Kiyoshi's Audiophile's Dream

Hi folks!

Today I will be presenting a build for a Mini ITX Audiophile PC. It will not have enough power to tackle games on the highest settings but should be good for daily computing, high-def videos and be phenomenal at music. Plus being a Mini ITX build, it will save you tonnes of space. Good use could be to hook it up to your home theater system and TV or go for a great headphone set.

CASE:


Lian Li PC-Q07

A very good Mini ITX case capable of supporting a standard ATX PS/2 PSU, one 3.5" HDD and one 2.5"  HDD. If space is at a premium, this is a great case for you!

Dimensions : 8.19" x 7.60" x 11.02"
Price : US$ 69.99











CPU:


AMD A8-3850

The new line of AMD A-Series APUs (Accelerated Processing Unit) gives you very good performance on a budget. They are named APUs because they combine both a CPU and a GPU on a single chip.

Stock Clock : 2.9Ghz
GPU : AMD Radeon HD6550D
Price : US$ 109.99








MOTHERBOARD:


ASRock A75M-ITX

A great motherboard from ASRock. Features 1 PCI-E 2.0 x16 and 1 PCI-E 2.0 x1 slots, 2 PCI slots, 5 SATA III connectors and 4 USB 3.0 ports.
A host of features on a tiny motherboard!

Dimensions : 6.7" x 6.7"
Price : US$ 89.99







SOUND CARD:


ASUS Xonar Essence STX

One of the best offerings from ASUS eclipsed only by their crazy Xonar Essence One, it is a great card for those who want their music to sound great. Do it justice and give it a proper surround sound or headphone setup.

Dimensions : 4.19" x 6.6"
Price : US$ 163.99











RAM:


Kingston HyperX Blu

A great 4GB (2 x 2GB) Dual Channel offering from Kingston. Good thermal qualities give it long life.

Speed : DDR3 1600
Capacity : 4GB (2 x 2GB)
Voltage 1.65V
Price : US$ 28.99

POWER SUPPLY:


Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D

Super cool, super quiet, 80+ Bronze Certified. What's not to love?

Max Power : 380Watts
PCI-E Connector : 1 x 6 Pin
SATA Connectors : 5
Dimensions : 3.4in x 5.9in x 5.5in
Price : US$ 44.99
Note: Does not come with Power Cord. Recycle your old one









HARD DRIVE:


Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB

While the production of hard drives is up to normal after the floods in Thailand, prices unfortunately have not got done all too well. This Caviar Blue will serve you nicely while we wait for the prices to be around pre-flood levels.

Speed : 7200RPM
Interface : SATA III (6.0Gb/s)
Cache : 16MB
Price : US$ 74.99








OPTIONAL:


Headphones:


What's a Audiophile system without some very good headphones? The prices of headphones vary a lot and you definitely have a lot of options. However some good ones in my opinion that you should take a look at as you explore headphones are:

Sennheiser HD 280 PRO

Arguably the best headphones you can buy at this price point. The sound is very good and the finish is top notch!
Price: US$ 99.99










Sennheiser HD 201

For those who are on an extreme budget but still want the best possible audio quality! I bought this and am very happy and satisfied with these headphones!
Price : US$ 24.95











Sennheiser HD 650

For those looking for pure, high quality sound, you cannot go wrong with the HD 650. It has very precise bassand made from ultra-light materials to give you exceptional comfort.
Price : US$ 499.95










Audio Technica ATH-W1000x

These amazing headphones will empty your wallet but my oh my, the sound quality will make you weap!

Price : US$ 699.95









TOTAL:


US$ 582.99 (No Headphones)

Thoughts:


You can build it even cheaper by going for a computer case that comes with a power supply. There are cases from companies like APEX (Apex MI-008 250W, US$39.99) but the reason I went with this build is because of the 80+ rating.  For those on an even smaller budget, take a look at the AMD A6-3500 65W Triple-Core APU which is selling for US$ 79.99. If you select both options your budget will be down to US$ 477.94.

Kiyoshi Out!
Psst... Hey... Spread the word! +1, Subscribe,Tweet ^_^ Thank you for reading.

RAM Selection

Hi everyone!
I am back with part 6 of the computer voyage we are on. Today we will be talking about RAMs. A good high performance Ram is one of the fundamental blocks of an awesome system for gaming or any other purpose. Bigger the Ram and/or faster the Ram, the more of your data is moved around and the more smoother everything feels. There are a ton of good companies out there making quality rams and it is possible to find some very good deals. So onwards with the reviews.

