SXTC

Heh, this thread totally derped out.
SSL is (as pretty much always when it comes to anything audio) right.
There's also, like he already said, no debate about "surround Sound" with two speakers. 
Headphones are a completely different thing, they are little related to speakers.
Virtual Surround as used in some "gaming" headphones is BS. You are right with that. 
But have you never experienced a mutlichannel surround setup and seen how superior and different that is? Never been to cinema? Lol

I barely go over 4gb (unless I'm heavily modding Skyrim) and that's with a game+netflix+steam/battle.net/origin/uplay+chrome (at least 3 tabs open). Was going to upgrade to 16gb but I don't see the use right now

I'm honest. I've never seen usage past 5GB when I have 8 and I don't see any difference in fps

For those that think having more RAM doesn't matter in games, and yes going from 8 to 16GB gives more fps overall, and going from 16GB to 32GB can add a little to it aswell due to less stress on the cpu (some gpu's actualy use your system memory too) . You might say "more memory is too expensive for the performance you gain from it" and then I say "think again" Just look at this and then look at any 16GB modules, they'll actualy cost you more in comparison http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Ballistix-PC4-19200-BLS4K8G4D240FSA-BLS4C8G4D240FSA/dp/B00MTSWMV6
 

1.3V is a pretty safe bet IMO for a 5820k
and aiming for 70c is also a pretty safe bet, it won't affect your cpu's lifespan that much since your cpu is built for overclocking.

Logitech z506 is good.

I’m sorry to pick but the “wich” vs “which” bothers me a touch, though makes your thread stand out.
Anyhow I am looking for the same thing. Currently I use the built in monitor speakers when my kids are asleep unless I am gaming then I use my m50s. I have been looking for a little while now and was highly debating a pair of studio monitors but don’t think that would be the proper decision for my general use. I know I watched some YouTube videos where people had speakers strobing and swirling all sorts of colors which I suppose is a thing of its own. Then you have those that swear by their Bose sets. I personally don’t have much for actual stores around here and have to base all my purchases highly off reviews. I normally don’t mind looks so much however for some reason I find the z506 a bit tacky. I am also not 100% interested in surround personally. Think we can get a few more options listed here. I will also try to remember to come back and place my findings once I’ve arrived on a solution. Sorry that was likely more long winded than need be but eh… Hi all

Edit: Think I'll look into some bluetooth / portable options. That way I could take speaker(s) to the other room to listen to music, without bothering everyone else.

If you want the maximum FPS possible (aka, as little CPU bottleneck as possible), 6700K + high speed RAM is the best option. Skylake scales surprisingly well with faster RAM in games (unlike previous generations). So this combination gives you the strongest per core performance right now.
 
I don't know how much you multitask. Obviously there's a certain point where the extra two cores of the 5820K will be useful. TBH, I don't know how much is needed to reach that kind of level. I own a 4790K, most intense I've done is have 15~ chrome tabs, photoshop, maya, vlc (playing music), and a word document open. So far I've constantly been hitting my RAM limit (8GB...getting another 8GB stick soon), and CPU is very chill. The multitasking potential of the 5820K is obviously better than the 6700K. But imo, it would be better to invest in an NVME SSD and more RAM to speed up multitasking.
 
There is however a possibility games will be more optimized in the future, like using DX12 or Vulcan for developers to more easily utilize more cores. If games reach 6 core utilization, the 5820K will completely blow 6700K out the water. However this is only a possibility, and for today, the 6700K + fast RAM is the way to go for games. So in a sense, this might relate to longevity. Today, the 6700K wins in games, in a few years, the 5820K may win in games. Who knows.
 
I hope this helps.

probably the 5820K or 6700K. The 5930K is not much of use if you are not going for 2 or even more GPU's. 
If you are not going to to rendering or whatever while gaming, the 2 cores/4 threads more of the 5820K is probably really not going to help.
 
Would probably suggest the 6700K

I could be wrong, but I believe only the Essence STX II has a daughter board that allows the use of 7.1.
 
The EssenceSTX is a card meant to help push higher end headphones than your typical gaming headsets. Of course it does include the standard stereo RCA jacks.
 
The onboard for your motherboard supports 5.1 though, so you could use that with a 5.1 setup that uses 3.5mm plugs for the channels.
 
 
As far as speaker recommendations, I don't have much experience with the gaming brand 5.1 and 7.1 setups, so someone with more knowledge on those can post here as to which ones are decent, etc. Right now I personally just use a pair of AudioEngine A5+ speakers that have done fantastic for me over the years, although I will argue they aren't particularly the best for the price.

You could always go for 2x8GB (so 16GB) and if you see you actually need (or can use) more you can get another 2x8GB kit. 

Yea i'd also say the 6700k is gonna be your best bet, that's a lot of stuff to have running though.  Depending on how much ram you have I would suggest upgrading your ram too like 16gigs should be enough, I have 8 gigs and that would be impossible running all that on 8  good luck! #PCMasterRace

Yes, no Problem. The Lightning is a Beast.

