in headphones with a mic. Others have had success with it but not me.

I ended up getting a USB to headphone and mic input adapter. This way you can buy whatever headphones you want and whatever mic you want and pair them together by plugging them into your PS4 USB port. You are tethered by a wire but I have read that there is lag with basically any wireless setup so I wouldn't recommended them, especially if you're into online FPS.

My setup is:

---Open air headphones: Audio Technical 900x ($130)

There are other versions of these headphones like the 500x for around $75 as well as the 2000x for $600+
-I would also explore the Superlux HD668B Semi-Open Headphones ($40) as they are relatively inexpensive have replaceable ear pads and have glowing reviews.

---Attachable mic I haven't gotten comments on how I sound which can only be a good thing. I have asked how it sounds and "fine to me" is usually the answer I get.

---USB adapter w/ headphones + mic auxiliary inputs

-Also you might want to get a USB cable extender if the phones and/or mic you go with don't have long cables.

I would venture a guess that most any version of the above 3 components would work together. I am really enjoying my setup and have been using it for about 2 months now. The “soundstage" on open headphones is a really different experience, instead of being closed off by noise cancelling headphones it now feels like everything is happening around me. I had a pair of beats Studios (gen 2) that were pretty good but I would definitely recommend giving “open” style headphones a try. The beats seem puny in comparison, not just in physical size but also in output quality.

I hope this is of benefit to you. I spent a lot of time researching, reading and watching reviews, figuring out what would work on a PS4 and deliberating on what pieces to buy. I am by no means an audiophile so this is just the research of a lay person that wanted great sound and is enjoying what they found.

TL;DR Don't buy a gaming headset if you want awesome sound. You can get a great, probably better, setup on your own and likely save a bit of money in the process by DIY.

I'd say for me, if I were making my own home office and wanted to trick it out:

At minimum a dual monitor setup, but it would be nice to have 3 (I have dual monitors and also the laptop screen running them so it works out to 3.) A nice monitor arm that will hold both (or all 3) monitors to keep the desk clutter free. Something nice that makes both monitors adjustable for you (maybe even a 90 degree rotation so you can code on a vertical screen when you feel like it.)

A nice condenser mic with an arm for it as well. I figure if I were working from home I would probably be doing conference calls more regularly than if I were in the office, so a good condenser mic will make my life easier and make sure I can communicate well. Maybe a blue yeti or blue yeti snowball with a nice boom arm for it like so so I can use it when I want it and then push it away when I don't.

In the same vein, a decent webcam that can clip on to my monitor (or buy one of the above boom arms and attach the camera to it, probably smart for only $15 so you can move it around.)

Definitely a great office chair since you can justify the expense and you're going to be sitting all day.

This one is great regardless of working for home or working from the office, but a nice mouse. I just got a Logitech G502 the other day for gaming as well as work purposes and MAN. I never knew what I was missing out on. I have thumb buttons/extra buttons programmed to copy, paste, delete, winkey + e to open an explorer window, ctrl + t for new tab, and also a key combination to switch my active window to my other monitor so I can quickly move stuff between them without having to click and drag.

Since you're working from home and don't have to worry about bothering other people, I'd definitely buy a nice mechanical keyboard. They're a dream to type on. I used to have an office to myself so I bought one and I miss it dearly now that I'm in a cubicle. In my opinion, well worth the expense.

Again since you're not in an office you could get a nice speaker. Bluetooth to keep the cord clutter down but really anything works. You can go budget or big here.

If you're a whiteboard person, a whiteboard to hang on the wall.

Definitely yes to the dock. I have one here at my office and it's so flipping nice being able to plug in one thunderbolt cable and keep the clutter contained to the back of my desk behind my monitors with the dock.

I'd probably buy a nice standing or desk light that still uses filament bulbs to make it warm/easy on the eyes. Ample lighting. And probably a plant or two just to make it look nice and feel good being there.

That's all I can think of. Can you tell I'm living vicariously through you? I know you said must haves, so if I were going to buy the above in order, it would be monitors > dock > mouse > blue yeti snowball > mic stand > camera > camera stand

I might be able to help you here. I had the G933 Artemis Spectrum headphones. They were alright — I didn’t realize at the time that I had to have them hooked to a PC in order to take advantage of the virtual surround sound, so I never got to experience that with the PS4.

I decided I would invest some money into getting a really good pair of headphones after that, but I wanted to get a unicorn... something that was good for music, movies, and games. I settled on an open back pair that had incredible reviews for the price tier. And, I spent over $300 on it just over a year ago... but you can get the same model (it’s the Philips Fidelio X2/HR) for only $122 on sale on Amazon Prime right now. I think that’s a killer deal for these, and they’re HiRes also in case you like to listen to premium, high bit rate formate stuff.

They’re incredibly comfortable and have a ski goggle style design, so you could have a head the size of a watermelon and they’d cradle on it gently. Open back, big sound stage. Great quality cable, too. They’re wired though, but I really like that they’re the kind where the jack is on the headphones themselves so if the cable ever fails you can replace it and not have to replace the whole headset. So what I did is I bought a V-Moda Boom Pro Mic that plugs directly into the headset and has a flexible boom mic and a volume dial w/ mute switch on the cable, and then you plug that into the PS4 dualshock or computer. You don’t need to buy a headphone amp/DAC to power them either, which is nice.



I wasted money buying one of the Astro A40 MixAmp Pro TR boxes so I could get the virtual Dolby surround, but I wouldn’t bother. Instead, I prefer to just run a long cable from my home theater amp/receiver’s headphone out, since that’s basically one huge amp/DAC anyway, and you can drive these things up to some serious volume. You also get a much better quality sound with them and the mic combo, versus buying a gaming headset (where they jack up the price quite a bit).

If you’re looking for a wireless option, you could check out the Steel Series Arctic Pro — that link is for the one with the game DAC with DTS Headphone X and you can use it on the PC and PS4 (for $199), or the wireless version for $315. I’ve heard a lot of people say these are pretty good but I’ve not heard them myself. If you’re looking for something cheaper, maybe the HyperX Cloud for $100ish.

I recently picked up a pair of in ear buds also — the 1MORE E1010 Quad Driver for $170 that come with a little Fiio A1 headphone amp. They’re pretty nice so far, I’ve been playing “Death Stranding” with them.



I’d check out /r/headphones and you could also read the sidebar over at /r/headphoneadvice and make a post detailing the exact setup and price range and what you’re looking for and have people make recommendations. Also in the sidebar there are some popular model headphones, amps, and mics. I think most people will tell you that buying a good pair of headphones and adding the mic is better (either the VModa BoomPro or there’s another that sticks to the side of the cup like a magnet for the same-ish price). You’ll get better sound than a gaming headset, and more for the money. And you can use those savings to buy a headphone amp/DAC if you want also, which will boost the volume and bass and maybe even give you virtual surround if that’s something you feel like you really need.

I know this is long, but I figured since I was familiar with what you’d used previously (the G933s) and was on a similar hunt not so long ago, I’d share my findings with you. If you find a great set and you happen to remember, hit me up and let me know what you grabbed so I can maybe try to demo them somewhere for myself. And if you do buy the Phillips Fidelio X2/HRs from Amazon, you could always listen to them a bit and send them back if they’re not for you. But I think you’ll be pretty impressed. I definitely was, at twice the price they’re going for now. Good luck!

I may be of some help. I was in the same position as you a couple months ago.

First you have to decide, wired or wireless.

Wireless: A lot people suggest the ps gold headset ($100). As a gaming headset, they're decent but from what I've read, the sound quality is not great. If all you do is plan to play games with it and you don't care all that much about sound quality then this may be your best wireless option. A better wireless option would be the Astro A50. Reviews seem to say that the sound quality on the A50 is pretty good but this comes at a much higher price ($300 new, $200 refurbished). SteelSeries also makes a good wireless option at the same price point of the Astro.

Wired: If you go on head-fi, everyone will say the best option would be to buy a decent dedicated full-size headphones(price here depends on budget), a separate mic, and something like this to connect to your controller. This is true but I didn't like this option. Having two cables going my controller to my head seemed like a bit of a hassle and I wanted as few wires as possible. I wanted a quality wireless setup, but I couldn't justify spending $300 for a setup I'd only use to game.

I did find the V-Moda boom pro which would replace the cord on their headphone's with an in-line boom mic thus eliminating one more wire. Paired it up with the V-Moda M80(You should be able to use it with anything form the vmoda line, but don't hold me to that, you should be able to find out yourself easily), which to my surprise got great reviews on head-fi. I bought them for around 80 on an amazon lightning deal. They're pretty good, especially considering the whole setup cost ~$100. Build quality is very high, sound quality is good, a little bass heavy IMO but that is perfect for gaming. I also wouldn't mind taking these out with me on the colder months as they're not too bulky. They also come with a pretty cool carrying case.

I'm very happy with this setup now and I think the next step up from here would be to get a wireless setup.

Hope this helps.

Source: I do have quite an extensive headphone collection so I do appreciate a good set of cans.

I have this same laptop and it's working perfectly well after upgrading both the RAM and the SSD. Upgrading to an SSD will greatly decrease the boot time of the laptop and adding more RAM will help to make the laptop snappier overall. The first step I would take would be to put an SSD in the laptop, especially considering the horribly long boot times you're experiencing, but both will

Adding RAM will be the easiest change for your laptop, as it doesn't require any transferring of files. I personally have 16 GB of ram in my laptop (2 x 8GB) but in the interest of saving money, you may want to get one 8GB stick of RAM and upgrade again down the line if you desire. When shopping for RAM, you want to make sure that you have a SODIMM sized stick, and that it's running at 1600 MHz speed. Here is an option from Amazon, but you may be able to find other options for cheaper (this was just the first thing I found). You just want to ensure that the RAM you buy is a SODIMM module and is running at 1600 MHz. Assuming the 4GB is in the form of 2 x 2GB sticks, you will have 10 GB of RAM total after installing the new module.

You can easily find videos on how to install RAM on the internet, but as a quick explanation:

• Turn your computer off
  
• Remove all the screws from the bottom of the MacBook, there should be 10 and they're all Phillips.
  
• Pull off the back of the laptop
  
• You should see RAM modules above the battery at the bottom of the laptop
  
• There are two tabs that you can pull on to release the RAM from its socket, it should pop up at an angle and you can pull it out. There will most likely be another stick of RAM under it, you should leave it be.
  
• You want to put the new stick of RAM in at the same angle that the old one came out at, aligning the notch of the slot to the notched hole in the RAM stick, and then push it down so it's sitting as the original RAM stick was.
  
• Put the back cover on and rescrew the screws. Note that the 3 long screws go in the part of the back nearest to the screen hinge.
  
  You should now be able to go to "About the Mac" then to Memory, and see a 2GB and 8GB (if you get an 8GB stick) module show up.
  
  
  As for the SSD, it can be a bit more complicated depending on how you want to go about doing it. If you care about all of the data on your old drive, you can clone it using a cloning software. If not, you can copy important files onto a flash drive or external hard drive to paste back into the new installation of macOS.
  
  But first, you need to get the SSD itself. The Samsung 850 Evo is very well liked across the internet and the drive that I personally used. You can get it in whatever capacity you need. That being said, there are other options of SSDs that will be less expensive while still being a massive upgrade over the spinning disk drive that you likely already have. If you do searching around the internet, the only thing you need to be careful of is that the SSD has a SATA connector and isn't a m.2 drive. You'll also need a SATA to USB cable like This
  
  The way I would recommend replacing the drive would be to do a fresh install of macOS, keeping a backup of your important files.
  
  You want to start by plugging the SSD into the SATA to USB cable and the cable into your laptop. Then, open Disk Utility (either by using a spotlight search or finding it in the "Other" folder of the application display (hit the F4 function key)) Once you have disk utility open, you want to find the SSD on the left drop-down menu and erase it. This will format it to be usable as a boot disk for macOS. Note: it's possible that it will work without doing this but I am unsure and think it would be good to be safe here to save the time of having to change it.
  
  As with the RAM, you can probably easily find a video showing how to do it, but I will also list the rest of the steps as I remember them.
  
• Turn the laptop off
  
• Unscrew the screws of the back cover
  
• Take off the back cover. The hard drive should be beside the battery at the bottom and held in by black brackets on the top and bottom. To unscrew them, you just need a small Phillips screwdriver.
  
• Once you've unscrewed them, you can pull off the top of both black brackets and pull out the drive. Be careful not to damage the ribbon cables!
  
• Disconnect the SATA power and SATA data connectors at the end of the ribbon cable on the drive.
  
• Unscrew the four screws holding the drive in the bracket.
  
• Pull the drive out and put the new drive in and screw it back in like the old one was
  
• Do the steps taken to remove the old drive in reverse to secure the new drive into place.
  
  Once the new drive is in, you can reboot the laptop and hit the Option key to bring up a boot menu. You should see something that says "Choose a Network" and you can sign into your WiFi to continue. From there you will able to use network recovery to reinstall macOS.
  
  
  I hope this is helpful and good luck! I'm glad I'm not the only one still using a 2012 MBP :)
  
  edit: formatting, a word
  

Hello hopefuls, lurkers, and alumni! Rather than give each video a critique I'm just going to list some tips that will help everyone in the long run. These tips do not apply to any single person in particular and every one of them can be used to improve a performance in some way shape or form, those who have a mastery in all of them tend to go far.

1. Overlay Your Videos - Find a good quality version of your song that fits the theme, and edit your video in an video editing program (I use Windows Movie Maker for example) so the audio from your video is muted and the music is what plays over the footage. This has been a staple since week 5 of season 1 and is an absolute must if you want to do well.
   
   
2. Camera Quality - Now not everyone can afford an amazing camera ready to make Hollywood quality videos, I understand that. However if your camera can't keep up with you moving slowly, it's not going to be keeping up with your mouth either. I personally filmed my first few videos of season 1 with this before upgrading to this and then finally recently to this. You don't need to have the most amazing camera in the world but you do need one that is going to capture your performance in a quality that lets people see you werk it.
   
   
3. Emoting - Close your eyes, listen to your song, then listen to it again, then listen to it again, then listen to it again. Reread the lyrics, then reread them again. Get a real understanding of the song you want to perform and feel it out. Nothing causes a disconnect more than someone doing backflips and pirouettes to Natural Woman, and nobody wants to be the Kenya Michaels of that situation. However, on the other hand. You don't want to be completely still during an upbeat song that you can work the house down. Also use your face, don't be afraid to use your face. Are you feeling terrible, show it to me in your eyes. Happy? Throw a grin around that chin. Whatever the song calls for let it all out just keep it within the constraints of the song. Over emoting can hurt you just as much as under emoting.
   
   
4. Enunciation/Learning Your Lyrics - You can know the lyrics front to back, back to front, left to right but if you don't enunciate them properly what's the point? Now I'm always a fan of going above and beyond with enunciation for entertainment value but I understand that's not exactly everyones gig. What I WILL tell you however is that you do infact have to over enunciate at least a little. You're not actually singing, if you were to just move your mouth as if you were it doesn't get the point across as well as overenunication does. A little bit goes a long way and it really gives that extra punch to your lyrics. Also rather than syncing the way you'd sing the song, actually listen to the person singing, mimic their breath patterns, listen to how THEY pronounce the word rather than how you do.
   
   
5. Audience Connection - This one is going to be short, make and keep eye contact with your camera. Flirt with it a bit, the camera is your window to the audience and while you can't actually interact with them you can make them feel as if you are.
   
   
6. Reacting to Critique- Now every week your videos are going to be watched by a large pool of people, some of these people may choose to critique you. Largely whether or not you listen to their tips for improvement is up to you, however be forewarned that while it is 100% your choice to follow tips, it could shoot you in the foot regardless of whether or listen or not. Be smart about it, also try not to take them to heart, not everyone is going to love all of your videos, and not everyone is going to hate all of your videos. Just be proud of the work you put in and do it for you, have fun with it, learn from it, keep expressing yourself.
   
   
7. Dancing - Now if you are doing a song with rhythm, feel free to dance. You don't know how to dance? No problem either! Be creative, use the pauses and beats to your advantage. HOWEVER this is first and foremost a LIP SYNC competition. It helps to keep your fancy moves that could obscure your mouth to perhaps spots where there are no lyrics. If I can't see your mouth I don't know how well you're lip syncing. Find your balance, and run with it. In terms of non dance movement, hitting a beat with a quick arm movement or facial expression can really elevate a performance.
   
   
8. Have a Look - This is the last thing I can think of off the top of my head. Having a look or costume to go with the song you picked not only shows effort but can keep the video very engaging. Now obviously not everyone has access to tons of costumes, wardrobe, wigs and accessories so don't be afraid to get crafty. For example back in season 2 zoomyx made wigs out of yarn! Competitor Sailor Evan in season 1 is known for his viral construction paper Sailor Moon outfits. Even a simple t-shirt and some rudimentary makeup can be turned into a look that helps you tell a story with your video.
   
   
9. Filming Camera Angle Orientation - If you film on your phone, don't film in portrait mode. It cuts a lot out of the video and while you may have more room up and down to work with you lose a lot of room to your left and right, it also can be very distracting and take away from what otherwise be an absolutely stellar performance.
   
   Overall these tips can and WILL help you in the long run, I wish you all the best and good luck!
   
   Now with all that said I'm now going to reveal the 6 people I voted for in no particular order.
   
   /u/BitchEva /u/mtd1988 /u/Kamui_Gr /u/itsbrohan and I don't know Sheba Maneater or Lady T's reddit names.
   
   Now good luck, and don't fuck it up
   
   Edit: SECRET TIP NUMBER 10! Carrion Threads - If you don't get in or didn't audition but want to still participate, make a video and post it in the Carrion Threads! These threads are named after April Carrion from Season 6 of RuPaul's Drag Race, after she was eliminated she would post the runway looks for each theme that she brought to the show on her social media. In the spirit of that you guys can follow along in them and they're great practice to really hone your skills for next year! Stick around and lip sync with us!

It's really, really easy to get started. Don't get me wrong, there is definitely a high level of production value that you can achieve (later on if you want to, or maybe never), but starting off is quite a simple thing.


All you really need is a laptop, a webcam, and decent internet... and maybe a soft lamp. It's best to have an ethernet cable running to your router if you can, for faster speeds than wifi. You can get a pretty cheap webcam that does a decent job, or shell out a little more and get something a little better. The best (or at least most popular) webcam for camgirls I have found is this one. Inbuilt laptop webcams might do the trick, but use your judgement on whether it looks good enough or not. Would you watch something of the quality you're producing?

There is sooo much information on ambercutie forums, but a trap that I fell into early on is feeling like you need expensive lighting, the best webcam, an amazing mic and so on when you really dont.

On the subject of lighting, it really makes a difference to be well lit, but you don't need photography-standard umbrella lights. I have two soft lamps a little bit behind my laptop so I'm lit from two angles, and it works really well. You just want to make sure they're soft and you're not casting yourself into shadow on one side, and MOST IMPORTANTLY not solely lit from above, like from a ceiling light. That is some unflattering shit.

I really like Myfreecams.com because it's easy to use, high traffic, the token conversion is easy to understand, the payment methods are easy and reliable, and probably least importantly is that there seems to be fewer rules regarding what you can and can't do (which makes it a little less stressful). Have a look at the aforementioned forum for advice regarding choosing a site. Verification can sometimes be a pain but if you have a driver's licence and a scanner you'll probably have a really easy time.


This is a loooot of information to take in all at once, I know. Even though I could go on and on for ages, like I said before, keep it simple to start with and don't stress yourself out with the nitty gritty - you might get so stressed you don't want to even begin. Bear in mind, this is all about the SOLID parts of camming, the technical aspects. The mental game is a whole other topic entirely, and I would be happy to answer more questions if you're asking.

Good luck! xx

This is quite a long post but you probably should read it all. I also searched for the best possible sound on the PS4 for the cheapest price and tried almost everything.

Astro Headsets are NOT top notch. They are just OK. They have extremely elevated bass that drowns out the footsteps and clarity.

Razer again are completely overpriced and sound worse than 30 dollar headsets.

Sony Gold Wireless is decent and wireless which is also nice. But they sound a little bit muddy compared to the HyperX Cloud II. But sound better than the Astro's.

I have every headset listed except the Razer Kraken 7.1 but I do have the Razer Megalodon which was absolutely horrible and I had so many issues with it and the firmware updates fixed nothing and the sound from the headphones transmitted over the mic even when isolated so it was a wiring issue. I just would shy away from Razer at this point. I hear too many bad things about them all the time with build quality issues. Although I do think they look really cool.

For PS4 in my experience all USB sound cards sound terrible. I have tried the Syba, the Sony Silver USB Adapter, and the Logitech G430 USB sound card.

If you don't want to think about anything, buy these.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Astro-A40-Gaming-MixAmp-Pro-With-All-Cables-for-Ps3-Ps4-Xbox-Window-and-Mac-/142172429854

https://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-GSP-Gaming-Headset-507079/dp/B01KV3BB0S/

This right here will probably be the best setup available for the cheapest price. The HyperX Cloud II could be substituted for the GSP 300 but HyperX Cloud II's do sound slightly less clear than Sennheiser. These GSP 300's look like a refresh of the PC 350 SE but with reduced ohms but I currently do not have the GSP 300 so can't tell you if it sounds different than the PC 350 SE but if it sounds like it, it will be great for gaming in every way.

Here are further explanations for why you should get those two.

The new MixAmp Pro TR has horrible metallic surround sound.