You will notice when you look up descriptions of RAMS that some are Dual Channel while others are Tri Channel, Quad Channel or even Hex Channel. So what is meant by Dual Channel RAM? Or Tri Channel, Quad Channel or Hex Channel? First let's take a short class on this subject. As Computer Programs got more and more complex, they needed better and faster Hardware capable of transporting data at a much faster rate while also being stable enough to last a while. With that thought, the Multi-channel Memory Architecture was developed. It increases the transfer speed of data between the DRAM (or Dynamic RAM) and the memory controller by adding more paths or "channels" between them. That means that in theory, a Dual Channel RAM doubles the data transfer rate. So to achieve the Dual Channel effect (for lack of a better word,) you will need to populate two of the same colored slots on your motherboard with two RAMs.
Getting all identical memory chips will help you get a very stable performance but depending on your board, you could populate two with one kind and the other two slots with a different set of memory but they will operate on the same speed as the slowest RAMs you have so it would make more sense to make sure you are using the same RAM in all the slots.

Some of my favorite companies are Corsair, Patriot, Kingston, G.Skill and Mushkin.

CORSAIR Vengeance Series (www.corsair.com)

When it comes to gaming memory, The Vengeance line from Corsair is one of the best. Sporting a wicked looking heat sink and very stable performance, The Vengeance series is a favorite among gaming and enthusiast users alike. They come in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB capacity. So your Dual Channel configuration could be a 2x2GB (Total 4GB), 2x4GB (8GB) or 2x8GB (16GB.) if you are populating just two RAM slots out of the 4 available to you.  The Speeds available (from my knowledge of course and if there are more, I would apologize for not listing them) are 1600,1866,2000 and 2133. Refer your motherboard to find out the maximum memory it can hold and the maximum speed it can sustain. My Crosshair V supports a maximum of 32 GB of RAM and speeds of 1066/1333/1600/1800(O.C)/2000(O.C) and 2133(O.C)





Patriot Viper Xtreme Series (www.patriotmemory.com)

Another on my list of favorites, The Viper Xtreme Series gives rock solid performance, good over clocking capability and good heat dissipation. Available on Newegg in speeds of 1600,1866 and 2133 and 2GB and 4GB per chip.










Kingston HyperX (www.kingston.com)

HyperX has several variants, namely HyperX Genesis, HyperX Blu and HyperX T1. Kingston has long been in the memory business and makes some of the best RAMs found today. It also includes my favorite HyperX H2O (Liquid Cooled) which just looks out of this world. You can never go wrong with  Kingston!
Selling at Newegg at 2GB and 4GB chips and speeds of 1333,1600,1866,2133.

G.SKILL Sniper & Ripjaws X (http://www.gskill.com)

Another strong contender in the market, G.Skill has a lot of products to compete for your money. Their Sniper series is a low voltage gaming set with very solid dependability. I like both the Ripjaws and the Sniper series. Selling on Newegg in 1GB,2GB,4GB and 8GB per chip and speeds of  1066, 1333, 1600, 1800, 1866, 2133, 2400, 22600 and 2666.









Mushkin Blackline & Redline (http://www.mushkin.com/Memory.aspx)

Mushkin is another company that I think you should look at if you are in the market for RAMs. Available in speeds of 1066, 1333, 1600, 1866, 2000 and 2133 and capacities of 2GB, 4GB and 8GB per chip.










The RAM I ended up choosing was the CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) 1600. All the options are in my eyes pretty much equal so it comes down basically to finding a better deal for a particular one and going with it. If possible go with one of the popular options so in case you feel like buying more RAM in the future, it is still in the market. Pay close attention to the  Memory QVL of your motherboard which can be found at their website. The QVL is short for Qualified Vendors List and it tells you of all the RAMs that have been tested on the motherboard and are certified by your motherboard maker to work on that particular motherboard. The List is updated frequently as new memory models come out. The other reason I bought the Vengeance was that it also has a Red colored one which I thought will look cool in my Computer as my mother board has black and red slots and I wanted to populate them with like colors. I am including links for both below for your viewing pleasure.


Corsair Vengeance Black                                                                             Corsair Vengeance Red