Well, RAM doesn't take load off the CPU. The processor processes data, the RAM holds data. They can't perform each others' functions (unless you count the CPU cache, which is a tiny bit of RAM built into the CPU), so RAM can't take any of the CPU's workload or vice versa. The purpose of RAM is to act as temporary storage for any data that the CPU is actively using, because the CPU cache isn't nearly large enough to hold it all, and permanent storage devices like hard drives and even SSDs are hundreds of times slower than RAM, too slow to allow real-time operation if the CPU used it for active data.
 
CPUs these days have multiple memory controllers, not just one. These controllers are independent from each other, so the CPU can access data from more than one RAM module at a time by utilizing both memory controller simultaneously. This effectively doubles the bandwidth bandwidth for memory running in a dual-channel configuration, or quadruples for quad-channel. Each RAM slot on the motherboard is wired to one of the CPU's memory controllers, these are fixed in the wiring of the board and cannot change, so depending on which slots you fill up, if you have 2/4 slots filled you might have two sticks connected to the same memory controller, in which case the other controller is not being used at all, or you can split the sticks so that both memory controllers can be used.
 
In really high-target overclocking, sometimes it can be good to limit the number of memory controllers active, as it helps the CPU remain more stable, but for normal operation and normal overclocking, it doesn't really matter. And saying that only 2 sticks should be used on a 4-slot board is nonsense, they would still be running in dual channel, and would be no different with four sticks, unless you purposely connect only two to the same memory controller and leave the other empty, which almost nobody does. Same-colored slots mean they are connected to different memory channels; the point is that running in multi-channel configurations is optimum, so the board manufacturers color the slots so that you just need to fill two slots of the same color to connect RAM to separate memory controllers. If you have a board with black and blue slots, the first black and first blue slot are connected to the first memory controller, the second black and the second blue slot are connected to the second memory controller.

OP, I think you have some really core misconceptions about how RAM actually works here. 
That isn't how ram works at all, the ram and the cpu perform functions so totally different you couldn't even really begin to compare them.
Ram channels and the way in which motherboard manufacturers set up the dimm slots has absolutely nothing to do with hyper-threading.
No, a single color on the motherboard indicates the slots that work in tandem to give you the best performance by ensuring that you are in the proper dual-channel (in the case of say a z170 board) configuration. Dual channel is going to give you better performance than single channel. It doesn't matter whether you fill all 4 slots or only 2 slots, as long as you always fill the colors one at a time.
 
Here is an example: On my mobo I have 2 white slots and 2 black slots:
 
With 2 Black slots filled with 8GB ram each, I have 16GB of Ram in dual channel.
With 1 Black and 1 White slot filled with 8GB each, I have 16GB running in single channel only, and therefore with less performance than if I had both in black slots or white slots.
With all 4 slots filled with 8GB each, I have 32 GB of ram in Dual-channel.

2 or 4 sticks doesn't matter, both will run dual channel and put the same "stress" on the board.
4 slots instead of 8 is the same thing, no difference to "stress"
 
The reason you typically see people use 2, or 4 slots instead of maxing it out, is so that they can better upgrade in the future if they so desire.
 
Cpu hyperthreading has nothing to do with ram running in 2x dual channel or 4x dual channel; likewise for 4x quad channel, or 8x quad channel.
 
Motherboards have 4, or 8 slots, so that people have the capability to upgrade to larger amounts of ram, without having to throw away the dims they already have to repopulate with larger capacity dims.

I'll try KuJoe's method because after windows is allready installed, the tool doesn't let me OP anymore.

Oddly a lot of people seem to be experiencing the same I did a while ago... I think it might be driver related...
Anyway changing from VGA cable to HDMI cable fixed the reboot problem with me...
 
 
Think about it... AMD released a crimson driver a while back... a lot of people complained saying their gpu chips were getting hotter... and we all know that can result into damage... So I guess its best to turn off the automatic updates for your hardware so no one can screw up the stability of your equipment and force you to upgrade.

Typical way of thinking, if the mayority goes crazy.. it becomes normal

Im unsure if thats the only reason... I'm still getting 25-40 fps on Dragon age inquisition on ultra settings with an old HD6950 2Gb vram...
I've noticed that people have diffirent fps on the same game just by using another cpu & mainboard (& memory) so obviously it all matters!

LokiFire I thank you for being kind on me for my ignorant comment and your enlightening answer.
 
However, you said an OC card like you can handle it, but what for people like myself who do not like to OC anything (cuss if something dies, we wouldn't have the money to replace it). Will it still work perfectly on non OC cards with only 4 or 6GB Vsync installed? I mean... you suddenly see cards that have over 12GB of Vram being trown on the market and I must say it kinda worries me about the future of gaming considering these cards are Uber expensive... Not to mention the fact that they have a very unjustified performance/$ ratio. Should I assume the wrongfull ratio means that we won't be needing them for many years?  Although  if so it still confuses me to see 12 & even 24GB Vram cards.. But If im not mistaken, you only need more Vram if your going for higher resolutions... correct? (in that case it would be 1-2GB Vram for 1080p, 2-4GB for 1440p & 4-8Gb for 4k & 8-24GB Vram for 8k..)
 
Same for M.2. SSDS wich are uber fast but if you use them for 4k they are below average.

4K needs memory BANDWIDTH not so much Vram, Vram is just there to be used as a buffer for your game data, Fermi even now has a massive amount of memory bandwidth, and when OC'd like mine can handle a lot of hard to run stuff.