Example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtNF1i2eSwg

It really does sound horrible so I returned it and got the MixAmp Pro 2013 edition from eBay and can tell you that it sounds absolutely fantastic. And much better than any of the USB stuff. Because of the Digital Optical connection. It is very important that if you go this route that you set up the MixAmp Pro 2013 correctly. You have to make sure that in the PS4 settings that the output to headphones setting is set to CHAT ONLY or you will not get the surround sound features through optical. You will get the standard stereo USB sound card of the MixAmp Pro 2013 instead of the optical which sounds much better than the other options.

The MixAmp also really is an amp. It pushes my PC 350 SE 150 ohms perfectly. The other USB adapters do NOT amp and I can not get my PC 350 SE's loud enough through controller or any USB adapter. So the MixAmp pro does definitely amp. But I should mention any headset above 150 ohms or lower sensitivity would probably not work with the MixAmp that well or it would be really low volume.

Also Sennheiser is extremely well respected for their sound and I own the PC 350 SE (And the G4ME One) and can tell you that it has the best sound of any gaming headset out there except maybe the ATH-ADG1X but those are 300 dollars.

Also, I can confirm that the USB adapter that comes with the HyperX Cloud II does not support surround sound on PS4. No USB devices support surround sound on PS4 unless you buy it straight from Sony. The Sony Golds and Sony Silver USB adapter are the only two devices that support USB surround sound that I know of. And it is not that great compared to what the MixAmp Pro 2013 offers.

Now for the part where I will tell you that if you want the audiophile solution, read further.

Most gaming headsets really do suck compared to a pair of audiophile headphones and an add on mic.

So in this area I will recommend this solution.

For audiophile experience you are going to want to get these SHP 9500's:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826138190
And this add on mic (Uni Directional with Mute):
https://www.amazon.com/Antlion-Audio-ModMic-Attachable-Microphone/dp/B00R98JVVU?th=1

I don't recommend that V-Moda BoomPro even though it works perfectly with the SHP 9500's. It picks up everything in the room and since PS4 does not offer a push to talk feature I would stay away from it. It would be perfect for PC gaming though with a Push-to-Talk button.

If you get this with the MixAmp you are going to have the absolute best sound quality with the best mic quality for that price. No doubts whatsoever.

If money is really not an issue. I recommend the Sennheiser HD 598's with the ModMic and the SoundBlaster X7 with the Bluetooth USB adapter for chat. It does not work with Xbox One for chat only optical.

And if money is not an issue AT ALL then I recommend the Sennheiser HD 600 with the ModMic and the SoundBlaster X7 and the MixAmp Pro 2013 so you can put that into the X7 and use the line in and it's audio mixing capabilities so you can switch between SBX and Dolby Headphone with the MixAmp and choose the one you like the best.

I hope this helps you make a decision. I own most of the stuff mentioned and this is all from personal experience. But you should also note that sound is highly subjective so you may just have to purchase this stuff from Amazon so you can test all of it and send it back if it doesn't meet your needs or expectations.

I'm not the guy you asked, but I ALSO have the G930s. They're nice, but I won't be buying them again. I find the wireless to be flaky when my wife uses HER wireless headset (another Logitec, but not G930s), and the battery is nearly worthless after 2 years of ownership (though I do a fair bit of gaming, so YMMV). Next headset I buy is gonna be a pair of these bad-boys, and I'm gonna slap some of these on 'em. If I need a mic, I'll grab something like this. Won't be wireless, but I've got a cheap bluetooth headset if I need to move around the house. Since my HMD is tethered ANYWAY, I don't mind the headphones being so as well. :)

Hope that was somewhat helpful! :)

EDIT: OK, so here I am, nearly a month later. My G930s finally gave up the ghost, and I went ahead and bought about what I describe above (haven't picked up a mic yet (doesn't make sense at this point, with the Vive so close), but I've got the Superlux cans and 3rd party earcovers), and I'm LOVING them. Nice sound, though quieter than expected - I've not dealt with anything but USB headsets for a while, so I'm pretty sure I need an amp, which I can't fault them for, I knew it was a possibility going in. In any event, though a bit quiet at this point, it's not to the point of unhearability or anything. I just can't make it annoyingly loud if I want to. I'm also irked at the tiny male jack hardwired into them - I'd rather have a flush female jack, but what 'cha gonna do?

Beyond those two TINY issues (the first is only an issue due to my not realizing they'd need a bit more juice, and the second is annoying, but not at all a dealbreaker), I'm LOVING them for the price. Reproduction sounds pretty good (good enough for mixing with, anyway), and comfort is GREAT (they feel VERY light). YMMV, but I'm a happy camper with my Superlux HD668B semi-open cans (just don't forget the (<$10!) 3rd party covers - they REALLY improve on the default comfort).

EDIT #2: I'm a jackass. I had them plugged into line-in. When I found a second line-in (this one actually labeled and recognized by the OS as a headphone jack), the softer sound issue went away.

Definitely a Screen Protector

A Travelling Case would be nice.

I also added Dr Scholls Moleskin to the front of my dock to reduce the risk of scratching the screen protector. (Two small strips on the parts inside the dock that are raised.)

A Memory Card also helps for the digital only games.

What color Switch did you get? I got the grey switch then bought a pair of Red Joycons and another pair of Blue Joycons. So in total I have a grey, red, and blue L Joycon and a grey, red, and blue R Joycon.

If you got the grey switch and then buy the [two color Joycon packs] (https://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Switch-Joy-Con-Neon-Neon-Blue/dp/B01N6QJ58Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1493753597&sr=8-2&keywords=blue+joycons) then you won't be able to get one of each color for L/R without over paying. This is because the [two color Joycon packs] (https://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Switch-Joy-Con-Neon-Neon-Blue/dp/B01N6QJ58Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1493753597&sr=8-2&keywords=blue+joycons) are always Red L and Blue R.

If you bought a neon switch, then buy the [two color Joycon pack] (https://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Switch-Joy-Con-Neon-Neon-Blue/dp/B01N6QJ58Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1493753597&sr=8-2&keywords=blue+joycons) and a pair of Grey Joycons for all combinations.

Also, don't buy Joycons on Amazon, they are stupid expensive right now.

I don't have a pro controller yet, but people seem to love it.

Games:

Zelda = Must Buy

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe = Must Buy

1-2 Switch = Great for parties/friends

Snipperclips = Great for people who don't play games often (girlfriends/parents/kids). Secret here is to not explain how to play/what to do and let them have fun and try to figure out the puzzles on their own. Act like a support character and you'll have a blast watching them.

Binding of Isaac = I love this game, but put countless hours on the PC version. Mature themes

Super Bomberman R = Classic mode with easy CPUs is fun for roommates. I haven't played through the adventure mode yet.

Wonderboy = Cute/Fun side scroller.

Has Been Heroes = I don't have this yet, apparently very difficult.


Other notes:

I started collecting amiibos after getting a switch (Be very careful, it's easy to get addicted and drop a ton of money here).

I got a Joycon charging dock since the only way to charge extra pairs of Joycons without the Joycon charging dockis to rotate them in and out of the switch while it charges/docked.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

PS I love the Switch so much. It's definitely my favorite console ever.

I have one. I like it. But I only like it because of the price tag; I make myself like it because of how it costs.

I was one of the people that sped down to fry's electronics on launch day and picked myself a cherry mx red version. I had never used mx red's before, but lately I have been getting into the CS:GO competitive scene and thought I could be in the top 5% if I bought reds. I have no idea why I would think this, but I did.

Now, before I get into the pro's and cons, let me preface this: I've bought 4 mechanical keyboards in the last year: so I'm not a noob with keyboards. I currently own a Quickfire TK, Blackwidow Ultimate 2013, Logitech G710+, and of course, the K70 RGB.
The OG keyboard (and probably my favorite to this day, is the Quickfire TK). It was small, light, never slipped, and always had a very bright backlight (this is important for later). The Blackwidow, also had a gorgeous backlight and this keyboard comes in a close second. Then the last 2 keyboard purchases I've made have since gone down-hill. I figured out I can't live without blue keys. Not reds, not browns, not blacks, hell, not even fucking turquoise.

Now this is probably a personal issue, but I can't live if I am not typing/gaming on blues. While writing this, I HAVE to look down while typing, and it is only on this keyboard. It just feels... weird. Something about blues on my fingers make my "keystrokes" more fluid. So enough with my personal problems with the keyboard, let's get on to the issues everyone has with the keyboard.

Pros:

• The wristrest. I bought this keyboard almost primarily for that. And I can say, that isnt really is a big deal, and I probably won't buy another keyboard without one.
  
• The software; I'm talking about features here. The UI is something different and I'll touch on that later. It really is feature-packed. With the API out there, and the helpful and supportive community, you an literally do anything. Yes, anything.
  
• Media controls. I never knew how much I liked/needed them. They are very useful for muting your mic/speakers for when your family comes in and you are in a skype call with your friends. (I mapped mine to mute my mic, not a native feature obviously).
  
  
• I like the brushed aluminum look, it is quite nice.
  
  Cons:
  
  
• The software; talking about the UI. It is atrocious, but I'm willing to ignore it sense after using it for awhile, it starts to make sense and isn't that terrible.
  
  
• The brightness. I find nobody touches on this, but I guarantee you'll notice it. It seems the LED's are dimmed by 50-75% on purpose. And no, I'm not exaggerating. Now I believe this is because the LED's are mounted within the switch to reduce ESD. However, I would almost want to risk ESD (I've never had a LED be a victim of ESD before), than to have them be less bright. Go pick one up, try it, and you'll automatically notice it on all the colors.
  
  
• No side USB ports / audio ports. Not a huge deal, but I enjoyed them when I was using my black widow.
  
  
• The corsair gaming logo doesn't really bother me, but it might bother you, so, I guess that's a con.
  
  
• The software..again, likes to freeze (pic below). Occasionally, the software won't crash, but the lights will just freeze. Whenever I press a key, it rainbows only that key, and as I'm typing this, a few of my keys are stuck mid-rainbow.
  
  
• I like the brushed aluminum for it's looks, but I don't like how I have to clean it every week or two. I do eat alot at my desk, but I always find hairs, food, and a little bit of coffee stains there. Nothing the keyboard can do about it, and not really a con, but just keep in mind that you will have to clean it alot.
  
  Conclusion:
  
  The keyboard is feature packed and has potential, although it just isn't there yet. I am very excited for a (hopefully) revision 2.0 of this. Essential, if Corsair came out with a razer blackwidow which had a wrist wrest and slightly tweaked the software, I would buy it. The keyboard currently is $133 on amazon for Cherry Blues. At this price, I would say it's worth it to atleast tinker around with. It is a nice keyboard, and I think I will continue using it, however, once again, it needs work.
  
  If you can pick it up for $133 or less, and you aren't going to spend your money on anything better, atleast give it a try; Maybe you'll like it.
  
  I hope you found this informative and useful :D
  
  album

Gaming headphones are a pretty weird market. None of them are actually that good for anything but games, and other headphones can usually do games better. Instead of buying a gaming headset, It's better to buy a less expensive pair of headphones that preform better and add a mic. Gaming headsets may have all sorts of cool features, but you'll find that you don't really need them once you don't have them. The most important thing for gaming headphones isn't preset EQs or bass response, it's all about having a positively massive soundstage. That's how you can get your system sounding something like a surround sound setup (although headphones just can't do the same things that speakers can at any price range). Depening on your price range, you could get the Sennheiser HD558, the Audio Techinca AD700X, the AKG Q701, or the Philips Fildelio X1. As for mics, you can get the Zalman ZM1 clip on mic, or the Antlion Modmic, if you're a fan of boom mics and quality. On top of being able to play games with them, you'll also be able to listen to your music collection rather comfortably, which is the main place where gaming headsets fall short, as they're equalized and tuned specifically for games.

I'm sorry to do a huge info dump on you, but getting a nice sounding pair of headphones doesn't just improve your games and music, it improves your life :) Eventually, you'll be more comfortable wearing them than not.

Whichever way you go, though, I hope you enjoy whatever you buy to the fullest, and most importantly, enjoy Destiny's phenominal sound design with your headphones! And if you need more suggestions, I'd be happy to help!

Reading about your grandfather made me think about my own. Yours sounds very much like the man that married my grandmother almost 30 years ago. He's actually not my blood grandfather but he's absolutely wonderful. Incredibly smart and witty, honest and interesting. One of the most fun people to talk to you could hope to meet. As your grandfather was, he's a lover of words. Just being around him everyone's vocabulary gets better! He's a know-it-all but in the way that you WANT him to tell you about things. History is a passion of his and he could tell you the most amazing stories about the past. I love him dearly.

Here's the link you asked for. One of those would be great. Thank you very much for holding the contest! You've actually inspired me to make sure I call my grandparents today and talk to them for a bit. I miss them a lot and I think they're back home from their vacation.

Alright, I can work with that.

To preface this, I recommend pairing one of the following headphones with a clip-on microphone - either a cheaper model like a [Zalman ZM-Mic1] (http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ) or a more expensive model like [Antlion's Modmic] (http://www.modmic.com/collections/frontpage) - rather than getting a headset with an integrated mic. From a price/performance standpoint, headsets almost never stack up. The headsets made by the real headphone brands are exceedingly expensive, and with a very small body of exceptions the cheaper headsets sound terrible.

Now, onward to the headphones. When I hear "isolation", "comfort", and "neutral/warm sound signature", the first thing that comes to my mind is [NVX's] (http://www.head-fi.org/t/624729/review-nvx-xpt100-a-direct-brainwavz-hm5-competitor) [XPT100] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2G9qk7IOEA) ([$99 via Amazon] (http://www.amazon.com/NVX-Over-Ear-Headphones-ComfortMax-Cushions/dp/B0093PVTPS)). I actually own a pair of these myself for use as moderate isolation movie/podcast headphones for when my house is too loud for me to use my open headphones, and they're among the most comfortable headphones I've had. While they don't take the top spot - no headphones without an AKG-style suspension strap will ever do that - they're definitely in the top five or so. Their sound isn't the most detailed out there, but they're fairly neutral, solidly built, and very comfortable, particularly given their price.

A more expensive step up would be [Shure's] (http://www.head-fi.org/products/shure-srh840/reviews/5056) SRH[840] (http://www.head-fi.org/products/shure-srh840/reviews/3768) ([$199 via Amazon] (http://www.amazon.com/Shure-SRH840-Professional-Monitoring-Headphones/dp/B002DP8IEK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1426324378&sr=1-1&keywords=shure+srh84)). While I sadly haven't had a chance to try these out myself, I've heard little but good things about them. Formerly on Innerfidelity's wall of fame, and with consistently good reviews for their sound, comfort, and overall quality, they're definitely a solid choice if you're looking for a neutralish sound with some bass.

A third option would be the [Focal Spirit One] (http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/focal-spirit-one-page-3) ([$175] (http://www.amazon.com/Focal-529102-SPOH-Spirit-One-Headphones/dp/B007AH7YFU) or [$179] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008R9QRIU/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687702&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B007AH7YFU&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0HS51KQ3XCE0J5B14R27) via Amazon for the black and white models, respectively). Focal has a quite a solid reputation in audio, but the Spirit One had some serious issues on its release due to manufacturing defects, and it suffered a rather bad reception as a result. These issues are said to have been since resolved, however, and the Spirit One is a very solid headphone at that price. The sound is a bit on the bassy side, but not extremely so, and is quite good for this price. Comfort may be an issue, however, as the One was quite clearly designed more for portability than comfort. While no review characterizes it as uncomfortable, it's a safe bet that it doesn't measure up to the other two in this regard.

Another rather unique option, albeit one with some inherent drawbacks, would be [Fostex's] (http://www.head-fi.org/t/570138/review-fostex-t50rp-my-intro-to-the-world-of-orthos) [T50RP] (http://www.head-fi.org/t/559233/review-fostex-t50rp-its-been-needing-a-review) ([$127 via Amazon] (http://www.head-fi.org/t/559233/review-fostex-t50rp-its-been-needing-a-review)). Now, the T50RP is, at stock, not the best-liked headphone. Though it is one of the (if not the) cheapest orthodynamic headphones in the world, its very poor comfort and [rolled-off sound] (http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/FostexT50RP2011B.pdf) have attracted a lot of criticism. Having a pair myself, I wholeheartedly agree with criticism of its comfort, but think its stock sound is better than people give it credit for. What the T50RP has going for it, however, is an [exceptionally dedicated modding community] (http://www.head-fi.org/t/618659/fostex-t50rp-incremental-mods-and-measurements), and some very high-profile modified variants. Modded T50RPs under the branding of MrSpeakers and ZMF can sell for $300, $600, or even $1,000, and experienced reviewers and audiophiles alike have claimed that they measure up to headphones in those price ranges. If you happen to feel a DIYish inclination, a T50RP can be quite a solid project to work on, and, in theory, it can get you $300-600 sound quality for a little sound of $200 accounting for the various materials it takes to mod them.

Now, there are, as said, quite a few drawbacks to the T50RP: the stock sound isn't for everyone, it requires more power to drive than the other mentioned headphones (not enough to cause issues at stock, in my opinion, but when modded it can be quite intensive to drive, almost assuredly moreso than your integrated audio can support), and it's absolutely terrible in comfort (if you do go for them, [a headband cover like this] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00862522A/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and a pair of [Shure] (http://www.amazon.com/Shure-HPAEC840-Replacement-Cushions-Headphones/dp/B002Z9JWZS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1426325351&sr=1-1&keywords=shure+pads) or [Brainwavz] (http://www.amazon.com/Brainwavz-Replacement-Memory-Foam-Earpads/dp/B00MFDT894/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1426325358&sr=1-1&keywords=brainwavz+pads) pads were what I used to take them from "terrible" to "pretty darn solid" comfort), and modding isn't for the faint of heart. After quite a while of tinkering, I've yet to get my own T50RP mod working properly. It's amazing value if you can make it work for you, but it's quite a significant amount of effort to achieve that.

Others have already asked some pretty useful questions, but if you're looking for more specifics here's what I know.

Recording & Editing Software

While I can't speak to resources for non-Apple tools. If you have a Mac you can start out with simply a good microphone and the GarageBand application.

Microphones and Pop Filters

If you're looking for a mic recommendation I've had a lot of success with the Yeti USB microphone. It's pretty versatile and the sound quality has been quite good. A cheaper reliable option is the Snowball. You can find mics for less than that but I can't vouch for the quality. No extra set up is really needed, just plug it in and record. Some people recommend a pop filter, they're pretty cheap and I've had a good experience with the Dragonpad ones. If you need an example of sound quality PM me, I'm happy to link you an episode I created using the Yeti mic.

Uploading and Hosting

Once you've recorded and edited your Podcast you'll need somewhere to host it so others can listen to what you've created. I usually upload the file to SoundCloud and then share the link or embed the player in my blog and website. There are a lot of other podcast-specific hosting sites out there but I've found SoundCloud to be free and easy.

Helpful Guide

When I first started out I came across a great blog article by Mike Cernovich that I followed to create my first episodes. You can read it here if you're interested (it's specific to using GarageBand though).

I hope this helps, a D&D podcast sounds great. Can't wait to hear what you create.

You have a couple of options, but the webcam and mic just... aren't going to cut it. You'll never get the sound mixed right. Best bet is going to be capture the audio and video separately, then re-combine. The problem is I've never met a camera that really captures good sound. You can get decent sound by using a video-capable DSLR with external mic connections... but you'll spend $3k - $5k to get that sort of a setup working right.

I'm assuming the primary focus here is the audio, so you can probably get away with the webcam for the video, or any digital camera that's video capable. The key to making it look good will be lighting, more than the camera. If you have a couple of halogen worklights around you can use those as cheap stage lighting. Failing that, position yourself in the sunlight from a window. Make sure the background behind you is free of distracting stuff like old clothes, random papers, etc. Even a cheap, crappy camera can usually take decent images and video if you give it enough light to work with.

Software: You'll need something like Audacity - which is free and pretty easy to use. Does everything you need.

On to hardware: Two options. I'll give you the expensive one first, then the hackier way.

If you're going for absolute audio quality, you'll need a large diaphragm condenser mic. You'll want a mic for each channel you want to capture - so one for the vocal, one for the instrument. Expect to spend ~$100 per mic give or take. Monoprice has a decent one a little cheaper. Craigslist is a good source. When you get into mics, it's as fidgety a question as "which guitar is the best" - but that's your starting place. You'll need to run the mics into a mixer board (and condenser mics usually use phantom power, so your mixer needs to support that). Again, Monoprice has some decent sub-$100 options, or you can chase Craigslist. Figure this will cost you $300 to $350 after mics, cables, stands, and mixer. You can easily spend $$$$$$ as you get better stuff, but that's the basic setup.

The cheaper way - something like a Zoom H2N. Since these will do stereo recording, I tend to hang one off a mic stand horizontally halfway between my guitar and face. That lets me catch (mostly) the voice on the right channel and (mostly) the guitar on the left. After that I can do corrections and relative volume on each at least mostly separately.

The third alternative would be a USB mic like the Blue Yeti on the desk, use the computer's webcam to record video and the audio from the mic at the same time. I have a friend who's an operatic tenor, and he records his video auditions this way. I don't have the details on the software he's using, though. The H2N I linked above can be used the same way - put it in USB mic mode, record audio and video at the same time.

