StevenSensei

Hi Andrew, welcome to the forums. You might be able to build something that will work but we would also need to know where you are located (US, Canada, Etc) and what resolution you hope to run your games in. 1080p 1440p 2880p etc. I would guess that with your budget you may be limited to 1080p at this time.

run crystal disk mark and see what your results are. The current data you show is OK if not great for the sequential read...also is the m.2 actually performing over PCIE using NVME or is the m.2 on your board defaulting to the MSATA standard instead. That will have a big impact on performance.

Glad you got it all worked out! Enjoy your new machine

Ok, fair enough. So what is the quick and dirty "You need a DAC" then?

It all depends on what you need. In general it works like this. 1. Volume from audio source is not loud enough even when turned up high. -- You would benefit from an AMP. 2. Audio is plenty loud but it sounds bad...hissing, popping, etc. You have an issue with noise that should not be in your sound. -- You need a DAC. 3. Your headphones are loud enough and there is no noise in your audio feed...you need nothing...keep using your equipment as is.

Overclock yourself!

Nothing is real...everyone is going to die...lets just watch the WAN show and wait a few days till this crap stops.

I have a single GTX 980ti and it is not ready for full 4K gaming at high frame rates. To get 60 FPS in something like Fallout 4 with high or ultra settings I need to run at 1440 instead of 2880. That said it's still one of the best options for 4K without SLI. If you can wait I would hold back and see what the next generation of cards due out by summer brings...if nothing else they might lower the price of the 980ti in your region or the new cards might be much more powerful.

Is it trying to boost beyond your overclock? Perhaps furmark is causing the boos clock to go far too high.

Because of Leap Day....there was already an extra day that messed up the Calendar....today should be April 1st!

Is the front panel connector connected to your motherboard or to your sound card? The goal when troubleshooting is to only deal with one thing at a time. I would start by unplugging the front panel connector completely. Then remove the Zonar Sound card. Test the audio connection for both sound and MIC using the onboard sound. If it works then you know that the mic itself is good. Next plug in the sound card. Make sure drivers are installed. Disable your on board audio. Test with everything plugged into the sound card....Is it working correctly? If yes then plug in your front panel headers to the sound card itself and leave the on board audio disabled. Test with the front panel connections.

@MDK42 - How goes the battle? Any luck? Still here to help if you need it!

http://www.treehugger.com/solar-technology/5-best-portable-solar-laptop-chargers.html

So a battery powered desktop with a small portable screen then?

What curved display exactly...there are many out there. Why do you find them trippy or interesting?