Given what you're trying to accomplish, I'd recommend the H2N, and depending on just how lazy you want to be either record separately and recombine, or use it as a stereo USB mic. But you really do want a way to separate the vocals and the instrument at least a little to fix specific things on each side and match the volumes a bit.

I didn't do a stunning job with it, but about 30 minutes ago I did a quick demo of a song on the H2n. I love mine, anyway...

Edit

You can also get a better USB webcam. Many Point-n-Shoot digital cameras also can be used as a USB recording device.

So I bought a new wireless headset from Amazon that had the promo tag on it, (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VANOFY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) however I never got the code. Amazon chat told me a few minutes ago that the item wasn't fulfilled by Amazon so it doesn't count, so I'm hoping senpai notices me :P

My MMO life hasn't been too long, roughly 8 years or so. I'm a huge fan of FF, and played just about every game in the franchise except for XI...so I picked it up and it was so much fun, but really really quiet. I started the game maybe 5-6 years after launch, so there really wasn't anyone to play with, not even considering that I joined right when Abyssea came out, which coincidentally was when much of the population left the game.

When rumors of XIV came out, I was so excited. The biggest thing for me was that I could finally play a FF MMO on the same playing level field as other players, and I could actually do and play content while it was new. I always hated that I was "left behind" in XI, so this was a big deal for me.

I partook in the beta test for 1.0 and was there the day the game launched and continued to stay, even while others I met and played with in the game left. While others griped about the game and how bad it was, I was looking around looking at everyone like they were crazy - because I really loved the game and it was MUCH MUCH better than XI IMO. I also really really liked the changes Yoshi and his team brought to 1.0 even though I understood the game I grew to love was going to come to an end one day.

Yoshi and his team had done a really good job to pull those who really paid attention to the world and lore together (not including all of the special "hidden" surprises as time continued to tick away) so The Calamity felt immersive, and it was pretty special. You could feel the tension in the air while we were all waiting in Mor Dhona for the Empire on that last day....then the servers went down and we were greeted with "the end of an era" trailer - perfect ending. Tears were shed. I was devastated. NO game could ever come close to this experience.

Fast forward a few years and I still play every day, slowly making more progress. I recently got my 240 relic (BRD) on Friday, and my static recently cleared AM6 (for the FIRST TIME after 11 weeks) last Monday, and again on Tuesday, so even though I am a "legacy" player, I'm still celebrating milestones... even almost 5 1/2 years in.

I love this game very much and I have lot of hope for the future. Yoshi P and his team really do seem to listen to what the players want (contradictory to what most would believe) and I believe it shows. I think our best days are ahead of us in this game and I can't wait to see what the expansion has to offer.

KEYBOARD

I'm not really all that much of a keyboard guy. Having said that, you want a wired keyboard for gaming. I love my Saitek Eclipse II.

MOUSE

The Cobra is exactly that. I know that it's kind of suspicious at $5, but I've been using mine for the past 9 months, and it's exactly what you describe, a cheap mouse with adjustable DPI and no macros. Plus it looks kinda neat, fits the color scheme, and it isn't going to do anything stupid.

CPU

Here's an 8350 streaming on a much worse GPU than the one in your build.

CPU Cooler

You don't "need" it if you don't want to overclock, but it's a good bit quieter than the stock one. I only put it in because you said you wanted it quiet.

RAM

Most games right now only use about 4GB, so 8 is the sweet spot for the rare game (like Crysis) that uses more resources than a normal game. Plus, you can add more memory in this build (you'll want to in about 2-3 years or so), and it'll only take you about 2 minutes. Ram has been going up in price lately; I was able to get 16GB of 1866 memory 9 months ago. I wouldn't buy much more than I had to now.

Storage

I'm running this exact hard drive in my build, and it's not giving me any problems. The SSD, on the other hand, is one I've never used before. It has nice reviews and is SATA III, so it should run fine.

VIDEO CARD

Here's my argument. They are very similar, and the 7970 is $80 cheaper.

Motherboard

This is one of the best AMD motherboards out there. It's only running the 970 chipset, which means that it can only run one NVIDIA graphics card (no SLI), or 2 AMD cards (in Crossfire, but the second one is kind of slow). However, Crossfire is terrible (no driver support), and I'd rather have one really nice card than 2 OK ones. Also, this card has heatsinks on the VRMs and is one of the best boards for overclocking out there. The way I see it is, if it can withstand a huge overclock, it's going to be pretty stable. Read the reviews on it. It's nice.

CASE

It matters a bit. This case has nice cable management options and a spot for the SSD. It's pretty sturdy, has USB 3.0, and a lot of fans included. I have no idea what it's going to cost to get it shipped from MicroCenter. If it's too much, we can look for another case.

Power Supply

You need about 500 watts for this build, but I went with a 600 watt power supply because as the capacitors break down (3+ years from now), you're going to lose some of your wattage. Plus, if you ever decide to do some crazy stuff that consumes a lot of power, you'll be covered.

OPTICAL DRIVE

This is a DVD/CD drive. It burns them and plays them. If you want Blu-Ray, we can throw that in, but it'll be about $30 more.

Wireless Network Adapter

Got it. This one's pretty awesome.

OS

Windows 8 works better with the AMD FX chips out of the box, but if you really want to run Windows 7, you can download and install some fixes from Microsoft that will make it pretty similar. If the interface is your gripe with Windows 8, you can install a start menu for it from a 3rd party developer. I use Windows 8 and like it a lot, but a lot of people don't.

Overclocking

It'll hurt things if you're being stupid. Otherwise, you'll be fine. Still, this thing should last for a long time.

I have a very similar build, and it worked out of the box. After I installed drivers (which you have to do anyway), it ran even better.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor | $179.99 @ Microcenter
CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler | $19.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard | $89.99 @ Microcenter
Memory | Kingston Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $58.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Sandisk Extreme 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk | $84.99 @ NCIX US
Storage | Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $63.99 @ Geeks.com
Video Card | PowerColor Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card | $309.99 @ NCIX US
Wireless Network Adapter | TP-Link TL-WN822N 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter | $19.98 @ Outlet PC
Case | Zalman Z11 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case | $44.99 @ Microcenter
Power Supply | Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply | $46.00 @ Newegg
Optical Drive | Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer | $16.00 @ Newegg
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) | $89.73 @ Outlet PC
Mouse | Cobra 9897005984104 Wired Optical Mouse | Purchased For $4.97
Other| XStar 1440p Monitor| $279.99
Other| Saitek Eclipse II Keyboard Warehouse Deal| $39.99
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available. | $1345.57
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-02 18:11 EDT-0400 |

EDIT: These headphones and this mic will outperform $100+ headsets.

TL;DR I ended up using this lavalier microphone, with the TASCAM DR-05 recorder, putting my equipment total cost at $110.

I conducted some sociolinguistic fieldwork over the summer and I researched fairly extensively to find something within my budget but with the technical specifications I required. I took extensive notes on my thought process, so here's a summary.

So, getting a bit techy here, you're going to need a microphone and a recorder. Those are two separate pieces of equipment. The microphone is what captures the sound and turns it into an electronic current, and the recorder is what turns that current into something the computer understands. Some recorders have a built-in microphone, but you don't want to use that for phonetic studies, so you'll have to get separate pieces. Also, if you have any technical requirements (Hz requirements, for example), both the recorder and the microphone will need to be able to handle that. So you'll need a good one of each.

Even though I already have a decent microphone (the popular Blue Yeti), I felt like I needed something different for several reasons. The Yeti requires a power source: it's meant to be plugged into a computer. But I didn't like that setup. Not only would it be a bit intimidating (not to mention the microphone itself is intimidating), but it's bad acoustically since the noise from my computer would surely get captured. The Yeti ideally also should be about a foot from the speaker's mouth, which, again, makes people a bit nervous. If I move it further, I could turn the sensitivity up, but it would capture ambient noise (fans, AC, fridge, etc.). I considered a setup that didn't involve my computer, but that requires a different power source and special equipment, and that's a pain (and it's expensive).

I also considered just using my iPhone as a recorder, and buying a microphone specifically designed to work with it (they exist). The quality is decent enough for most people, but not for phoneticians. Also, they are not compatible with any other piece of equipment. Either they plug into the lightning connector or the headphone jack, but the 3.5mm headphone thingie has 3 stripes instead of 2, making it incompatible as a microphone with any other recorder (that's all I know on that topic).

I decided the TASCAM DR-05 was the best recorder for my purposes. They have bigger and better ones (like the DR-22WL or the DR-40), but they were too much for me: I didn't need to record multiple tracks simultaneously, or a huge memory, or a separate iPhone app, or a guitar tuner or anything. A very similar family of recorders is the Zoom family, and the Zoom H1 is comparable to the TASCAM DR-05 and is also a very popular. I ended up turning to youtube and found this video as well as this comparison chart. It's a bit long-winded and technical, but it did help me decide on the one I wanted.

The next task was to find a microphone. I decided a lavalier would be the most unobtrusive. There are tons of cheap microphones on Amazon, but you need to look carefully at the technical specs to make sure they aren't garbage. Tip: if they don't list the technical specs, it's probably not what you want. The best video I found for comparing the lavalier mics was this one.

I'm pretty satisfied with the recording quality. I found that the microphone caught the speech pretty well while blocking out background noise. I recorded a mono track at 48kHz and 20-bits instead of the standard 44.1kHz and 16-bit. Turned out to be about a gigabyte per hour of speech. As I'm going through these though, I realize they're a bit quiet, probably because I turned the sensitivity down in an attempt to filter out background noise. Also, I noticed people would fiddle with the wire while talking, though I haven't noticed this affecting the recorder yet. It did pick up noises if people scratched their shirt near the microphone or if they had a long beard.

I will say that I brought my Yeti as a backup, and ended up using it twice. Luckily it was a very quiet room we were in, and the quality was superior than my other setup. But, the speech was a bit stilted and people were a bit more formal with me as we sat at a table with a giant microphone sitting between us. So if you're interested in a conversational speaking style, a big set up wouldn't work.

My project mostly dealt with generally-lower-middle class white folks in the US, and I'm not particularly interested in super fine-tuned phonetic information. So the setup I had was sufficient for my project, though laboratory phonologists would probably want something better quality.

I would say to do some research on technical specifications of this equipment and decide on what you absolutely need. This will depend on your research question and the field site. If you're going to be in the middle of the jungle, you'll need something to really block out background noise. If you're sitting middle-class homes, you don't need that as much. If you want discourse and conversational data, you'll want a recorder that can handle multiple tracks simultaneously so you'll need either one fancy recorders or two separate ones. Then look at the equipment available on the market, set a budget, and find out what you can get. Just don't skimp on anything because you'll regret it later.

The end. Hope that helps.

This is a rather unconventional post for here as you don't need computer parts so much as guidance.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
Power Supply | SeaSonic 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | €146.84 @ Mindfactory
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | €146.84
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-16 23:00 CET+0100 |

Use that for the psu. Top quality and oodles of power. Next get a new hdd. You'll want to store a lot of your streams if you're serious about streaming heavily. Set up your streaming program to record the stream so that you can upload it elsewhere when the VOD gets taken down.

Monitor is really up to you. You have the gpu power to play at decent setting on 1440, but as you're streaming I'd keep it at 1080p if i were you. My advice there is get 2. Play on one, watch chat and manage stream with the other. Something like this should work:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
Monitor | Asus VC239H 23.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor | €162.99 @ Amazon France
Monitor | Asus VC239H 23.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor | €162.99 @ Amazon France
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | €325.98
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-16 23:06 CET+0100 |

Mic. Mics can cost anywhere from $10 to $10000. Something like the <Blue Yeti> is great quality sound yet simple enough to be used by a (excuse the use of the word) amateur. On the cheaper side there's the <Blue Snowball>. It's a plug and play design that delivers good quality sound without needing to fuss over settings.

Headset. Whatever you like. Your audiance isn't listening through them, you are. I personally use a <HyperX Cloud> headset that while it doesn't have pro level audio delivers a good sound for gaming and is the most comfortable set of cans I've ever used. This is 100% up to you though.

I have no experience with webcams. If someone else would like to chime in about webcams please do. I know nothing.

Video editing. Step 1 get a new hhd. The software you edit with doesn't matter so much. Some people can do great things with shitty programs. I personally use Adobe premier. Its not very good but its very simple and has everything I need. Some people get away with using windows movie maker even. My advice is take a look around video editing forums/subreddits and download a free trial of a few programs. See which one you like the most and stick with it. The reason I tell you to get a new hdd is because depending on the quality you'll fill space fast. A raw uncompressed 1080p recording fills 20gb in 5 minutes. That said uncompressed is a stupid amount and data. However compressing eats cpu power and will fill space anyway. When i record I usually save as 720p30hz and that usually fills a several gb an hour. So in a month of streaming/recording you may fill that hdd and either need to get another or you'll need to edit and upload everything to make space for more footage. The only other option here is to make a large storage system. If you want to keep ALL you're footage I suggest you look into getting a small/med storage server, though I assume for your purposes just editing and uploading should be enough.

Best of luck streaming and have fun.

generally the best sounding setup will not be a "gaming headset", but just a pair of good headphones with a separate mic.

what is your budget? that is a big factor as there is a huge variety of headphones out there all across the price spectrum.


i currently use Phillips Fidelio X2's with an Antlion ModMic running through a beyerdynamic usb dac/amp (soundcard basically, not even necessary but i had it already and its convenient) and love the setup. ive gone through several other headphones but found this setup to be the most comfortable with best sound. the X2's barely feel like youre wearing anything, have great soundstage and just sound really good in general. i previously used beyerdynamic mmx300's which are an actual headset (mic attached) but moved away from them as they just were not quite as comfy as i wanted for longer usage. also the mic didnt detach so it got annoying at times. other headphones i tried are my akg 553 pros, ath m50x, oppo pm3 and fostex th x00 but none quite had the "full package" of great sound and comfort of the x2's though. not the cheapest setup, but it works great and im happy with it so worth it to me.

https://www.amazon.com/Philips-X2-27-Fidelio-Headphones/dp/B00O2Y2MZG

https://www.amazon.com/Antlion-Audio-ModMic-Attachable-Microphone/dp/B00R98JVVU/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_23_lp_t_4

http://north-america.beyerdynamic.com/shop/usb-sound-card-for-headsets.html


in general the idea is to just get headphones from an actual headphone manufacturer, not a does it all like logitech. they make so many different things, headphones just arent a priority. others have mentioned the sennheiser game ones, which is at least a headset from an actual headphone company. the hyperx clouds are also supposed to be very good for the price despite not being from a headphone company, but that is probably because they are based off of the beyerdynamic mmx300, which is just the beyer dt990s with a mic. meaning the clouds are just a much more affordable clone basically.

at the minimum just try to avoid buzzwords like "7.1 surround". the headphones dont have 8 speakers in them (there are a few that tried doing such, but so few it doesnt matter), theyre not actually doing any surround sound so dont fall for it.

I personally own a pair of V-MODA Crossfade M-100's with a BoomPro mic and the XL Ear cushions.

Put simply, they are absolutely amazing and would not go with anything else for gaming or music listening. Now, I'm not going to lie, it's very expensive for just a headset, but I'm an audiophile and want the very best out of my sound. If you want something that is amazing but won't kill your wallet, go for the Crossfade M-80's. Biggest bang for your buck.

As for audio quality, my old turtle beach headset couldn't even compare to these. Everything about them is just amazing. They are better than a pair of Beats and most "gaming" headsets. The 3D soundstage makes playing this game (or any game for that matter) an absolute joy with unparalleled audio quality. Wouldn't go for anything else for the price. I cannot stress how good these things are.

As for comfort level, they're pretty good, but you will definitely want the XL cushions. I can play up to 6 hours on end with only two adjustments on my head before my eyes are like "we're done here." Needless to say, they stay very comfortable for extended periods of time.

The BoomPro mic is nice, but not entirely necessary, because the in-line mic that comes with the cable works just fine.

TLDR: If you have the money, BUY THESE HEADPHONES!! And if you're broke go with the M-80's.

Edit: Spelling

Here you go.

____

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor | £185.99 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard | ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard | £75.90 @ Eclipse Computers
Memory | Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory | £130.44 @ Aria PC
Video Card | EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Founder Edition Video Card | £582.50 @ Amazon UK
Case | CiT - VANQUISH RED ATX Mid Tower Case | £37.23 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply | Corsair - RMx 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | £79.97 @ Amazon UK
Monitor | Acer - Predator XB271HUA 27.0" 2560x1440 165Hz Monitor | £529.99 @ Amazon UK
Mouse | Logitech - G300S Wired Optical Mouse | £80.07 @ Amazon UK
Microphone| ModMic| £44.99
Keyboard| Molong KB26-BK(Switch-MX-Brown)| £53.74
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | £1800.82
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-08 02:36 BST+0100 |

___

Ryzen 1600

- As you may notice, there is no additional cooler. This is because the 1600 comes with a quiet cooler that can hold up low to medium overclocking like a champ. Saves money, too.

Motherboard

- LEDs for fancy inner setup, able to support 4 sticks of fast DDR4 ram, and a BIOS that makes overclocking easy, this mobo will suit your gaming needs.


RAM

- The Vengeance 16GB will give you plenty of RAM in any current or future title. Clocked at 3200, the Ryzen CPU on board will be able to utilize your memory faster and more easily than lower speeds.

Case

- The VANQUISH from CiT is great looking, LED enabled, has built-in fans, and windowed sides. Good cable management too.

Video Card

- The 1080 Ti will take care of all of your needs. It can process the game you are playing while encoding for the stream without issue. This monster is the star of the build.

PSU

- Fully modular for ultimate cable management to get the most airflow and beauty out of your computer, and for ease of assembly. 550W is plenty to feed large overclocks, many HDDs and SSDs and anything you throw at it. The Gold standard indicates the quality of the PSU, and results in a more steady voltage and less heat generated (both great for overclocking), less noisy and easier on the electric bill as well.

Monitors

- This monitor is a beast. Plays in 4K, good color fidelity, tiny response time, G-Sync (WOW!) and 27" make this monitor a dreamboat.

Keyboard

- This keyboard is great. Fits the color scheme of the build, RGB lights, NKR, spill-resistant, and real Cherry MX Brown switches for gaming and typing pleasure.

NOTE: The keyboard comes in two different colors. The pictures are switched between the two. Make sure to order the one labeled Black, Cherry MX Brown

G300S

- Many pro CS:GO players swear their careers by and often win with this mouse.


Microphone

- Here's the oddball. This ModMic is a sound-cancelling, good-quality and small microphone that can attach to any pair of headphones. If you have a nice pair of headphones that you like to listen to music with, or find a pair that is more comfortable for long periods of time, attach this mic to it. Watch this or this as to why.

I'm in the same situation as you. My WD My Book crapped the bed. It still spins up but the computer sees no writable partitions. The I/O light doesn't even blink anymore. Just stays solid. Although, I got the cable just right once and I was able to slowly copy a few files over before the problem started repeating again. So this leads me to believe it is a port/cable issue. It was even still under warranty. But you have to ship it back to them and they ship you a NEW one. If you want your data recovered you have to send to to a third party first. WD says they destroy your data but I don't trust it.

The WD My Books are just HDDs with a shell so you should be able to swap the HD with another working WD Mybook

You can also take the case off and it has an adapter on the HDD to change it from 2.5SATA to USB 3.0 micro b that you can slide off and make it a normal HDD. So if you have an extra PC or trust yourself installing a second HDD in your current PC you could try that. I attempted this and failed. But I contributed it to trying to install a 4TB hd on an old dell with 2GHz processor and 2gbs ram. Even when I set my bios to boot to the Dells original Seagate HDD, the dell still tries to boot from the 4tb WD drive that never had an OS on it. And plugging it into an already booted computer failed too (risky move but I was desperate).

I've got three more solutions I'm gonna try. Gonna email WD an ask istead of replacing my drive if they will send me a new SATA to SS adapter and a new cable that comes with it. If not, Hopefully a USB 3.0 to 2.5 SATA cable does the trick.

And if all else fails. An HDD dock seems like my favorite and an all round better solution than external WD my books.

You shouldn't have to solder anything. But I haven't been successful at recovering the data so what do I know hahaha

Good luck.

Yeah, there’s no reason to replace your internal drive when the USB 3.0 bus will fully take advantage of the faster read/write speeds of your SSD. An enclosure like this should work well


As far as the SSD itself, just make sure it’s within the size limitations for the PS4. From the looks of it, PS4 requires external drives to be between 250 GB - 8TB in size, and apparently they’re pretty strict on that lower limitation. There is a Sandisk 240 GB SSD that works for Xbox (despite Xbox lower limit supposedly being 256 gb) that people have said will not work for PS4. There are plenty of reasonably priced 250+ GB drives available though.


Other than that, make sure you read the reviews for the SSD before buying it. Samsung is always a good pick, as are other brands like Crucial, Western Digital, and Intel, but people do appear to be having some success with the cheaper brands like Silicon Power and Adata. If you wanna play it safe, stick with Samsung, but there are enough people that have had good luck with the other brands that it may be worth considering to save some money.


Keep in mind that while most all games should load faster on your SSD, for some the load times don’t add to anything. For instance, Rainbow 6 Siege loads the maps faster, but you still have to wait for everybody on your team and the enemy team to load the maps before you can even start playing. Battlefield 1 is kind of similar in that you’ll finish one match and load the next map like 60 seconds before everyone else, but you’re just stuck there looking at the overhead battlefield waiting for people. I will say it can be nice when you’re joining a server with a match in progress, as your load time is easily halved.


Take your favorite games and their sizes into account, then ask yourself which ones have odd loading issues (overwatch mystery heroes for starters) or you just want to load faster, and purchase your SSD accordingly.


Also, one last thing, the invisibility with OW mystery heroes will be a non issue most of the time, but there are still instances where loading the first hero in mystery heroes will result in an invisible character for 1-2 seconds. I will say I’ve never had any invisible heroes in non-mystery queues since my SSD, even in backfill situations.


/end rant lol

Everyone is saying the Logitech G502, and I could not agree more. I actually have 2 of them because I travel quite a bit for work. It has all the buttons you'll need right on the mouse to be an effective slayer of n00bs. It has a button which can select different DPI profiles which makes it easy to switch back-and-forth from Xbox to PC modes.

​

Keyboards can be subjective based on how you like your "finger feel" and noise level. For me, I cannot say enough good things about the Logitech G13 gaming pad (and holy balls I just realized how expensive it is, I don't think they make these anymore. Check on eBay for a cheaper price if interested). Buttons are right where they need to be, and it has nice ergonomic support for your wrist - it's designed for gaming comfort, not cranking out emails. The keys are not too clicky, but also have a nice feel to them. Also included; buttons to quickly switch between gaming profiles. Handy if you need different button keymaps for various different games.

​

My main keyboard, which I've also tested for gaming and cannot say enough good things about, is the Logitech G513. It has a sleek, minimalist design and comes with wrist support. The keys are a bit louder than the G13, but they are easier to press. It also has a surprisingly sturdy frame. The weight of it surprised me during the unboxing. It was oddly satisfying to hold in my hands which gave the impression that it was well engineered and of good quality.

​

As for the XIM, I've been a non-commissioned sales rep for it since the XIM 3 was released. These guys keep making better products, and the XIM Apex is no exception. The key (in my humble opinion) to giving it that PC feel is to find the right ballistics curve. I've found one that works very well with every game I've played. If you want more details on it, send me a private message and I'll give you the code that you can paste right into the XIM app on your phone. Another tip to making your experience even better on the XIM is to set the Hz to 1000 in the XIM app, and also set your mouse to 12000 dpi. Again, if you want more information on how to do that, just send me a message. I take great joy in helping people maximize their experience with the XIM.

1. My first instinct was to guesstimate around $850. That's mostly because of the extra things to get started that you need. The monitor, keyboard/mouse, etc.
   
   
2. It's very easy to get it up and going, the hardest part really is just the cable management. This wire goes here and there, but the wires and where you plug them in should be labeled. Building a PC is kind of like hooking up a console. Controllers only go in the controller slot, power plug only goes into the power slot. Things just will not fit in the space they're not supposed to, so don't force them. :)
   
   
3. I don't have any experience doing this, but I know that you definitely can. IMO, I'm probably just biased because I'm a big time PC guy but I can't really think of a lot of games where you would want to use a controller instead of a keyboard and mouse. There's sidescroller games, point and click games, stardew valley and some others.
   
   
4. You'd probably like CS:GO, There is GTA and other similar games. Check out Steam and the Humble Bundle as that's where you'll probably get most of your games. :)
   
   
5. I'm sure there are some PC exclusive games that you and your son would enjoy together. It just depends on what you guys like.
   
   

6. You basically build it and that's it, there will be dust in there but it shouldn't get too crazy. Just clean it whenever it looks dirty enough to where you should spray it out. Probably every six months to a year. I like to use this PC Vacuum, it advertises as a vacuum but it's just a loud air pusher, you'll save money with that instead of buying something like this.
   

   
   

   Computer maintenance outside of hardware/physical stuff. There's free anti-virus and other programs like that. Windows 10 comes with Microsoft Defender.
   

   
   

   PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
   

   
   

   Type|Item|Price
   

   ----|:----|:----
   CPU | Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor | $199.00 @ Amazon
   Motherboard | MSI H110M Pro-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $52.95 @ Amazon
   Memory | Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory | $49.99 @ Amazon
   Storage | Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $49.00 @ Amazon
   Video Card | MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB GT OCV1 Video Card | $249.99 @ Amazon
   Case | Corsair 100R ATX Mid Tower Case | $39.99 @ Amazon
   Power Supply | EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $79.99 @ Amazon
   Monitor | Asus VX228H 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor | $119.99 @ Amazon
   Keyboard | AmazonBasics KU-0833 Wired Standard Keyboard | $11.32 @ Amazon
   Mouse | Logitech SBF-96 Wired Optical Mouse | $8.70 @ Amazon
   | Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
   | Total | $860.92
   | Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-12-14 18:14 EST-0500 |
   
   A little overbudget lol :)

Hi! I'm by no means an expert on the subject but I did learn a few things while pursuing a quality audio experience and its kind of turned into a new hobby.

Simulating surround sound was something I wanted to achieve as well when shopping for headphones a while back. Something I learned is that the headphones themselves can't really do this. The right kind of headphones (and sometimes software) can help this effect but you can't magically turn 2 channels (I.E. right and left) into 4 or more to get multi-directional sound. In gamery types of headphones, the marketing makes all kinds of claims that its the total fault of the headphones but it's simply not true.

The only real way to get a simulated surround effect in your headphones is if the source had this in mind from the get go. And after that good quality headphones can help a bit further. This can be easily demonstrated with this video. Plug in ANY pair of headphones in your house and for added effect? Close your eyes. Seriously even 3 dollar earbuds from the dollar store will work. And what you'll notice is a full high-quality multi-directional, surround sound experience from just youtube and whatever headphones you happened to try. Neat! But how?

Games and movies ect need to have an audio engineer design the sound with this concept in mind known as binaural. In games, this is usually the "headphone" mode in options settings. Or it'll just be on by default. There are times where a game simply won't have it and no amount of software can change that going into your headphones. Software can't magically know that the bullet was supposed to be behind you instead of in front of you.

What does this mean? That you can get virtual/simulated surround sound from pretty much any pair of headphones? Yes! Learning this concept to me was the beginning of something new. I started looking at simple high-quality headphones that could help make the effect even more dramatic.

I learned about open vs closed back headphones. Closed back headphones make you feel like the sound is sort of coming from inside your own head. This is fine especially if you want to block out other sounds from your room or house ect. Open back headphones let sound in your headphones from the outside, allowing for a more natural 3D effect in most cases. I did a lot of research on open back headphones. I ended up getting the AD900x's. I know this might be expensive-ish but there's a good option for optimal sound on a budget.

I got this combo deal for my fiance. You'll get an open back experience to help further the 3d effect you're after and ontop of that these headphones sound fucking GREAT for the money. Seriously makes me mad that I was buying gaming headphones for all these years leading up to what I learned. Check it out.

• Headphones
  
• Replacement earpads. (optional) The stock ones made me and my fiance's ear sweat like crazy. Not comfortable.
  
• Microphone.
  
  Now, this is just a suggestion. Just use whatever you thought sounded better when it came to your logitech's or Beats after making sure headphone mode was on in the game you're playing. Hopefully, I've given you enough to do your own research on the subject. But. For the money? I found this combo to be amazing for gaming and surround sound. Just make sure you always turn on "headphone mode" in games and you'll get the 3D experience you're after. Learn more at https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/
  
  ----------------------
  
  TLDR; Some audio nerd info. I'd personally just use whatever you thought sounded better when it came to your logitech's or Beats after making sure headphone mode was on in the game you're playing. Seeing as the surround sound effect is mostly due to the source. If you ever want to try and make the 3D effect more dramatic I linked a suggestion on a budget.
  
  

Sorry for the long post but I hope it is helpful.

If your not opposed to an open back set of headphones then I'd suggest looking at the Philips SHP9500s along with a vmoda boompro microphone. I recently upgraded from those myself and I really loved them, I do have to admit that you lose a bit of audio quality using the vmoda boompro microphone compared to just using a straight audio cable to them. However I felt they were still far superior to conventional "gaming" headsets.

-

I just upgraded from the shp9500s to the Philips fidelio x2s myself which you can find used sometimes for around $150. They are really bass but definitely better sounding than the shp9500s.

-

The SHP9500s tend to go on sale quite often for around $45-50 which is a great price for what you get I think.

-
https://www.amazon.com/Philips-SHP9500S-drivers-Stereo-Headphones/dp/B01N3LM3J5/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1511900182&sr=8-3&keywords=philips+shp9500

-
https://www.amazon.com/V-MODA-BoomPro-Microphone-Gaming-Communication/dp/B00BJ17WKK/ref=pd_bxgy_23_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CQDEX3BN148T7JZG5CV9

-

My thoughts on my current 3 headsets

-

Sennheiser GameOne Gaming Headsets: Smallest sound stage of the three. Midrange to me is clearer but when going back and forth between the shp9500s the Sennheisers sound "muddy" in a way. Also seem to have the least amount of bass. They aren't bad but I prefer a little more bass.

-

Philips shp9500s with vmoda boompro: Good sound stage with what seems like a very neutral sound. Bass is better than the Sennheisers.

-

Philips Fidelio x2s: Largest sound stage of the three. VERY BASSY. Overall audio quality (without vmoda boompro since this DRASTICALLY cripples the x2s) is superior to the shp9500s and the GameOnes in my mind.

-

Again this is all subjective in my mind as I prefer open back headsets as the sound stage is better and I feel like my ears dont get as hot. Some people don't like it though (my wife for example) because everyone around you can hear it also.

-

If it was me I would look for the shp9500s on sale for $45-50 on either amazon or newegg (pops up on the /r/buildapcsales) every now and then. If I had to do it again knowing what I know now I would have gone with a modmic over the vmoda boompro just because of the audio degradation that happens with the vmoda boompro. This was way longer than I wanted but again I hope you find it helpful, if you have Amazon Prime I'd pick up the shp9500s and try them out, if you don't like them then return them.

$2000 for everything?

I had fun with this one, enjoy your browsing :)

Part list permalink / Part price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor | $328.99 @ Newegg
CPU Cooler | Scythe SCMG-2100 74.2 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler | $42.98 @ Newegg
Motherboard | MSI P67A-G45 (B3) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard | $147.86 @ Newegg
Memory | G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $99.99 @ Newegg
Hard Drive | Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $54.99 @ Newegg
Hard Drive | Western Digital RE4 250GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $66.99 @ Super Warehouse
Hard Drive | Western Digital RE4 250GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $66.99 @ Super Warehouse
Video Card | XFX Radeon HD 6970 2GB Video Card | $339.98 @ Newegg
Power Supply | Corsair 850W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply | $149.99 @ Newegg
|| Total
| (Prices include shipping and discounts when available.) | $1298.76
Additional Items | -- Items not available in System Builder -- | --
Case | Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Mid | $109.99 @ Newegg
Optical | Random Lite on DVD burner | $22.99 @ Newegg
Monitor | ASUS VW246H Glossy Black 24" 2ms | $218.98 @ Newegg
Mouse | Razer Lachesis 5600dpi | $68.61 @ Amazon
Keyboard | Razer BlackWidow Mechanical | $77.48 @ Amazon
Surface | RAZER Goliathus Fragged | $17.98 @ Newegg
Headset | Audio-Technica Import ATH-AD700 | $93.90 @ buy.com
Mic | Zalman Microphone Zm-Mic1 | $12.21 @ Amazon
|| Grand Total
| (Prices include shipping and discounts when available.) | $1920.90

brief:

Not all games make use of the hyper threading in the 2600K but some do and many more will follow. Your budget allows for it so do it. Additionally, it's still the faster CPU per core so all games will benefit and this is your most powerful option.

You have a budget that can allow for the luxury of silence. Fractal Case and Scythe heatsink will keep everything cool, quiet and classy.

Motherboard is Crossfire ready and so is the power supply. Why skimp on our upgrade powers when there's some flex space in the budget?

8gb of ram so you can stream or record your games so while your kicking ass with this new rig everyone else can know about it. I made sure they had low heat spreaders as well so they'd fit under the massive scythe heat-sink.

High quality, fast response, 24" monitor.

Dual RE4 250gb hard drives with 64mb cache for a 500gb RAID0 to boot from. The fastest and most stable platter drives you'll find. SSD if you want but this will let you store all your games and provide better stability. 1tb Spinpoint for other storage because it's cheap and fast. We're spending big but we don't need to waste on a storage drive.

The new Lachesis (not the one with problems) and a mechanical keyboard for the smoothest play you've ever had. Round it off with a Goliathus mouse surface for the ultimate experience.

Audio Technica AD-700 headphones: if you take everything out of my build you better keep these. These are, hands down, the best headphones for gaming I've ever used. Huge sound stage and great for games where you want to hear your enemies coming.

* Zalman ZM-Mic1: don't let the price fool you, this is a pretty awesome mic with exceptional clarity for a fair price.

Wow is not easy on your left (keyboard) wrist. If you are prone to having wrist pain, I'd recommend looking into getting either a Razor Orbweaver or a forget what the budget Orbweaver is called, or trying to find a Logitech G13. These are so much more wrist and MMO friendly, its insane.

What I'm using is an Azeron keypad, which is similar, just that its not a "big name brand", but rather a dude and his wife working on these with a 3D printer. I used to play League of Legends with an Orbweaver, but after 2 Orbweavers dying on me after about 1,5 years of gaming, I decided to explore a bit. The price range was the same, might as well go and give some money for the "little guy", and try out something new. I really like it, but the build quality is just not there. Its looks 3D printed, and most parts do feel very not... solid. But the layout is REALLY fucking good, its the best thing I have ever used in my life.

I basically use the joystick with my thumb as WASD, and the skills are programmed on the 12 keys you can reach very easily with your other 4 fingers. I have a Roccant Kone Aimo, so I set one of the buttons to shift, so with that modifier I can basically "instapress" 24 skills, and still move around like its nothing. If I had to play wow with a regular keyboard, I would quit on spot for sure. I... how the fuck would I have that much keybinds... Prob no way. The Azeron is not available for sale atm, I think there will be a preorder or something around september, bc they are going to "upgrade" from being a garage company to having employes and stuff. I'm really happy for them, and I truly hope they will make it big, cause this shit is amazing, and I want one that has sturdier build quality. I'm ordering another one in sept for sure, just so I'd have a backup :D

Sorry this will be a lot of information, but when you're buying something that sits on your ears for hours at a time, you want something that feels good.

Newegg has the Gamecom 780 on sale right now for 28 bucks. They usually float around 50-60 bucks so it's a really good deal. The only problem with them is they're not very drop friendly as they're plastic. The audio and mic quality are amazing for the price though.

If wireless is more his speed a Corsair H2100 is in your price range or a Logitech G930. I just recently bought a Corsair VOID on sale for 95 bucks and it was the best decision I've made in a long time, best wireless headset I've used. (but normal price is about 120)

Links:

Gamecom 780 priced 27.99

Corsair H2100 priced 99.99

Logitech G930 priced 84.36

Corsair VOID wireless priced 129.99

Pro's and Cons:

Gamecom 780

• Pro: One of the best gaming headsets in the $50 range.
  
• Pro: Easy to setup software, buttons on headset are easy to reach and use
  
• Con: Very prone to breaking, if they fall the wrong way, they're toast
  
• Con: Wired, I belive a 6 foot cable. Very limiting in distance (if you buy one of these buy a USB extension as well)
  
  Corsair H2100
  
  
• Pro: Very good entry wireless headset, clear mic audio and decent sound quality
  
• Pro: Wireless so no cables in the way
  
• Con: Battery life
  
• Con: Distance is short before cutout
  
  Logitech G930
  
  
• Pro: Easy to use and reliable
  
• Pro: Good range on headset (longer than H2100 and roughly same as VOID)
  
• Pro: Build quality is nice, audio quality is decent
  
• Con: Wireless receivers die before the headset does (will start with randomly dropping connection)
  
• Con: Mic gets white noise in it
  
• Con: Not very loud/Charge doesn't last long
  
  Corsair VOID RGB
  
  
• Pro: Strong build quality, clear mic, great battery life
  
• Pro: Good quality audio, can go very loud, bass drivers are decent
  
• Pro: Long range, Similar to G930
  
• Con: Software interferes with some other programs currently, Corsair is working on a fix (The headset does not require the software, it is just used to control simulated surround sound and lighting)
  
• Con: Feels loose on your head, the mesh fabric makes it slide against your hair
  
• Con: Users have reported turning on/off the headset can sometimes put the headset into a failed mode, and require being plugged into the computer to fix (i have not experienced this and could have been fixed in a firmware update already)

Hey Crimson! I have a pretty good amount of experience with camera work for my gaming videos!


I'm not sure what your budget looks like, so I'll start with the cheapest solutions first.


I would suggest the most easily obtainable camera for live action stuff would be just to simply use your smart phone! For example, the iPhone camera shoots with a Sony CMOS sensor in full HD! Just make sure you stabilize it on a tripod or flat surface because the auto image stabilizer is pretty terrible at times. Secondly, if you do choose this option, I would highly recommend using a different audio source. Smart phones traditionally don't always have the best audio recorders on board.


A web cam is probably your second best solution! Full HD cams can run about 50-100 bucks, but they usually get the job done. Though again, with all these recommendations, I'd suggest you use an alternative microphone for audio.


If your not willing to use cheaper alternatives like a smart phone or a webcam, then I think your best bet would be the GoPro. These products are massively popular for a reason; they can provide BEAUTIFUL footage if used correctly. You can probably find one of these bad boys USED for under 200 on craigslist. For the relatively small price tag, this is one of the best all purpose cameras on the market.


Finally, if you have a decent budget at your disposal, I'd suggest the T3i. If you only plan on using this camera for rare occasions, then I'd advise against purchasing it. However, if your hoping your channel would rely heavily on live action content, then this is it. This is your solution! It might end up running you a little over 500 bucks, but this is the camera a majority of youtube creators have been using. There is a slight learning curve, but when you get the hang of it, your videos will look fantastic.


Like I said though, never use the on board audio recorders these solutions provide for you. Buy a separate microphone if quality is a big concern for you in your videos!

• You barely list Kodi because of 3rd party pirate addons, despite it having most of of your requests for Roku already implemented. DTS-passthru, Passworded tv and addons and able to program remotes. The library is extremely robust and can handle searching your media in a bunch of different ways including by network. The Bluetooth headphones is reliant on you STB but kodi can deal with it. As a bonus with the yatse app you can cast youtube and other online services to the Kodi install as long as there is a Kodi addon for that service.
  
  
• Complaining about the Firestick you knew it was WiFi at time of purchase so you can't knock it for that. Also it sounds like you have some networking gear issues if it is truly 3ft away.
  
  
• You can build a HTPC and a few tools on the back end to get your all in one DVR box(https://tvheadend.org/).
  
  
• You can build a HTPC or buy something like the Wetek play for OTA and DVR
  
  
• Volume control is trickier but if you get a CEC enabled HTPC or Set top box you can just use your TV remote. The simpler choice would be just turn the TV all the way up and use the STB remote for volume. There are other Devices like flirc or Harmony remotes that can also solve this.
  
  
• CEC can handle turning the TV on and off. Harmony remotes can also handle this easily.
  
  
• Kodi again can solve your file type problems(http://kodi.wiki/view/Features_and_supported_formats).
  
  
• KODI, Just because 3rd parties have enabled streaming pirated content shouldn't be held against a solid Home Theater software.
  
  
• Keyboards Logitech makes the K400 usb keyboard that will work with HTPCs and some STBs. Also voice search on the Shield TV is pretty solid.
  
  
• Wifi based remotes are nice, if you like them just find a STB that supports them.
  
  In short a solidly built HTPC can fix almost all of your gripes. Also you should really look at kodi again.
  
  >Ok, so you mention my lack of paragraph and sentence structure (although I am hesitant to admit that you are very right) and also not mentioning a universal remote (which I don't want to buy [I wanna say the cheapest harmony is around 80$], rather I want a all in one solution) what are areas you find me to be confused or ill informed?
  
  There are plenty of perfectly capable remotes for much less the $80.
  
  http://www.amazon.com/LYNEC-Wireless-Keyboard-Infrared-Learning/dp/B00U78EKM4/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1459302520&sr=1-3&keywords=HTPC+remote
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless-Keyboard-Multi-Touch-Touchpad/dp/B005DKZTMG/ref=sr_1_6?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1459302520&sr=1-6&keywords=HTPC+remote
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Aerb-Wireless-Keyboard-Multifunctional-3-Gsensor/dp/B00K768DHY/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1459302520&sr=1-2&keywords=HTPC+remote
  

Here is a gift from me to you. I know you have the 3rd sensor but the rest of the information is good. This is my setup and what I recommend to friends and family. Check it out.

1st GET A THIRD SENSOR IF YOU WANT TRUE ROOMSCALE "they are on backorder at the moment"

2nd Get three of these for your sensors to make sure they can reach anywhere you want them too. USB 3.0 is better than 2.0 because the cameras run at a higher resolution and fps thereby increasing tracking and with your USB add-on cards this will be the perfect setup.: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0179MXKU8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

3rd Get 2 of these to completely isolate all of you VR components from the sometimes janky unreliable USB ports on A LOT of motherboards that cannot supply enough power and/or bandwidth for all of the cameras and HMD to work properly I chose this card because it only has two ports and both of those ports work no matter if you plug in 2 sensors or 1 sensor and the HMD. The Inatek card DOES have issues for somewhere some ports work and others do not and are still only being able to run 2 sensors off the Inatek card and having to run the HMD and 3rd sensor off the motherboard. The Orico card just works and you don't have to think about experimenting with ports just plug everything into the two Orico cards in any configuration and go. Also use the default Windows drivers whether you go with the Inatek or Orico card only upgrade after trying the defaults drivers without success: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AVSN2YG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

4th This is optional. One of these for extending your HMD HDMI cable by 15ft for a total of 28ft: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008D5EUD2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

5th This repeater is required to make the HDMI cable above work, but with this repeater, the extension is flawless: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GHL72XS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

6th To extend the Rift HMD USB I use the USB 2.0 Active Extension Monoprice Repeater Cable that comes with the 3rd sensor it is 16ft long, works perfectly. Then I used a small piece of electrical tape every 6 inches from the HMD to the PC to make the extended HMD cable one piece leaving about 2 ft of cable loose at the end to be able to plug in wherever I want.

I did a lot of research bought the Inateck and Orico USB add-on cards, multiple active USB extensions, multiple different HDMI adapters and extensions of varying lengths, Display port to HDMI adapters, DVI to HMDI adapters, and did all the experimentation and testing required to make all this work. The list I listed above works every time on multiple systems in different environments, rooms, and households.
If you need clarification on anything and/or want more information, feel free to respond or message me. I will gladly help.

Here's a few options. Depending on where you are in the world some might be more feasible than others. I'm talking from a UK perspective, YMMV.

• Sennheiser HD598 + Antlion ModMic. Can't speak for the quality of the modmic but I own the HD598's and adore them, they're almost unbeatable. The ModMic is essentially a headset mic with velcro pads included so that you can stick it onto pretty much any set of headphones that has space for it.
  
  
• Phillips Fidelio X2 + V-Moda Boompro mic. This is a good option because the Fidelio X2's have a standard 3.5mm port meaning you can plug any 3.5mm mic into it, including the V-Moda Boompro which is essentially a headset mic that can be unplugged (though of much better quality imo). Again, can personally attest to quality as I own both. The X2's are £130 on Amazon rn which is a goddamn goddamn steal in my opinion, but they're better for music than gaming (again, my opinion, it's slightly subjective). They'll still thrash any headset but they don't quite compare to the HD598's for competitive gaming.
  
  
• Speaking of Phillips and 3.5mm ports, a cheaper option than the X2's would be the Philips SHP9500/00. Same benefits as the X2's, but in this case they + the V-Moda Boompro will run you about as much as the X2's alone would. Can't speak for sound quality, haven't tried them, but I hear they're very good.
  
  
• Another option would be the Audio Technica AD700x; from what I have heard this is pretty much the end game for gaming cans. They're legendary, beating out the HD598's by a small margin; small enough that really it's personal preference as to whether you go for these or the Sennheisers. Both will do you proud. Again, an Antlion ModMic would be your best option here, you won't be able to fit a V-Moda Boompro as like with Sennheiser, the AD700x uses a proprietary port.
  
  
• Finally, if you got the cash, you could go for the Audio Technica ATH-ADG1X; essentially Audio Technica have cut out the need for a third party mic by adding their own; it's a headset. The downside to this is that it's expensive for what it is, and you probably leave yourself open to the kinds of issues you'd have with standard headsets (more likely to fail, harder/more expensive to fix if they do). Not really sure how much you'd have to worry about this since it's genuine quality; not the £15 of components stuffed into a £100 headset that passes for "gaming headsets" these days. TimTheTatMan uses one of these on Twitch if I'm not mistaken.
  
  So that's what I recommend. Any option you pick here will theoretically last you a great many years, if not a lifetime, and will outperform any gaming headset. This is because manufacturers of these headsets will spend a tiny amount of cash on the components and a large amount of cash on marketing them, meaning when you buy a gaming headset you're really paying for them to sell it to you. Stuff like I've listed above is all word of mouth; passes the savings onto the consumer who gets a quality product at a good price.
  They're all open backed, meaning they leak sound out and allow outside sound in; the benefit of this is that you get a wider soundstage, which in regard to gaming essentially means better 3D positioning. You can pick out things like footsteps and locate where they're coming from with a great degree of ease.
  
  HD598: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-HD-598SR-Over-Ear-Headphone-Black/dp/B06WLGRYSF/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1521973971&sr=1-1&keywords=HD+598
  
  Fidelio X2: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-X2-Headphones-Over-Ear-Cushions-Black/dp/B00MRUPSHQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521974003&sr=8-1&keywords=Fidelio+x2
  
  Phillips SHP9500/00: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-SHP9500-00-Headphone/dp/B00ENMK1DW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521974021&sr=8-1&keywords=shp9500
  
  Audio Technica AD700X: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Audio-Technica-ATH-AD700X-backed-Hi-Fi-headphones/dp/B009S332TQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1521974053&sr=8-1&keywords=ad700x
  
  Audio Technica ADG1X: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Audio-Technica-ATH-ADG1X-High-Fidelity-Open-Air-Headset/dp/B01AYZZP5U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521973470&sr=8-1&keywords=audio+technica+headset
  
  V-Moda Boompro: https://www.amazon.co.uk/V-MODA-BoomPro-Microphone-Gaming-Communication/dp/B00BJ17WKK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521974126&sr=8-1&keywords=v-moda+boompro
  
  Antlion ModMic: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Antlion-Audio-ModMic-Attachable-Microphone-Uni-Directional-Muteless/dp/B00R98O6R4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521974091&sr=8-2&keywords=antlion+modmic

these:

https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-M40x-Professional-Monitor-Headphones/dp/B00HVLUR54

• this:
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Antlion-Audio-ModMic-Attachable-Microphone/dp/B00R98JVVU/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1491575296&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=modmic&psc=1
  
  and you will be considered the best Girlfriend ever.......there are a million choices out there on the market today, but, in my experiance there are a very few full on pre-made Gaming headsets that are truly super good, sure some sound ok but very few have the sound quality of a decent studio monitor headphone, and for me, that's important. Good luck, and, you're awesome for soliciting info like this, well done!!
  
  whoops, missed the wireless part, sorry!!!!
  
  logtiech artemis is a nice headset, I loved mine till I moved to the set up I have above, decent sound, lots of extras, good range, good mike:
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Artemis-Spectrum-Wireless-Surround/dp/B0148NPJ78/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1491575575&sr=1-3&keywords=logitech+artemis
  
  and, if he already has some logitech gear, it works in conjunction with the software he already has.

You're going to be doing your ears and the ears of the people you're talking a disservice to by getting a "Gaming Headset." I've owned a Steelseries Siberia v2 for a couple years now and I regret it every time I use them.

Average is the greatest compliment I can give them. Average soundstage, average bass, average highs and average mic quality. And if you're going to be spending ~$90 on a head set you want something that will be more than average.

This is what I wish I went with years ago and what I still wish I could justify buying while my Siberia is functioning:

• $95 Audio Technica ATH-AD700 - "Good for Gaming, Movies (very open soundstage). Good bass response but not bass presence (not thumpy). Comfortable and very very very large." -HeadFi
  
  
• $190 Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO, 80 ohms - "BASS!!! Great soundstage for a closed can. Very good movie and gaming can.+ -HeadFi
  
  
• $10 Zalman Zm-Mic1 High Sensitivity Headphone Microphone - Clip on mic that attaches to your headphone cable. Everything I've heard about this mic have been glowing reviews, amazing sound and fantastic sensitivity.
  
  By going with a pair of headphones that are high quality and feature an exceptional soundstage, which basically means how far around you you can hear (good for picking up footsteps and locating bullet shots), and top of the line sound reproduction you're setting yourself up to have the best of both worlds, gaming and music.
  
  This is all coming from someone who wishes they had more money to spend on audiophile gear. Make sure to check out /r/audiophile as well, they have a lot of good information there as well.
  
  [http://www.head-fi.org/a/buying-guide-headphones-by-price-range]

Depends on some things.
Do you want virtual 7.1 simulation/EAX support? If yes, a standard Xonar DS soundcard for around 30-40USD will suffice. That will help with some of the more expensive headphones too, which will need a bit of extra power to drive.

Pretty much every gaming headset uses rather cheap mics and so can we. All voip comm will get heavily compressed, be it with TS, skype or ingame voice, so you really don't need a high quality mic for gaming. Many gamers are using a Zalman mic for around 10USD, but any cheap, sturdy clip on mic will do.

This left us with around ~150USD for a good headphone. There are plenty of alternatives in the <150USD range, I can give you a couple of often recommended options.

The favorite right now in hi-fi circles is the ATH-m50 at around 130USD.

A very comfortable pair are the AKG K271MKII at the same price level.

To complete the our maxing out the budget trio we have the Ultrasone HFI-780.

All three have superior drivers with very good sound characteristics, very decent isolation and are fun enough to listen to for gaming, music and movies.

But we don't really have to max out the budget to get superior sound quality. There are some very decent headphones under 100USD too, which can more than compete with any high budget gaming headset.

Some examples: Sony MDRZX700
Creative Aurvana Live, especially for Europeans where the price is better
similar famous like the ATH-M50 are the ATH-AD700. It's a open headphone though, so gone is any decent isolation in exchange for a better soundstage.

I could go on for a bit, but those mentioned above are pretty well known and tested with the hi-fi community. You should find plenty of reviews and user experience for them. While some of them are a bit more analytical than most users are used to, they are all pretty fun and warm and not so boring like traditional studio monitors.

Even if we look at the lower budget gaming headsets <100USD, many without any 7.1 simulation, we can find plenty of better sound headphones, especially if we don't need a soundcard.

First of all, hats off to trying to get in on the action early.

I guess it sorta depends on your definition of a gaming setup. I'd recommend building your own desktop to get the most bang for your buck. /r/buildapc is a great subreddit for getting opinions on builds and computer components.

As far as peripherals, you'll want a decent mouse and keyboard. I love my mechanical keyboard, and have not once looked back after getting my first one. There's also a pretty good community at /r/mechanicalkeyboards who rock at giving advice and suggestions. Brands are really important, and I've come to trust Corsair, Logitech, and Steel Series. People will preach about 4K monitors...if you're streaming I'd say skip out on it, especially at your age when you don't have hundreds of dollars to dish out on a monitor alone.

As far as streaming goes, you'll definitely want to pick up a microphone. Most streamers will spread the gospel on Blue Yeti, which is an amazing microphone, but you can easily get something much cheaper for starting out. Another thing you might want to consider is a capture card, which will help alleviate the stress that streaming puts on your computer. It will help improve the quality, and will help with your framerate while gaming.

Other than that, make sure you have persistence. You won't get popular right off, you need to keep at it even when it may seem like no one views your content. If you keep at it, you'll learn. When you learn, you'll get better. That's what will start bringing people in.

Good luck! Feel free to reach out to the community again. We all love helping out!

Awesome man, it's a lot of fun!

I'd say most important thing equipment-wise when starting out is getting a decent mic. Easiest mic setup (if it's just you or maybe two people) is a USB condenser mic, then you can skip a mixer and/or interface altogether.
Most people are keen on the Blue yeti, but in Australia they're not too widely available, so I got a MXL Tempo instead, which does a good enough job. We still need to build it a little foam booth to remove a lot of the echo and room noise.

For PC recordings, we just use Open Broadcasting Software, aka OBS. I've played around with DxTory, fraps, and raptr in the past; OBS trumps them all because of how much control is possible, plus the ability to record in a constant frame-rate, very important when it comes to editing. OBS is a little fiddly to set-up but has given the best results so far, and there's plenty of information out there on it. It is designed as a streaming software but also produces awesome local recordings.

We just bought an Elgato HD game capture for console recordings, which we chose over the Elgato HD60 because the ability to record older consoles was more desirable to us than 60fps recordings. The Elgatos are pretty much accepted online as the best all-rounder out there. No doubt there's better units out there, but hard to beat for the price and ease-of-use.

Finally, an Adobe creative cloud subscription gives you access to Premiere (for editing), Photoshop (for images/thumbnails), and Audition (for voice recording/compression etc), plus Flash, After effects etc. I'm a student so it was a half-price I think.

We haven't tried any streaming yet because of our woeful <1mbp upload haha. Go Australia!

• Budget: $250 max
  
• Source: Realtek ALC1150 on PC motherboard (says it can handle up to 600ohms)
  
• Requirements for isolation: Going to be used for gaming at home mostly, but if I'm buying a bangin' pair of headphones, I'd like to take them to work or on the road sometimes and some isolation would be nice
  
• Preferred type of headphone: Full sized preferably, possibly on-ear
  
• Preferred tonal balance: Overall balanced but I want to be able to hear footsteps and precise gun shot locations in game more than anything else
  
• Past headphones: Wal-mart headphones, Turtle Beach P11, Siberia V2's. Music sounded okay, they were comfortable, I could hear enemies and sounds well in FPS games
  
• Preferred music: I listen to just about everything music wise but I'm more interested in game sound quality
  
• Extra: I've been suggested the K550 and the Q701's from multiple people. I'm leaning partially towards the Q701's as I could use this in-line boom mic since the 701's have a detachable cord, as well many people are saying the soundstage is much larger and I'd be able to hear things much more precisely. Though they then would be lacking the isolation that I'd like to take them around with me. After researching and considering using a clip on zalman or modmic and sleeving the two wires, I want nothing to do with that, which seems to make the 701's even more of the logical choice. I guess I'm just hoping for someone elses opinion or to make sure I'm making the right decision.
  
  
  Also, if there is anything similar to the V-MODA BoomPro mic I listed, I'd be super interested in that as well.
  
  And lastly, just because my budget is $250 doesn't mean I need to spend that much. Pros use $100 headphones and they're the best in the world, I'm 100% looking for something that's nice and will help me in game, but getting the best bang for my buck. I've seen a few people mention the HyperX Cloud's as they're a rebranded headphone and say they're decent. How would those hold up against other options?

Oh hey, something I know a lot about. It is likely a form of RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury), the most well known of which is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. If you have just started hurting recently, it's probably just and early stage RSI. These are really common in people with data-entry jobs, people who actively use a computer all day, and PC gamers. A lot of time they are ignored and get worse, so I'm glad you're getting it looked at.

I have a genetic connective tissue disorder that effects everything, and seriously impacts my wrist when playing. You should certainly see a doctor, but here are some other things you can do as well:

• First, you need to make sure your keyboard and mouse are at the right height. There are a lot of sites that offer a "magic number", but it really depends on height and your situation. Having your desk at the wrong height can put added strain on your wrists as they bend to reach the keyboard and mouse.
  
  
• Get yourself a programmable keyboard, like one by Razer. I know they're expensive, but it's more reliable than something like AutoHotKey (which is still an option if you're flat broke). These are nice because you can program common tasks like 'Ctrl+V' to a single keypress, rather than having to stretch out across the board, pulling those tendons tight. The nicer ones will have dedicated macro buttons, so you can reduce your keystrokes even in-game by assigning frequent combos to one of those keys.
  
  
• Make sure sure you are using a quality wrist/palm rest for your keyboard, and use it every time. The slight bend that your hand makes when you aren't using one causes damage that accumulates over time.
  
  
• The worst for us is the mouse, though. Several years ago, because all my joints are impacted and moving the mouse screwed up my shoulder, I moved to a trackball. It is absolutely an adjustment to use, but so long as you aren't a competitive player (progression, or Overwatch leagues) you shouldn't notice any dip in your play. I use this one, and I believe it is the best. It slightly rotates your wrist to relieve the pressure on the long tendons, and the ball prevents you from having to "flick" your wrist -- an isolated motion that can cause real damage.
  
  
• An alternative for the trackball, if you are competitive, or just can't get used to the trackball, would be a mouse like this one. I have one, and it's decent quality. I don't expect it to last nearly as long as my trackball, and the movement is also something you have to get used to just the same, but it is a cheap way to try out the vertical ("handshake") mouse that is often reccommended to relieve pain caused by Repetitive Strain Injuries.
  
  
• You may need to reduce your gaming for a couple weeks. The early stages are often jsut because of tendon inflammation, so resting can often alleviate it for a lot of people. Then just be more careful (do the above) when you come back.
  
  
• Someone here mentioned wrist exercises. They're a good idea, but they can limit healing if your wrist is already damaged. Ask your doctor about them. S/he may give you a few specific ones to do now until your wrist is strong enough to handle the full list in a few weeks.
  
  
• Finally: These apply to work as well as to home. The good news is that most workplaces have "ergonomics" policies in place now, because RSI is so common and in the worst cases qualifies employees for Worker's Comp. Their ergonomics program should help you get the right height desk, chair, and keyboard combo. When you do go to the doctor, though, if s/he mentions RSI or Carpal Tunnel, mention that you're going to need something to take back to work so that you can get the right accommodations. If HR tries to stonewall you, use the word "accommodations" and with your DX in hand they pretty much have to help out.
  
  So yeah, good luck! Hopefully it's just an early-stage RSI that some time off and care will resolve, but once you've started the process it generally doesn't go backwards. Like everything else in our bodies, once you've injured those tendons they become more prone to re-injury and you'll have to keep an eye on them from here forward. Luckily, once you get the above set up, you don't have to actively do anything; just make sure you're in the right work space!
  
  tl;dr: I have an ungodly amount of experience with tendon/ligament injuries. Trust me, you really should go and read all of that to prevent a lot of pain. Above all, if your gaming makes your hands/wrists/forearms hurt, see a doctor.

I've had my HD598s for a couple years now and while they've been a huge upgrade from my previous headsets (things like the logitech gaming headsets) I've been looking at getting a semi-significant upgrade. I've been mostly looking at the HD650s, 700s and the AKG k712s, trying to find a good balance of looks cool (I really like the k712 design) and sounds good (only heard good things about the 650s and mostly positive about the 700s, but I'm not a huge fan of the latter's looks).

Disclaimer: I'm very new to general headphones shopping so forgive my inexperience here.

----

Budget - $400-500USD, fairly flexible

Source - My desktop, through a to-be-determined DAC/amp (currently have an e10k but I've been eyeing The Element for quite some time, if anyone has any input on that that'd be great too)

Requirements for Isolation - None

Will you be using these Headphones in Public? - No

Preferred Type of Headphone - Full-sized/over-ear

Preferred tonal balance - Haven't experienced a huge variety of headphones to say for sure or really develop a strong preference, but I do like some good bass. Hopefully looking for something that will pack a bit more of a punch than my 598s.

Past headphones - The aforementioned 598s. As I said the bass isn't super great on them, but I understand that that's just kind of how it is with open-back cans, and I don't particularly hate that about them, just something I'd like to improve. That's pretty much my only complaint though, I do enjoy these headphones, just looking to upgrade to something more mid-upper range.

Preferred Music - My listening habits seem to change every few weeks. Plenty of classical for when I'm working, but I've been on a big lofi indie folk punk binge lately. In general I keep coming back to classic rock and some electronic music though. I also do some movie watching and a lot of gaming on the same computer, if that affects anything (I know plenty of big-name streamers use 650s but not sure if there's a specific reason for that).

What would you like to improve on from your set-up - Since I don't have any real hard complaints with my current phones I'm not sure if I can pinpoint specific areas I'm looking to improve. Coming from these things to the 598s was so night-and-day that I haven't considered specifically what points I'd prioritize.

Edit: I'm also not solely trying to chose between the three headphones I mentioned above, but those would probably be my top three choices at the moment, I'm definitely open to other suggestions!

Looking for my first mechanical.

• Uses: Typing/coding, gaming (Already have a Logitech G13 that I use for some games though)
  
  
• Full-size (I use the number pad in some of my graphic design apps and like to have it available, I think, but maybe I could adjust if I didn't have it if it really is better. I also use the arrow keys to nudge things around in graphic apps)
  
  
• Wired (Don't like having to charge things)
  
  
• Brown (I got the WASD Tester and I like the bump of browns without the click. The clicky ones are too loud for my taste)
  
  
• No brand loyalty or preference
  
  
• Budget: Under $200 would be nice, but I could justify more if necessary
  
  
• USA
  
  
• Definitely want it to be backlit, but not necessarily fully programmable with full RGB and disco features
  
  
• Current keyboard: Logitech G15 The screen is a gimmick and I never use it or any of the other media keys, macros, or layout switcher
  
  
• Would like the option to customize with cool keycaps as some of the best keyboards seen here.
  
  I always liked typing on Mac laptop keyboards, the low profile made me feel like I could type a lot faster and more accurately and with less fatigue. I've been following the Tesoro Gram XS for a long time as I thought that might be a good compromise between a Mac keyboard and a mechanical, but the reviews seem pretty mixed so I'm afraid to jump in on that one.
  
  I've read through a bunch of the wiki pages, but was hoping you guys could help narrow down my search a little based on the above criteria.
  
  Thanks!

From experience, the AD700 is a pretty safe choice, and they're good for the price range in general. Some people may consider the lows/bass pretty weak (and I can see why), but it seems to make the lows play a much more background role. Overall, I'd call them pretty mid-centric.

I haven't heard the AKG K240, but I've been very curious about their sound overall. From what I can gather, they have more bass than the AD700, but some nice extras to consideer on the K240 are the velour AND pleather pads they come with and that their cable is detachable. Usually replacement pads are around $20 or even more, but to have velour pads as well? Using different material earpads actually makes the headphones sound different (not too drastically though).

So to be different, to satisfy curiosity, and for the nice little extras, I'd get the AKG K240. If you like a lot of bass, I'd stay away from the AD700, but if it doesn't matter that much, the AD700 is pretty safe.

Regarding mics, the Zalman mic linked below is sufficient in most cases at $9, but at times it can pick up background noise. One of my friends uses a very, very old Plantronics mono-speaker headset, and even though it's quite literally from either the 1990s or very early 2000s, it hardly picks up background noise (an attempt at mic spamming through an electric piano completely failed and was reduced to a whisper until he set it on the piano speakers) and is the clearest mic I've EVER heard by quite a bit (infinitely better than the Zalman mic). If you'd consider using it, perhaps you can modify it by twistie tying it to the headphone wire or even using Velcro to attach it to your headphone or your wire. To reduce weight, cut out the Plantronic mono headset's headband and/or sound parts and you'll do great. I have no idea what model it is however.

Zalman:

http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333784834&sr=8-1

Regarding the Plantronics headset, I tried my best searching for what it could be, but no actual luck. He said it looks much cheaper than the following link though. He found the mic just randomly in his garage. I can't guarantee that this mic is as good as the random garage Plantronics mic though, but it might be a safer risk.

http://www.amazon.com/Plantronics-Cordless-Phone-Headset-M210C/dp/B000ANJVKW/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1333785004&sr=8-11

Because the PS4 is your primary usage with the HD800S, I recommend trying the Creative Sound BlasterX G5. This is entry level as a DAC/AMP combo unit but should work very well in your use case. This device is designed for consoles and PC usage and can produce very good audio from your PS4 (and PC) over a USB connection and it has separate 3.5 mm connections for the headphones and a mic (HD800S does not have a mic, but if you play online games with friends you will want to get something like the Antlion Audio ModMic to turn the headphones into a headset when you want to. If you get the G5, do not use the virtual surround sound SB-Axx1 and Scout Mode options, they are likely not as good as the standard audio output. An alternative to the Creative G5 would be a Schiit Audio Modi 2 DAC (connect to PS4 over optical instead of USB) paired with a Schiit Audio Magni 3 AMP. This "Schiit stack" as it is often called is less gamer focussed (no mic input, etc) but would still be fantastic for gaming and listening to music and is highly recommended in the audio community. You would need both the Magni 3 AMP and the Modi 2 DAC linked together to get sound - whereas you could alternatively use the all in on Creative G5. These options are audiophile entry level, but should impress you since you are so happy with the headphones on the PS4 controller already. I would try and recommend something more expensive, but honestly don't think you need that and I would have difficulty recommending more expensive devices since I dont have proper experience with that level of DACs and AMPs. TLDR; Get the Creative Sound BlasterX G5 if you want to use a mic on your PS4 with the headphones, and get the Antlion Audio ModMic to turn the headphones into a headset when you want to talk in games with friends and online gamers. If you dont need to use a mic on your PS4 and price is no matter to you (G5 is cheaper), then get the Schiit Audio Modi 2 DAC and the Schiit Audio Magni 3 AMP. Also, regardless of which DAC and AMP you get, get some nice cables off Amazon for USB or optical for your setup to connect from the PS4 to your couch/coffee table where you probably game.

Hi there!

1. This sexy microphone. You know what's awesome? Recording yourself on the computer. Or skyping. Or third thinging. And this mic has some pretty stellar reviews. I'd love to get a good mic for my computer. I'm considering getting in to making tutorials and posting them on one of those "learn how to do things" websites, but my current mic won't but it for that. Also, my current mic (which is really just a crappy headset) sucks.
   
   
2. I can't remember if you like Game of Thrones, or if you've seen it, but the newest season is sitting on my wishlist. If you haven't seen it, you really ought to, as it's fantastic and I love it! And if you have, well, see it more! :p
   
   
3. You know what else is good? The Walking Dead. And what's even more interesting than the show is the source material. There are three of these compilations (all are on my wishlists) that cover 50-ish volumes of the original comics each. It's no secret how into the series I am, and the comics don't disappoint. Give them a shot if you're even a little interested, regardless of this contest.
   
   
4. Webcams are helpful, and anyone who ever uses one should have a good one. This seems to be a good one. I know I could use it, and I'm sure there's something fun you can use it for too :p
   
   
5. Classics are good, even if they're a bit bogged down with awkward prequels. Star Wars is a fantastic series of movies, and they're all available here. I've really been wanting to rewatch them! I also have steelbook versions of the individual movies on my wishlist, but this entry is more contained.

I have a Viofo Compact A119 V2 which is front cam only. I use this in my work truck with it powered by the cigarette lighter socket. Turns on and off with the truck. Does everything I need it to do and the video quality is great. I bought the CPL filter for it as well, to lessen the interior reflection. The dashcam’s $96 I think, filter was like $10. Highly recommend. Easy to self install as well, which I did.

My personal car I have a Street Guardian SG9663DCPRO. This is a front and rear cam. This is pricier, it was about $280, and I bought the hardwire kit for it as well which was another $30. The front cam model is very similar to the A119 V2, they’re practically the same except for a few extra ports on this model. Installation is a bit more involved on this one, but there are YouTube vids you can watch that make it easy. Also depends on your car. FYI the cables are pretty thick, except for the external GPS cord. I was still able to hide them all, but again this depends on the vehicle you’d be installing it in. Video quality is great on this as well, crystal clear picture and readability. This model comes with a lot of extra items and whatnot, where the Viofo is very basic and just the essentials. I highly recommend the SG as well.

For both cams I have the highest possible card it can take, which is 128gb for the Viofo and 400gb for the Street Guardian. You can get these pretty cheap on Amazon, they go on sale very often.

If you have any questions feel free to ask, I’ll answer to the best of my knowledge.

There's a lot out there, and it can be tough figuring out where to begin even with the wiki. In my opinion, figuring out your needs and budget are the two most important things you can do when you're first jumping in.

• Needs -
  
  Ask yourself what you'll mainly be using your board for; are you a gamer that spends most of their time playing FPS, or do mainly use your board for work / school related activities? A little bit of both? Does your board need to be pack and go, or will it mainly be stationary at a pc? Do you want to build yourself or do you want a prebuilt that just works? Once you have a few basic requirements in mind, you can use those as a guideline to start to piecing together what you need for your situation. For example, I game a tiny bit but not enough to justify building a board around it. I do however spend quite a bit of time on my board for work and I travel quite often, so I wanted something portable that was ideal for hours of typing, and it had to have a navigation cluster. From there, I decided on a 65% board with tactile switches.
  
  
  
• Budget -
  
  It's easy to go down the rabbit hole and spend elevendy billion dollars on a custom board with all the bells and whistles, then come to find out out you don't like the layout, switch type, cap profile etc. There are MANY different price points out there; I can almost assure you that you can find something up your alley without breaking the bank. My first board that I mentioned above was a [Magic Force 68] (https://www.amazon.com/Mechanical-Keyboard-68-Keys-Magicforce-Qisan/dp/B01E8KO2B0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1510046923&sr=8-3&keywords=magicforce+68+brown) that I got on sale for $30, and I still love that little thing. Since then I've built 3 custom boards and a macro pad, and I've got a few more builds in the works too, but I did it all bit by bit.
  
  After you figure out what your needs are and your budget, i suggest checking out switch types and figuring out what you think you'll like. If you're unsure, you can always grab a [switch tester] (https://www.novelkeys.xyz/product-category/switchtesters/) to help you narrow it down. and if you go the DIY route, [spacecat design] (http://shop.spacecat.design/) has a lot of great tools to get you started.
  
  I hope you find this helpful; this is really only scratching the surface. Don't be intimidated with all of the info; the more you hang around (kudos to you for jumping in after a week, I lurked for months before I asked any questions) the more you'll learn. It all starts to come together over time, so stick with it and don't be afraid to ask questions. Someone will point you in the right direction more often than not.
  
  If for some reason you do find yourself hanging though, feel free to message me and I'll be glad to help you out. :)

That's a good question. Not to sure about the UV white glow.

My preferred fans have always been the Scythe Gentle Typhoons, however due to business decisions between Nidec Servo and Scythe, the Gentle Typhoons are now available through several private labeling and OEM orders only now.

Coolerguys.com: Gentle Typhoon's Link PWM Link

Performance-PCS: Darkside Typhoon's Link

Heard great things about EK Vardars and Noctua's. I own a set of the Industrial PWM 3000RPM's in my VR rig. Those are loud at full speed haha.

You would take the same precautions you would with an air-cooled system with a water-cooled setup. It really comes down to how you build your system. A solid fitting connection using compression fittings should have no problem as long as you've leak tested your system prior to filling your loop.

Check out this great tutorial from B Negative from Overclock.net with leak testing: Link

Paper and cloth towels are your best friend when setting up a loop especially on your first go around. Better safer than sorry. Maintenance is easier then an oil change on your car. If you plan to just using distilled water, you will have to add a little more a few months down the road. The most you would have to do is clean out your rig from any dust that's accumulated on the radiators and fans.

Metro Vacuum is my best friend: Link

Feel free to change the water yearly or on your best convenience. It's really up to you as long as you monitor it you should be ok.

The rule of thumb is 120mm radiator for every component with an additional 120mm for overclocking. Now this totally depends on how thick your rads, speed and static pressure of your fans. The fans mentioned above Gentle Typhoon and EK Vardars have a great sound and static pressure ratio.

We can go into more detail with this later if you like.

Copper tubing was actually trial and error. I imagine it being easier then acrylic hardline tubing. Haven't tried that yet. The concept is similar though using totally different tools. I will say if you plan on copper tubing, make sure you have the proper tools and some sand! The sand is used inside the tubes when bending to minimize the kinks that can occur when pressure is asserted against it.

There are really only two types of pumps available D5 and DDC type pumps. DDC pumps are great for portable builds while D5 is generally a stronger pump. Again we can go into this further a little later.

Anytime ;)

Solution you can try for free if you are dirt broke: might sound a bit weird but if you have 0 budget you make a blanket fort and put your mic inside, making sure the blanket doesn't touch the mic, and stick your head in there to record vocals. Acoustics will improve as the blanket will absorb all the sound. It's a super guerilla-style recording booth. Won't be great, but it'll be an improvement for no money.

Still quite cheap solution: a lapel microphone - those clip-on jobbies you see on people's shirts during talk shows. As you likely know from watching TV, those mics do perfectly well with some mastering and they cost around 10 GBP on Amazon. You can plug them into your phone with some free apps, and use it like a mic pack. You can do really well for very little.

Low-end full-on computer mic: The Blue Snowball is a quite good mic for the price for vocals, though it certainly is more expensive than what you've probably got built-in to your laptop.

Standard recommendation if you've got money is the Blue Yeti. Not much to say here - it's a better desktop mic and you pay more for the quality.

You may also want to consider some homemade solutions like setting up a stand that is disconnected from your computer desk - say for instance drag a bedside-table over beside you and place the mic on it, or invest in a cheap mic arm stand to isolate ambient sound from the microphone.

You can also make your own pop-filter with a coat hanger (bent into a loop) and some pantyhose wrapped around it. If you can find a C-clamp you could just attach it straight to the boom stand.

Well you have a choice of capture cards out there, here are links to internal capture cards (goes inside a desktop) and external cards my personal recomendation would be an ElGato Game Capture. It is a versitile card and served me well thus far, but please do you own research and find which one you think will suit you the best.

As for editing software there are many routes that you can take, if you have a mac there is imovie which is good for starters, if you have are a PC guy then there a few more options (that I know of). You can go one of two ways 1) Adobe (on sale right now) or 2) Sony. Either is a great choice, I would personally use the adobe choice because eventually it opens up the door to photoshop, premiere, and after affects which are excellent editing softwares.

For microphones I would recomend either the Blue Yeti or the At2020, again both are excellent it is a personal choice and I would say the Blue Yeti because it is more customizable.

All in all please read reviews of all of this stuff and make your own pro/con list for each choice because I cannot tell you a perfect cookie cutter thing to buy, because we all have different needs. I hope this helps, if you need any more help feel free to keep asking away!

EDIT:1: formatting was made nicer

I wouldn't recommend any traditional gaming headsets, you would do better to get a good pair of headphones and a separate mic. Gaming headsets have good mics, but the speakers are almost always lacking compared to similarly priced headphones.

I've used many headsets from Logitech, Steelseries, Razer, Turtle Beach, and a few other companies, and anything from Sennheiser, Audio Technica, Beyerdynamic, Denon, AKG, or the multitude of quality audiophile manufacturers, will give you far better audio.


Sennheiser makes the only really good headsets in my opinion, the PC350 and PC360, but they are expensive at around $200, and don't sound as good as the HD598's for about the same price.

Steelseries makes okay headsets, but are over priced for the audio quality. The 5Hv2 and 7H are incredibly comfortable, and the Siberia v2 are quite comfy as well (not if you have a large head though, I have 7 7/8 hat size and was fatigued in an hour). Also their build quality is very good. They produce very accurate locational noise, but be warned as Steelseries headsets have no bass at all at the cost of having very clear footstep identification.

I wouldn't even consider Razer products as their build quality is sub-optimal.

Check out: reddit.com/r/audiophile and reddit.com/r/headphones for all the info you want on good headphones.

Also www.head-fi.org/a/headphone-buying-guide is a good place to start.

For gaming I use Audio Technica ATH-AD700 and Zalman Zm-Mic1. The AD700's don't have a large bass presence, so bass thumps don't interfere with footsteps and important locational noise (which they produce very accurately). These are by far the most comfortable headphones I have ever had on. The ModMic is also a very good mic option for any headphone.


Do a little research on the audio sub-reddits and you will find the perfect solution for your needs.

I'm mainly echoing some things that other people have said but here's my two cents,

Can you use your thumb very well? You could consider investing in an MMO mouse like someone else suggested.

Also, if you have at least some use of your left hand to hit keys, like say, for example, you can hit 1, 2, and 3, but not 4, 5, and 6, you can consider getting one of those gaming foot pedals, and use the pedal as modifier keys so you can do say, like, 1 as a key by itself, left side of the pedal and 1, right side of the pedal and 1, and so on.

Another option which again, depends on your hands, is one of those ergonomic gamepads. You might find it easier to use one of these because of how the keys are spaced and curved inward than a traditional keyboard.

Again, I don't know your exact situation, but those are some recommendations as far as some hardware goes, which take varying degrees of monetary investment (but can be translated to other games, too!)

As far as your initial question involving Voiceattack, I don't know how Jagex's bot detection software works (obviously) but the general rule they put out is one input = 1 output, so if the program only does 1 thing per thing you tell it to do, like for example, if you tell it to use your 1 key, and it only presses that key once, then you should be good to go. However if it's set to hit 1, 2, and 3 in order when you only give it one command, then that's a no-go. But I personally would try to reach out to Jagex and get some sort of feedback from them first. That way if you somehow get banned or something, you're already out ahead of it and would probably have no issues getting your account back. Hypothetically speaking, though I'd think that this hypothetical is pretty out there anyway as long as the program is used within the one input = 1 output rule.

^ Also don't take my word to be gospel on this, I strongly strongly recommend getting official word from a Jagex rep before trying anything with any sort of program like that if you value your account

Good luck, and I wish you the best in your gaming endeavors

pc-kombo shared list

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i7-7700K | $323.59 @ superbiiz
Motherboard | ASRock Z270 Extreme4 | $139.99 @ newegg
Memory | Team Group T-Force Dark grey, DDR4-3000, CL16 - 16 GB Kit (16 GB) | $128.99 @ newegg
SSD | SanDisk Plus 960GB TLC (960 GB) | $259.99 @ Amazon.com
Video Card | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Aorus 11G | $708.99 @ superbiiz
Case | PHANTEKS Enthoo Pro Midi-Tower - white Window | $109.99 @ Amazon.com
Power Supply | Seasonic X-Series (650 W) | $99.9 @ Amazon.com
CPU Cooler | be quiet! Dark Rock 3 | $64.99 @ superbiiz
Operating System | Windows 10 Home (32/64-bit, USB Flash Drive) | $102.99 @ superbiiz
| Total | $1939.42
| Generated by pc-kombo 04.08.2017 |

I normally don't do color schemes, but I made an exception here ;) Best gaming cpu with best gpu, you can play VR and everything else on this. 16 GB of fast ram (absolutely enough) and a 1TB SSD, a solid board and case as well as a high quality psu. The build is overclockable.

For the rest, there are many options, but I selected good ones:

Display: Dell S2716DG, https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824260333, 144Hz 1440p and Gsync.
Keyboard: Plugable mechanical, https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Mechanical-Enthusiasts-Backlighting-Double-shot/dp/B01MA6O13L
Mouse: Razer Deathadder, https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4RE4638718 - but there are so many alternatives you could get instead, browse a bit through the selection
Chair: I suggest a visit to Ikea, Markus is a great chair.
* Headset: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA7NT5JA1563 + https://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ/ - that's a very cheap solution, but it is also a very good one. Dedicated Headphones are way better than a gaming headset.

Okay, get a better mic and pop filter. I would recommend the Blue Yeti (it's super well-priced for the quality), and you can really use any old pop filter. Look around a bit for tutorials on cleaning up and processing vocal tracks.

Now on the actual subject. Personally, I tend to prefer dense hiphop production, à la El-P, but I can definitely recognize when it's well put together. The mixing is pretty decent actually; levels are pretty good and nothing is glaringly out-of-place. I would try to increase the stereo width a bit, but that's just me. Otherwise, the song itself is pretty good and you obviously have the technical talent. Just keep writing making music. Here's a link to a really long, but really good mixing tutorial. I highly recommend it, if you're interested.

Overall people overthink these products. If you look at what pro gamers use, the answer is almost always whatever their sponsor provides. Ultimately peripherals aren't that different and you will get used to whatever have.

Mice are subjective. Some prefer a larger, palm-filling mouse like a deathadder or a g403, but plenty of people with large hands use smaller mice as well, like the logitech g-pro. Personally, I use a g303 with claw grip. As long as you have appropriate side buttons and an optical sensor you're fine. I suggest going to a store that has mice on display and seeing what feels right in your hand. You should be able to find something suitable for $30-40, perhaps less.

For mouse pad get a very large generic pad from Amazon for ~$10. I like the ~3 ft wide mouse mat style that goes all the way under the keyboard. I got the Corsair one at Best Buy on sale for $15.

On headset you should consider getting a decent set of headphones and using a separate mic. They make mics that clip on, like this. The mic just needs to be functional, unless you really care about other people's sound quality. Headphones are one area where you might want to get something a little nicer, since comfort and sound quality are noticeable. I have the Philips SHP9500s, at ~$50 street price, which sound great and are very comfortable.

Starting a channel is pretty difficult, trust me I know what it’s like! My feedback would be to maybe instead of having the entire 40 minute video, you should break it up into smaller pieces pertaining to whatever topic you were on. That way people will less likely click away from a 40 minute video, especially if they don’t know you yet. After you cut up the video into smaller segments, then go ahead and release the full video Incase anyone wants to listen/watch the entire thing. Also, I know you’re just starting out, so somewhere down the road, you might want to consider upgrading your audio quality. One mic that I highly recommend that’s not terribly expensive is the Blue Yeti Microphone. It sounds amazing! I would recommend upgrading your camera quality too, but I know it’s your first one so I’m not too concerned on that. But eventually you will need to upgrade if you’re serious about it.

Another thing is to try to sound more excited. one thing that I like to do when I’m on camera, is to be an exaggerated version of yourself. Turn everything up a notch when you’re making a video, you don’t have to turn it all the way up to 11, but just try to make things sound more exciting when your on.

Last and the most important thing is to keep going! The more content you make, the better you will become at it! I’m no big youtuber, not even close, but I would say I’ve gotten better since I first started making videos. Since you’re brand new, don’t worry about viewers. Don’t be discouraged when you see not many or sometimes no one watches. Me personally, I Enjoy making videos for myself and if anyone watches cool, if not, so what I’m still doing something I enjoy.

These are a couple of things that I’ve learned along the way, I wish you the best of luck on your journey and whatever you do, make sure you enjoy it.

Hey /u/QuestionSleep - Nice work on the sounds for your video! It looks like everyone is giving you a bit of a hard time about the video quality though. So I'm here to help! :)

Here's a couple of super basic things to help you:

• Light is EVERYTHING! Having lights behind you (like your window) makes any camera have to lower the gain and exposure (fancy words for the way the image sensor takes in information which requires light). The best thing you can do with what you have right now is turn around so all the lights are behind the camera. That way the exposure and gain will come down and your framerate will go up. If you want to really help your videos get a simple table lamp and have it pointing at your face without getting in the shot, super cheap lighting!
  
  
• If you can afford it, a new camera would be great! Decent webcams can be cheaper than you think too! I'm guessing you are American so head over to here for something to put on Santa's list! http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Webcam-Widescreen-Calling-Recording/dp/B006JH8T3S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416858979&sr=8-1&keywords=logitech+c920
  
  That webcam will film at a good frame rate automatically in 1080p. Problem solved!
  
  Other than that, keep it up! Us ASMRtists have to keep working. Let me know if I can help you any more. And awesome Power Rangers top! :D

I'm really liking the video quality, although we'll have to see what your on-the-table shots look like. One thing I'd recommend that a lot of people sadly forget about is audio quality - It's almost as important as video quality! Yours seems to be alright - It's not noticeably bad by any means, just a slight echo that doesn't really get in the way of anything. What are you using as your camera setup?

Here's a few things I've learned from video editing for the past few years:

• Don't make it too long. Model making videos tend to run pretty long, and that's fine, but there's a few videos out there that run for hours. You can cut down the length on videos without losing out on any information. These can range from doing things like speeding up the video (Like Andy's Hobby Headquarters does) or by just showing part of the process and then cutting to the finished result (Like [Games Workshop does in their tutorials.](https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=vLsteSBHEcM)) - Either one works pretty well!
  
  
• Don't be afraid of your first few videos not looking amazing, being sloppily edited, the audio being terrible or something like that. It happens! You can fix all sorts of mistakes in post-production. Also, don't stop making videos. Learn by doing! The more content you make, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better your content becomes.
  
  
• Speaking of post production, have you decided how you're going to do your narration? There's some folks who do it as they work, which I generally think isn't the best method in the world but it involves less editing afterwards, and it can work well if done right. I'd personally go with doing all your audio in post production. So you do all the modeling and filming first, then you record audio over the edited version of the footage. This allows you to have two separate recording setups - Your garage, which might not be optimal for audio due to the echo that comes with being in a large empty space. There's a lot of great microphones out there, I'd personally recommend either the Blue Yeti or the Blue Snowball - Both are really well priced considering how good their audio quality is.
  
  
• Lighting is super important! A couple of desk lamps should help a whole lot.
  
  Sorry about the wall of text! If you have any questions, shoot! I might not have all the answers you want, but I have edited and shot my fair share of videos. It's a bit slow at first, but you become used to it when you learn to use the editing software, which is usually a lot simpler than it looks at first glance.
  
  Anyway, I'm really excited about your channel, and I hope my info helped!
  
  
  
  
  
  

Currently running ICS on my A500, really loving it. It'd be nice if there were a keyboard dock like the W500. The dock connector is a complete and utter waste without something like that. No idea what Acer was thinking. I got a case which can stand up the tablet and a wireless keyboard/touchpad, and it works, but it doesn't even come close to the convenience of a Transformer-like dock/charger.

Other than that, I'm enjoying my Iconia. I got it from a Woot sale at the end of January (IIRC) for $300. I do wish I had just waited and gotten a premium tablet, but you get what you pay for, and I'm very satisfied with what I've got, especially considering how little I paid.

I came from an iPad 2 to an A500. I love having an easily accessible dev community, and I love being able to actually do stuff with my tablet. Even jailbroken, the iPad was unbearably locked down. I couldn't stand it. The main downside would be the loss of the App Store's abundance of tablet apps, but that's a problem all Android tablets have and I'm sure a problem which will be remedied as tablets and Android tablets in particular become more popular.

The OS itself is just gorgeous. iOS looks fine on phones, but it just doesn't fit on a tablet... you're missing out on so much functionality without widgets and the like. Even Honeycomb looks a ton better than iOS, and ICS simply blows it out of the water. Here's my desktop right now. Everything's so smooth and well designed, as it should be. iOS, on the other hand... it feels "chunky" or childish on a tablet. It doesn't work well in my opinion.

So that's my whole opinion. The tablet itself is great for the price. There aren't any glaring flaws (well, the GPS thing can be problematic, but that's patchable.) Android itself is a great OS, albeit one with a lacking selection of tablet apps. That selection is growing, though. I love my Iconia and, right now, there's really no reason to upgrade to anything different.

Here is a video that goes over current SD card specifications pretty well. I'll post what I got out of it and a little bit of additional research:

CAPACITY

There are three different types of SD cards that indicate a size range. SD cards are up to 2GB and are useless for our purposes. SDHC cards are from 4-32 GB and are ill-advised since 32GB isn't really enough. What we're interested in is SDXC cards which are from 64GB to 2TB. Each card has a micro version which is what we need. Capacity type doesn't have an impact on performance.

WRITE SPEED

There are two different families of speed classes that indicate a minimum write performance. The first, traditional speed class comes in Class 2, Class 4, Class 6, and Class 10. The number corresponds to their write speed, Class 2 is 2MB/s, class 10 is 10MB/s. This class is denoted by their number inside of a "C".

The other family of speed class is UHS. There are only two types, type 1 and type 3. These are denoted by their number inside of a "U" shaped symbol. UHS1 writes at 10MB/s, UHS3 writes at 30MB/s. That means the Class 10 and UHS1 have the same minimum write performance, but we're just going to look at UHS cards from now on. It is possible for a card to claim a UHS class speed, and a Class 10 speed.

Bus Interface

There are two different bus interfaces for UHS cards, UHS-I and UHS-II. These are denoted by roman numerals rather than our numbers. UHS-II cards have a second row of connection pins on the back of the card, while UHS-I just has the single row. UHS-II cards can transfer data faster than UHS-I cards when they are in a UHS-II compatible machine. If the machine is not UHS-II compatible then there is no benefit, however the UHS-II card will still work as it is backwards compatible. It does not look like the Nintendo Switch is UHS-III compatible, so there is no benefit to using a UHS-II card in it, which is a shame because the II interface can help read speeds tremendously.

So what is Nintendo recommending with OP's card? A microSDXC UHS3-I card. Meaning it is a micro version of a 64GB card, with the best write speed class, and the standard/worse Bus interface.

Nintendo-licensed Sandisk microSDXC 64GB UHS3-I for $19.99

Non licensed Sandisk microSDXC 64GB UHS3-I card for $23

/u/Nobody_is_lurking posted two contenders...

Sandisk microSDXC 64GB UHS1-I card for $14.25

Sandisk microSDXC 128GB UHS1-I card
for $23.25


...but it isn't actually an apples to apples comparison, as they are both UHS1 rather than UHS3. The $6 question is how big of a difference is there functionally between the two speed classes when actually being used by a Switch, which someone already took the time to test!

The results show that, when write speed was involved, the difference was significant, and that installed games can go by 3x faster using a UHS3 card. So sure, the UHS3 is a clear winner for installing, but what people really care about are load times, showed a less drastic story. Installing locally on the Switch beats any external storage options that we're looking at, then the UHS3 trailed shortly behind, with UHS1 following a little longer. For a regularly installed game the difference in load times doesn't seem to be more than a couple of seconds, even if the load time is a minute long. This guy also tested homebrew launched games though, which did show a much bigger difference between UHS1 and UHS3. So there is a difference in load time, but just not a massive one that many people would notice.

Looking at value, for whatever reason the Nintendo-licensed cards are currently cheaper than their equivalent nonlicensed cards, both the 64Gb and 128GB. Obviously the UHS-1 is cheaper than the UHS-3 across the board.

But if you want to branch away from Sandisk you can have the best of both worlds with a Samsung 64GB UHS3-I card for $15 The price per MB stays consistent at bigger sizes as well, so if you wanted a 128GB one it'd be $30.

tl;dr Buy this one. It is better and cheaper.

• Budget - ~$150 USD
  
  
• Source - Desktop, Laptop, Phone, MP3 Player - Also, I'll be using a V-Moda BoomPro Mic on the computers, so the headphones need to be compatible. (It seems like any 3.5mm detachable cable will do.)
  
  
• Requirements for Isolation- Open.
  
  
• Will you be using these Headphones in Public? No.
  
  
• Preferred Type of Headphone Around-Ear.
  
  
• Preferred tonal balance - Warm bass to neutral. The treble spikes on the DT 990's scared me away though I've never actually tried them out in person.
  
  
• Past headphones - V-Moda Crossfade LP (had these for 5 years; still using them to this day, but I want to get some open cans to go along with them), AKG K240 (I ordered these on a whim, and had to return them because they weren't compatible with my mic. Nice sound signature though), Turtle Beach Earforce X12 headset (These sound and feel fine. The mic works well, but the build quality was terrible. The plastic extenders snapped on both sides within a year of use).
  
  
• Preferred Music - Hip Hop, Rock, Indie, Instrumental, Classical
  
  
• What would you like to improve on from your set-up -
  
  

1. Open headphones (since I already own a good pair of closed)
   
   
2. Felt/velvet/velour earpads for extended use
   
   
3. Compatible with a V-Moda BoomPro Mic
   
   
4. I really liked the AKG K240's style and feel when I was wearing them. They felt very lite weight, like they were almost floating over my head. And using only one cup at a time felt very natural and secure. The individual arms felt very flexible. I liked that a lot, but this isn't a make or break requirement as I've been using Crossfade LPs for years and still love them.
   
   From my own (limited) research, I've got my eye on Sennheiser's HD 598 and HD 558, but I would have to buy an aftermarket 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter. I don't mind the price of an adapter, but I don't want it to be cumbersome. And are the HD598's better by $40? They seem to nearly be the same exact headphone.

I love board games!

If you want a simple game instead of the regular 2 hr trek of Arkham or Catan, you could get Zombie Dice. It's silly, but entertaining. It's a little like Blackjack and yahtzee mixed together. If you don't have Pandemic, you need it. It's so much fun and it's different because you work together instead of against the other players. You can play with two people also. Ticket to ride is another fun one, don't be deceived into thinking it's lame from the art/cover. It's award winning.

As far as senitmental ones, you can steal this idea from me =): I bought a deck of cards and wrote 52 different reasons I love my boyfriend on each card. He really appreciated the time and thought into picking 52 different things. Plus the medium is interesting if you like games. I had things on there varying from "You always appreciate the effort I put into cooking, even when it's not the best result" to "You never make me feel embarrassed to be myself". Plus a couple more scandalous items ;).

If he's into PC games (and if he doesn't have one) he might enjoy a gameboard like this one or a gaming mouse. And, if we're getting sentimental again, make him a mousepad with a picture of you two.

I could keep going, but I have to go to work. I think your SO and mine are a lot alike as far as interests go, haha.

I use a crappy Sharkk mouse I got for 15 dollars from EBay. It may feel flimsy and I may have to super glue the scroll wheel to the actually wheel every couple weeks but hey it works. I mainly bought this because A) It was on sale for 15 dollars B) It has two extra buttons and C) It got dem lights.

For my keyboard I'm using a flips keyboard over [KB-0325](http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/fYcAAMXQhuVROMdI/$(KGrHqF,!jkFD1HN61hYBROMdIB!d!~~60_1.JPG) (Not my image). I actually really like this keyboard even if it is ancient. It gets the job done and while the 4 key on the number pad messes up occasionally and types multiple 4's, I'm not sure if I would enjoy anything better. I've had it since I built my computer and its always stuck by my side through thick and thin.

Headphone wise I'm using JVC HARX700's. I actually really like these headphones and I got them as a gift so I'm happy.

I don't know if it counts but I borrowed a Blue Yeti Mic from for almost four months before returning it last month. I mainly used the Blue to record. no not another crappy lets play video, but I'm currently working on some heavier vocal stuff.

So as you see a big factor in my purchases is price. I'm not proud of my gear, but I am willing to go out on a limb and buy a cheaper rip off version and save a few bucks toward a car and the likes then spend 100 dollars on a mouse so I can feel cool. Not that expensive parts are bad, I just personally find I can get by with cheaper things and save money for other things be it cars, school, food, or my PC innards (GTX 660, 8gig Corsair RAM, 2+1tb Western Digital and Seagate HDD, AMD Phenom II x4, cheap Cooler Master Case, MSI Military Class mother board that I cant remember). I may be a penny pincher and I do know that cheap things don't last quite as long, but in my current situation cheap will get me buy.

Good luck to everyone else and thanks for the giveaway OP!

Yeah I could suggest a few.

[Blue Yeti] (http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Microphones-Yeti-USB-Microphone/dp/B002VA464S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418924712&sr=8-1&keywords=blue+yeti&pebp=1418924714123)
MXL 990 Condenser Mic
Audio Technica AT2035 I have owned all of these and they might be pricey for you, but any one of them are worth the investment. My favorite is the AT4040, but that is like $300. The AT2035 is a great alternative to that and it's what I use a secondary. Anyone of these are fine just read some reviews check out their manufacturer's webpage. It's important to get a good mic that is right for you. For example the Blue Yeti was nice, but I have a kinda high pitched voice and it was not picking up mid frequencies as well as I would have liked.

If you don't feel like spending that much a couple of good mics are:
Audio Technica ATR2500 $66 on Amazon.
and
MXL 770 $60 on Amazon

EDIT: Forgot to mention. We actually have pretty similar voices oddly enough as it is. Another thing I noticed was the amount of essing (the his sound while pronouncing s) and a little bit of pop on hard consonants. I would lean towards getting a mic with a good mid-range focus and a pop-filter.

Cheap 2.1 sound? Cyber Acoustics CA-3602 for $40 on Amazon. Brother had this exact set and he liked it, except the control knob was weird to use and it was impossible to plug in headphones without messing with the volume wheel. The exposed speakers and plastic casing make it look cheap, but they sound really good considering the cost.

Slightly better sound? Creative Sound BlasterX Kratos S3 for $80 on Amazon. All wood casing gives you great sound and they have a good amount of punch. The sub will be a bit lacking if you place it on the floor. You can get these for about $60 from Fry's Electronics if you sign up for their e-mail promo codes. They knock off $20 retail with the code.

Best bang for your buck? Logitech Z623 for $120 on Amazon or the Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 for around $120 on Amazon. Both of these are THX certified and they have a lot of bass. Powerful sub coupled with some great speakers make these awesome for the price.

idk what your price range is but ill name a list of headsets iive know are good.ive tried a couple and i personally own the astro a40 tr https://www.amazon.com/ASTRO-Gaming-A40-TR-PC-Headset/dp/B014LH5LH4/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1468999233&sr=1-2&keywords=astro+a40+tr

Razer man o war te edition Very comfortable and has a good bass response
http://gear.blizzard.com/overwatch-razer-manowar-headset

Logitech g633 amazing sound ive tried these i absoultely loved them but i was able to buy keep these at the time i had them
https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Artemis-Spectrum-Surround-Headset/dp/B013P0K8OE/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1468999270&sr=1-1&keywords=logitech+g633

Hyper x cloud ii/revolvers basically an audiophile headset called takstar something idk remember the numbers with a mic
https://www.amazon.com/HyperX-Cloud-Gaming-Headset-PS4/dp/B00SAYCXWG/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1468999356&sr=1-2&keywords=hyper+x+cloud

https://www.amazon.com/HyperX-Revolver-Headset-HX-HSCR-BK-NA/dp/B01CIEBU54/ref=sr_1_3?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1468999397&sr=1-3&keywords=hyper+x+cloud

If you want an audiophile grade open back headphones you can get the phillips shp9500 with a vmoda boom pro(replaces the 3.5mm cable from the phillips with a 3.5mm cable with a mic attached to it that actually works really good ive personally have used the vmoda boom pro, and these also dont have much bass since they are open back but will give you a good soundstage and a more flat overall sound which is great)
https://www.amazon.com/Philips-SHP9500-Precision-Over-ear-Headphones/dp/B00ENMK1DW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468999443&sr=8-1&keywords=phillips+shp9500

https://www.amazon.com/V-MODA-BoomPro-Gaming-Headset-Headphone/dp/B00BJ17WKK/ref=pd_bxgy_23_img_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=RMHT9CZPCNN63DNKGWBC

Turtle beach elite pro pretty new but looks amazing
https://www.amazon.com/Turtle-Beach-Tournament-ComforTec-TruSpeak-Technology/dp/B01EM9PLVC

Senheisser game one/zero one is a closed back and one is a open dont remember which one is which
https://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-GAME-ZERO-Gaming-Headphone/dp/B00KNPYAEY/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1468999133&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=senheisseer+game+one

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GWU8FTK/ref=twister_B00OZP5HG8?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Plantronics rig 500/500hd/500e(just little variations in between still the exact same headset one is just stereo,one is surround sound, and one issurround and comes with different sets of earcups closed and open. ive also personally used these they are fantastic but i wouldnt recommend if you have big ears normal to small ears fit inside the cups well)
http://www.plantronics.com/us/product/rig-500hc

http://www.plantronics.com/us/product/rig-500hd

http://www.plantronics.com/us/product/rig-500e

If anything is out of your price range i can probably recommend some other ones but these are the ones i can think of on the top of my head feel free to ask any questions

Hey guys, I have a $300 (USD) budget to improve my audio performance on my high end PC. When I built it, I more or less ignored the audio side of things, and I'm already regretting that decision :P I'm currently using cheap logitech z313, which aren't horrendous but definitely lack in volume or definition.

I DO NOT have a sound card, and am just using on-board sound of my Asus Sabre-tooth z77. Advertised on their website with these specifications:

Realtek® ALC892 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC

• Supports : Jack-detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-retasking
  Audio Feature :
  
• Absolute Pitch 192kHz/ 24-bit True BD Lossless Sound
  
• Blu-ray audio layer Content Protection
  
• Optical S/PDIF out port(s) at back panel
  
  Ive heard mixed opinions on whether on board sound is just as good as an actual stand alone sound card. I've also read how important a good DAC can be, but am not sure if its a big enough of a deal to include in my initial budget, or just something i should get "down the line" for a slight increase in performance.
  
  My question is this: what should I prioritize my budget for, in terms of performance and cost?
  
  I could potentially get the recommended JBL's (my musician friends seconded the recommendation) but it wouldn't leave any room in my budget for a DAC, soundcard, or subwoofer.
  
  Do you all think I'd be happier with getting the cheaper Klipsch Promedia 2.1 THX certified all in one (http://www.amazon.com/Klipsch-ProMedia-Certified-Computer-Speaker/dp/B000062VUO/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1408310685&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=Klipcsh+Pro+Media), and then a Schiit DAC on top of it (or sound card?) or would I be better off just getting the best speakers I can afford (The JBLs) and upgrading the rest as I go individually? Is the performance difference one that is drastically noticable or is it a minor difference that only true "audiophiles" would even notice?
  
  As this is for a desktop PC setup, I'm looking for all around solid performance. I use it for everything; from production to gaming to movies to music.

So this is just my opinion; take what you want from it.


Main build parts look great. They will easily crush OW, RL, and RS:S. CS:GO is the only one that looks a bit concerning. From my personal experience and benchmarks I have looked at, there is a direct correlation between the cpu clock speed and the peformence (csgo is largely cpu based). If you're not planning to play a lot of AAA games (don't worry, you'll still be able too), I would wait a bit and get the RX 470 instead of the 480. This will let you run the CPU intensive games you seem to want at a higher framerate (think CS:GO at 300fps, which is what people aim around for very competitive play). More info on why you would want 300 and not 144 can be found here. Keep in mind that youtube video does have some extra stuff in it that is specific to CS:GO.

Ram seems to be good. I have the same ssd and hard drive as you put on that list, and I love them. Friend got the case you put down (talked to him and he said he loves it). He also said the same about that psu (he has the 650w version).

Now lets move on to the peripherals. Monitor is good. I have a slightly different monitor with the same panel inside that works flawlessly. The one gripe you may have with that monitor is you can't swivel and turn it with the included stand. Nothing hard to fix up with a stand from monoprice (costs $20 though :/). Zowie fk2 is great. I got a different zowie, but they are all absolutely wonderful. Qck+ (used to have but moved on) is good for a couple months (6 or so) and then gets a little worn out and worse for tracking. Damn they are a good price though. I do not know much about headphones, nor know someone who does, so I don't have much to comment on them. I feel like you could get better, but I have no clue.

The mic and the keyboard. Welp! the mic seems incredibly overpriced TBH. Unless your gonna be using it to stream on twitch regularly, I don't really feel it's worth the price. I got THIS one, and have been using it for a year with no issues at all. Absolutely wonderful for skype and in game chat. TEST AUDIO FROM MIC

Now the keyboard isn't that great. With a cheaper mic and gpu you can get a better one for a reasonable price. Also check out /r/mechanicalkeyboards (an absolute amazing sub).



BASED ON ALL OF THAT THIS IS WHAT I RECOMMEND
even though it's more expensive you can feel free to take bits and pieces of my recommendations and not others :)
now I'm going to bed

anybody feel free to critique me cause I'm not perfect

Ah ok, that's probably the reason. Most built in microphones will not be as good as the microphones you buy in stores/online. They pick up the sounds of your laptop fan and other noises. It's alright if you're a beginner just trying to start but it'll quickly need to be replaced as some people might not even consider following you if there's an annoying sound constantly playing.

Since I haven't heard your microphone then all I can say is that if it doesn't sound like your ears are about to bleed then feel free to use it for starters(test this with a friend or some viewers). But I suggest you get a dedicated microphone for streaming.

----

Microphones my friends and I have used

If you're able to buy a microphone then the ones that my friends and I have experience with are the following:

• Blue's Snowball Microphone
  
  
• Blue's Yeti Microphone
  
  Here's a video that show's off both microphones and an extra
  
  Other Microphones
  
  I've heard that these are also good, though I have no experience with them.
  
  
• Blue's NESSIE Microphone : Review
  
  
• Samson's Go Microphone : Review
  
  
• Samson's CO1U microphone : Review
  
  ----
  
  Some tips for your microphone
  
  I suggest you get a pop filter^[1] for your microphone if you decide to buy one. Then, if possible, you should also get a Shock Mount^[2] but that isn't as crucial as the pop filter.
  
  

1. Pop filters are designed to stop Plosives from being heard when recording. Plosives are puffs of air that emit when saying words that start with certain letters, such as P or B. They can ruin a recording for people that over-exaggerate the begging of some words. Pop filter Example
   
   
2. The best way I can describe a Shock-Mount is a if the mount is a cradle for your microphone. Any bumps or small movements to a Microphone NOT using a Shock-Mount will cause it to be heard in recording, meaning you'll hear all these small sounds in the background. It's easier to just show you what a shock mount does
   
   ----
   
   There's a bit more to recording your microphone, like sound proofing, but that's for another day. I just wanted to give you a list of microphones and some tips that could help you out if you're a new to streaming/recording.
   
   Good Luck! As I said before, if your laptop's microphone doesn't make your ears(or a friends' ears) bleed then go ahead and use it for how ever long it takes you to save up and buy a better microphone. But I suggest you not wait too long if you have the choice.
   
   Edit: Markup
   
   Edit2: Grammar
   
   Edit3: Reworded the first section's title.

First thing you need to ask is when did you buy your switch? If it’s June of this year or after it’s probably got a hardware patch and you can’t hack it. You can check here by serial number.

If your switch is exploitable then go on amazon and get yourself an sd card (may want bigger storage depending on how many games you’ll want) and a jig.
Alternatively, you could get an SX Pro, but unless you don’t mind spending extra money, it’s kind of overpriced and everything you need to do without it is pretty cheap and easy.

It’s easiest to let your switch format your sd card to exFat, but DON’T update to 6.2 FW yet. It’s cracked but CFW hasn’t been updated yet. set up 90DNS.This is so you can use internet apps like YouTube and even play some games online later on non-Nintendo servers without worrying about Nintendo detecting your mods. Also, FYI the switch lan play works on OFW and banned switches as well.

Then backup your clean NAND using hekate
VERY IMPORTANT you do this BEFORE you load any CFW or autoRCM for the first time. The only way you’ll ever be able to go back online to eShop and play online on official Nintendo servers is to restore your clean NAND backup (removing CFW). Also keep in mind your fuse count will need to be the same when restoring this so try not to update your FW (even using offline methods) unless you do it without burning fuses.

Then follow instructions here to setup ReiNX (CFW) and a few other important programs and settings you’ll need.

Then go get Smash and have fun!

With the Coolermaster Elite 130 case you don't have to worry as much about graphics card size as it does have quite a bit of space that will fit a majority of graphics card sizes.

The only thing you really have to worry about with Mini-ITX cases is airflow and heat dissipation.

The main advantage of a Mini-ITX case is that is can literally fit anywhere you need it to be without much issue. It will also be very easy to move and take to a friends house if you want to show off how much better your PC is than his console.

If you really want to "show off" your PC to your friends / family, than a Mini-ITX computer is not going to be very impressive.

Honestly, the most upgrading that you are going to be doing in the next 4 years is most likely going to be a graphics card, and that would be as easy as taking out the old, and plugging in the new and then updating your graphics drivers for the new card.

Now if you really want to take pride in your computer every day, go with the latest build that I posted, as it has a case with a window, so you will be able to see all of your components and it will also allow you to see the dust accumulation without actually opening the enclosure and know when to clean the computer regularly.

I would suggest investing in a MetroVAC electric duster whenever you need to buy "compressed air" to clean your computer.

https://www.amazon.ca/METROPOLITAN-VACUUM-CLEANER-CO-ED500/dp/B001J4ZOAW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465152702&sr=8-1&keywords=datavac

You would be surprised how expensive compressed air becomes when you need to clean your components and ensure that no dust sticks around for very long which could impede the cooling efficiency of the entire computer.

If you want you could just purchase all of the components now except for the graphics card. You will be able to do some light gaming with the i5-6500 onboard graphics and also save up some more money while you wait for the graphics card to come out.

You will want to invest in an aftermarket CPU cooler at some point like a Hyper 212 EVO. The stock CPU cooling fan that comes with Intel processors is quite lackluster, very loud and will be one of the first components to go bad in your build and need replacing.

Two picks that you can't go wrong with are:

Open backs: Fidelio X2 + VModa BoomPro

Closed backs: Audio-Technica MSR7 + VModa BoomPro

Spendy yes, but these are essentially the top of the heap for great sounding, well built, comfortable, and easy to use headsets. Compatible with pc and most consoles, either of these should last a lifetime save for maybe the cords or pads which are replaceable. Buying 'Used - Like New' is an option to save a bit.

If you decide using a desktop mic is an option, then the DT990's have already been suggested. The ModMic is an attachable mic option that works with everything, but it adds yet another cord so it's not an option I'm particularly fond of.

If you decide the options above are just more than you really want to spend, there are a few good budget picks as well.

• Will he actually require a m.2 ssd? I'm not saying its not good but for the same price you can grab him a 1TB ssd rather than a 512. Just a suggestion. Not saying you should do this. :P
  
  
• You should test out mice with him. G502 is a good mouse but not for everyone. There are other mice like the Zowie FK1/2, EC1/2, Deathadder, etc. that fit people better. Finding the right mouse is everything for a gamer. Also, make sure to buy him a good mousepad to go with the mouse. There are a lot out there so a bit of research will be needed lol.
  
  
• Watercooling is nice and all but they go out sooner than later. Multiple builds in the family that have had water cooling go out within a year or two. Cheaper to replace fans than it is water cooling. Really good systems for air cooling that will keep temps down, even at high over-clocks.
  
  
• A gamer is never complete without a gaming headset. https://www.amazon.com/Philips-SHP9500-Precision-Over-ear-Headphones/dp/B00ENMK1DW goes on sale every other week for ~56$. Add https://www.amazon.com/V-MODA-BoomPro-Gaming-Headset-Headphone/dp/B00BJ17WKK/ref=pd_bxgy_23_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FNMCF7A6N6YMCZBEK9RD to that and it's the best gaming headset you can buy for under 150$ (ask anyone here). You can go for the slightly better http://www.bestbuy.com/site/sennheiser-audiophile-over-the-ear-headphones-titan/1700513.p?skuId=1700513 but you will need to modify it slightly (easy to do): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_fd3PzoTeY

What kind of games do you play? For competitive FPS where positional queues and imaging are important, I'd go with a used HD700 or even HD800. Will be hard to find on a $400 budget, but maybe you'll find the 700.

For more single player or immersive games, you have a lot of different options. This will come down to more of what sort of sound signature you like (bass, mid, treble forward?). I would put the HD600 series here moreso than in the competitive gaming realm.

Honestly, once you get above where you're at now, the diminishing returns become pretty apparent. I don't notice enough difference when gaming between my ATH-AD700x and my HD800 that would make me want to spend the difference for gaming alone. Sure the soundstage on the 800s is wider and the imaging slightly better, but it doesn't translate to that much of an edge in game. The 700x (or 598 in your case) is already leaps and bounds ahead of whatever other fart cannons most other people are using. I'd honestly just stick with what you've got.

As stated in other replies, get a desktop mic, a boom mic, a modmic, or any sort of wired clipon. Most/all gaming headsets are not great, or just OK, and you will be sacrificing sound quality and soundstage going to one of those from your 598s. This mic is $10 and actually sounds pretty darn good. I clip it on to whatever pair of headphones I pick up (depending on the game).

What are you driving your 598s with? You may see some improvement investing in your source.

Save your money and don't buy super fancy cables expecting much difference. Good solid cables shouldn't cost more than $50. It might be an unpopular opinion, but I don't think they drastically change the sound signature, at least to my ears.

I'm trying to find a list of all 82/84 key-keyboards on the market that I can actually buy new. I know there's a longer list of discontinued stuff.

As of now I know of the: 84 Keycool, Cherry G-84
, KBT RACE II, Drevo 84, Keycool hero 84, Noppoo Choc mini 84.

Looking for an 84 key with media buttons and a function key on the bottom row. I'd like MX cherry stems so I can change out the caps easily but know other caps are available. If I could program the media button locations and order keys to match. That'd be awesome.

I'm pretty happy with the OUTEMU brown switches on my 68 key magicforce so I'll probably go with brown switches.

If anyone wants to recommend me an 84 key board with media keys and some function keys like an calculator button and board number pad that'd be awesome I'm all ears. The Keycool Hero I already linked looks like a winner

I'm currently using the AKG K7XXs and love them, but those are pretty pricy.

The Sennheiser HD518s are great. I've owned a couple of the HD5xx models, can't remember which exactly, but they were excellent headphones and EXTREMELY comfortable for hours on end. Very good sound. Absolutely a great line.

You could then throw on something like this and you're still close to your original budget...

Budget: $175

Source: My Laptop

Requirements for Isolation: None, I think. I'll be using them at home only and if necessary I can just shut my door

Preferred type: Full-sized, circumaural

Preferred tonal balance: Unsure but I guess balanced? Hopefully my music preference/use will allow for some input here

Past Headphones: Beats are the only notable pair I've had. I enjoyed they way they sounded but that could just be because they were the first non generic pair that I've used. Biggest gripe would be buying batteries.

Preferred music: Electronic, Video Game soundtracks (usually orchestral), hip hop, and power metal

I'd like to use them primarily for music (most importantly) and also as a headset for gaming, although I won't need them for CoD style gameplay where footsteps are important. I was thinking about buying non-gaming headphones and just buying a mic but I'm open to anything.

Regarding standalone mics, I went through Mad Lust Envy's guide and was looking at the V-moda BoomPro and was wondering if it was worth the price? Also I've heard great things about the Zalman and was wondering if I should just get that to save money.

Thanks!

Edit: This is a repost since I'd like a few more responses. u/andysaurus_rex suggested HE-300 but I've also heard that they are just okay for electronic music. I'd like a pair that's made moreso for electronic music/bassy but if u/andysaurus_rex's suggestion still fits best and I've just been misinformed then I'll do that.

Also, if anyone has any input on the mics, that would be much appreciated.

He has some good advice. But for the love of all that is holy. Please do not buy a "gaming" headset.

Invest in a good pair of headphones and attach something like a Antlion Mod-Mic to it. You'll end up with far better sound, a similar if not better mic, for around the same or cheaper price as those "high end gaming" headsets.

Something like this: Audio-Technica ATH-AD700 $99 + Antlion ModMic $32 or Zalman Zm-Mic1 Clip-On Mic $6.99

Gives you a set of incredibly good sounding headphones for both music and gaming, and a mic comparable to the one you are going to find on any headset out there (no matter how expensive, unless you want to go super high end).

If you don't like the look of the ATH-AD700s, then browse through this wonderful thread/font of knowledge on headphones at Head-Fi.org: Link.

As for mechanical keyboards, the Steelseries 6Gv2 Cherry MX Black is a good choice.

In terms of mice, I suggest you go to your local computer shop and try out mice there with your hand. You need to find one that fits the way you like to grip your mouse and one that is fit for you. I'd even recommend the same with the mechanical keyboards. A place like Frys is a great place to test them out as the regularly have the mechanical keyboards out on display to test.

Almost anything with a built in mic is going to sacrifice audio or build quality. A cheap and popular solution is to get this Zalman clip on mic. Of course, it won't be the highest quality, but it's certainly good enough for chat. Look for something better if you're recording for lets plays or anything like that.

I love Sennheiser's open cans, but they're open and can get uncomfortable after long gaming sessions. The hifiman will need an amp, so that will go beyond your budget. If you can afford an extra ~$100 for an amp, the Hifiman HE-400 is really an incredible option. Super comfortable, though fairly heavy.

Also look at Beyerdynamics. At ~$160, it gives you room for an amp. Very comfortable too.

Try to test drive a pair if you can. Some websites have generous return policies so you can try them out.

I linked them in my post, but for ease:

Headphones: A good entry pair would be the Philips SHP9500S. Check out /r/headphones' headphone purchasing guide if you'd like to actually figure out what headphones would best suit you. Everyone's different.

Mic: If you want one that will resemble that of a gaming headset's mic, then the Antlion Modmic is great, and attach magnetically (I believe?). If you'd like an inexpensive mic that isn't attached to your headphones, the Samson Go is actually pretty awesome. It's shockingly-close to sounding like the Blue Yeti Pro. Here's a sound test involving the two microphones mentioned.

I come from the audiophile world, so a couple things I need to know before I offer any recommendations....
-Price, now I know you said "unlimited" but are you willing to include a DAC too?
-Listening preferences/uses, do you like music with a lot of bass or do you like a flat sound signature? Will you be doing competitive FPS where you might want more treble to hear footsteps easier?
-Environment, are you in a room by yourself or is your PC quiet enough where an open back headset is okay or do you want total isolation from any noise around you? (NOTE: open back provides better sound stage at the cost of you hearing stuff around you and other people if they're close hearing what's playing)

Last...AND FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY.....DON'T, I repeat DON'T buy a gaming headset if you want good sound quality unless you want to fork over more money than you have to.

Having said all that, one recommendation is the Phillips SHP9500 with Vmoda boom pro (open back) all for around $100 IIRC on Amazon.

Another recommendation is the Phillips Fidelio X2 with before mentioned boom pro.

IF you want "f*ck all outside noise" the Bose QC 35 will work (mic cord included)

However, probably the best idea out there is the Modmic (link: https://www.amazon.com/Antlion-Audio-ModMic-Attachable-Microphone/dp/B00R98JVVU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503259595&sr=8-1&keywords=modmic) pick your favorite headphone and attach a mic to it)
Then you can completely go balls to the wall and get something like the ShureSRH1540.

Or just say fuck it and buy the Sennheiser Orpheus ;)

> Is AMD as good as Intel nowadays or should I focus on Intel i5i7?

AMD's R5 series is extremely competitive to intel, I would personally purchase the R5 1600/1600x if I was building a new PC today. The Intel i7 7700k manages to beat Ryzens R7 1800x and 1700x due to its higher IPC and clock speeds. This is relevant at very high framerates such as 1080p 144FPS. At 60FPS in either 1080p, 1440p, or 4K the CPU's are pretty much the same (But with AMD having far more headroom for streaming, recording, or multi-tasking due to its superior core count). So it only really matters if you are going for extremely high refresh rates. Both are nearly equal at 90 or 120 in many titles with intel pulling away after that.


> I'd like to run dual displays do need special video cards for that nowadays? Or do most PCs have that as an option now?

Most GPU's and Mobos come with multiple display outs. So you can run both displays off your GPU. No special items needed.

> I capture gameplay using an Elgato and my Mac to capture for my PlayStation's should I get an internal card? Any recommendations?

Not really into streaming myself. Many people use programs such as OBS software as an "on the cheap" solution. Could you not also use your Elgato with your PC?


> If I didn't go Dell one other PC manufacturers are a good choice?

I am very partial to building your own PC. Today its even easier then when you were doing it! Your 1400$ could go a lot farther by building your own.

> I'd appreciate some Amazon links to any other recommendations for gear I plan on podcasting so I need some microphone stands/lighting/dual monitor stands (are mounting brackets universal now?) if you have any recommendations for this fire away

Yeti Blue - https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Yeti-USB-Microphone-Silver/dp/B002VA464S/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1500325780&sr=8-4&keywords=yeti+blue Is probably one of the most popular USB plug and play Mics for streaming. It has excellent sound quality, dead simple set up and has multiple pickup patterns depending on where you position it and how you set-it up.

If you want a bit cheaper the Yeti snowball again is very popular, If you want a bit more of a higher end mic then I would suggest the Audio Technica AT2020 XLR , which would require both a phantom power source for the cable and an interface (like the Focusrite Scarlett Solo.) Generally I wouldn't hop into these types of set-ups unless you are willing to do your research and are willing to put a section of your budget towards the audio. For 97.5% of streamers/podcasts the USB Yeti Blue / competitors at that price range will serve you well.

Most boom stands are standardised. Its just a matter if you want the table pincher or the full stand with the base. 99% of the 20-30$ ones work great.

| Introduction | Last-Gen Crusher | Next-Gen Crusher | Value (Recommended) | Enthusiast | Kiss of Gaben |

|:-----------:|:-----------:|:------------:|:------------:|:------------:|:------------:|

Last Updated on October 13th, 2013

IMPORTANT! READ THIS!

The Radeon R9 series coming out. That means it may be a good idea to WAIT on buying any parts. Existing Radeons will get cheaper, and the new ones will offer better performance. Thank you.

Introduction

Here I will be explaining why I chose the parts I did in the various builds, a little information on how to assemble for those who need reference, and other important tidbits of information. Stay tuned. If you have any questions, just tail one onto this post and it will be added if it's helpful for others.

Why does no build include a display, mouse, or keyboard?

Glad you asked. Chances are, the builder already has some or all of these things. If not, you'll want to shop around for well-rated 1080p displays and well-rated mice and keyboards. Try to get a mechanical keyboard if you can, the difference really is night and day. There's also a large table below with a lot of good parts to choose from. Take a look!

Why do you only have AMD cards?

I'm working on adding both nVidia and AMD options where applicable. If you find an nVidia or AMD card that's faster and the same price as the one that's already offered, please do leave me a comment so I can add it. AMD and nVidia are pretty much the same now, so it mostly comes down to price and multi-GPU needs. It's worth noting that nVidia's SLi technology is better than AMD's Crossfire. I normally end up with AMD cards for single-GPU and nVidia for multi-GPU.

Why are you using AMD CPUs? They suck. You stupid fanboy, etc.

Reason #1: PCs are supposed to last a long time, and Intel's latest Ivy Bridge and Haswell chips have a measly 3-5 years of life expectancy before they dry out on the inside. Why do they dry out on the inside, you may ask? Because Intel decided to stray away from the industry standard "fluxless solder" they had under the CPU lid and use cheap thermal paste instead.

Reason #2: AMD FX chips are not nearly as bad as the big reviewers suspiciously made it look. It does indeed trade blows with Intel, but overall in a (real world, read: not 800x600 benchmarks) normal situation, it does better. Game streaming, straight-up gaming, and productivity all do well on the FX chips.

Reason #3: Next-Gen console ports (AKA, a chunk of all PC games for the next 8 years) are going to be built for AMD's x86 module-based architecture as well as their GCN GPU architecture. Sources: [1], [2]

Reason #4: Evolving software. When the 8-core chips were first announced in 2011, we could barely utilize 6 cores with our games and applications. It was so bad that AMD and Microsoft had to release a patch for Windows just for the things to work right. Times have changed. Developers are better at juggling cores and continue to get better as time goes on. In optimal situations with the cores being fully utilized, a $199 8350 can even land a punch on the newer $339 i7-4770k.

Reason #5: AMD's motherboards have better backwards and forwards compatibility. You can use anything as far back as an AM2 single-core Sempron up to a 2014 Steamroller. They're also generally a good bit cheaper than the Intel-based boards with comparable features.

Reason #6: Have you seen how cheap AMD's CPUs are? The FX-6300 and FX-8320 are absolute monsters. You would have to be crazy to ignore them.

Reason #7: If you really wanted an Intel chip, you could easily swap it out anyways. I just don't want to be recommending bad chips.

Why so many watts?

The extra wattage in these builds leaves room for you to grab a stronger CPU and graphics card if needed.

Why no optical DVD drive?

The DVD drive has been intentionally left out, just borrow one when you install your OS.

Why no OS?

The OS has been left out because most builders already have a disc laying around. If they don't they'll have a preference on which version and which edition of Windows or Linux they plan on using. Even if it's already been used you can still get it activated.

Why do the stronger builds include an SSD along with the hard drive?

It's worth it, trust me. I would have included them in the lower builds, but $100 extra would have really put a damper on their appeal.

I want to see some more quality parts!

The builds don't include coolers, monitors, mice, or keyboards. Here are a couple of each if you're having trouble picking them yourself.

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler | $29.98 @ Outlet PC |
| Monitor | Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor | $147.58 @ Newegg |
Keyboard | Cooler Master Storm QuickFire Rapid Wired Gaming Keyboard | $74.98 @ SuperBiiz
| Microphone | Pyle Home PDMIKC5 Professional Table Top Condenser Microphone | $25.84 @ Amazon |
| Microphone | Blue Microphones Yeti USB Microphone - Silver Edition | $106.02 @ Amazon |
Mouse | Logitech G500 Wired Laser Mouse | $55.98 @ Outlet PC
Mouse | Logitech G9x Wired Laser Mouse | $72.98 @ SuperBiiz
Speakers | Corsair Gaming Audio Series SP2500 232W 2.1ch Speakers | $219.99 @ Amazon
Speakers | Logitech Z313 25W 2.1ch Speakers | $34.99 @ Amazon
Headphones | Audio-Technica ATH-M35 Headphones | $69.00 @ Amazon
Headphones | Sennheiser HD 380 Pro Headphones | $140.99 @ Amazon |



***

Also, feel free to link to / paste source anywhere on Reddit. I take full responsibility for any negative vote brigading my posts may be bombarded with.




| Back to Guide |
|:-----------:|

Also my first Coachella with my Hero 6!

I'm outfitting my Hero 6 with a 128GB Samsung MicroSD card.

For power, I'm bringing in two precharged spare batteries for a total of 3 batteries.

For my grip, I'm bringing in the handler as my grip. I thought about the Karma grip but it's kinda expensive and won't last the whole day in the fest; I also don't know how I would store it. What's important here is that you can't bring a grip that extends like a selfie-stick, those are banned from the grounds. If you have a hard time, kindly explain to the security guard that the grip doesn't extend and is fixed at 6-inches. I had a friend go to W1 last year with a Karma grip and she just explained that it didn't extend so she was good.

Since I'm bringing in a CamelBak, I wanted somewhere to place the GoPro when it's not on the grip and without having to worry about pickpocketers. I tried out several backpack clips like this one or this one but I essentially decided that I wanted to make sure it would quick-release to the grip for easy transitions. The clip that did have that feature broke pretty quickly so I'm going to try out this one and give it a shot with some velcro. It seems pretty sturdy. To get the camera fully upright, you're going to need a j-hook mount or a raised mount like the one included in the official mount set.

The alternative to any backpack solution is just unclip the GoPro into a fanny pack or a front pocket for safe keeping and store the grip into a backpack.