antiquoob

Atari 800 6502 8/48k ram!


300 baud modem:

Yep, yep. Same deal/opinion here. 2x 16:10s are where it's at regarding p/perf.

+many digits-> to Sors
If this reads assole-y it's not intentional; it the damned texting format! Just trying to give best advice.
Spending 200-300USD (or equiv) on gaming headphones is close to criminal. More specific whichever Tech-Gaming Corp©®™ is hawking "gaming" headphones for 200-300$ should get the tar-n-feather treatment, unless troves of cashed up advert peeps addled on dexmethylphenidate buy into the PR morass.
A few steadfast guidelines:
1. Mind the company who's selling the product. 9/10 times with "new" type products (ultra luxury 300$ gaming hesdphones?!?!) a familiar name in the industry known for super quality parts which are/have been part of their core Prod-Line e.g. EVGA for graphics cards, Kingz-ton for RAM...will as all capital ventures do cater to the whims of Current-Gen-Must-Have-its.
Invariably the outcome goes as such: an excellent manufacturer of SSDs within a couple years comes out with super deluxe "audiophile" (that word bugs me as much as it does you) "gaming" 300$ 'phones...
Kinda like superconductors, there just aren't many companies making the things /w consistency/quality, ESP. on the scale/quickness said product is released.
Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, Beyer-D et. those types., have been in the business of making transducers for a long, long while. Dunno how many people would run out and buy an Audio-Technica R290Z-Quad-Xfire+128GBVRAM card
Sounds to good to be true and it is.
To paraphrase Sors and a few others, audiophile-gaming-sound is an oxy-non sequitur moron. It's kinda a pain in the ass to develop/train the ear to become sensitive to what can be construed as "audiophile" and "sounds great". Games for all the immersion offered and the crazy budgets involved can't take advantage of what 300$ audio headphones (not gaming ones) have to offer. It's apples/oranges.
First of, what style of music is being listened to? Compressed (electronic, hip-hop, nu-metal, anything on pop-radio) music will not benefit in anyway from phones costing more than 100ish USD. The dynamic range measured in dBu will flux -/+ 5ish dB, it's nothing pejorative- just something inherent in the style of music (usually).
For 97%* of folks out there, the ideal-sounds-awesome-sound is what was back in the day called the V-EQ, or "smile". Imagine a graphic EQ (fixed) with 10 sliders on your car set up in a "V" config:
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Uh, bad representation but point is, our ears have been trained to think ultra-fat bass+clear transients/highs /w minimal mid-range freqs=audiophile.
Coincidentally, gaming headphones, everything at the big box stores, movie theaters etc. are setup for super-bass/clear highs. This is a weird one, cause it's a culturally (pop) pushed phenom, perpetuated by $$$ Corp., which drives CCs (content creators) to keep this semi-arbitrary game going, minus some indie types and the occasional AAA Anomaly, which breaks convention.
Aaaand I digress.
Look who was outsourced for the main components- like the actual drivers for the headphones. I'm fairly certain corsair didn't put together a crack team of old German audio-masters for the explicit reason of "300$ gaming headset".
Very fancy packaging. Key components outsourced to somewhere in Foxconn-China land.
huge scam:
Any "by Beats" bullshit. Beats may sound decent for 1 specific style (read: 808 kicks) but holy crap, shows the power advertising-psych. Beats on a laptop (huh?) Beats by Beats. First was 200$ beats. Now, a variety of price points- spent 500$ on beats. Asinine. But! Great PR...(high five the marketing dept? Noooo).
Honest here- The ATH50s in the realm of games and non jazz-classical (mega wide dynamic range+frequency) are, aside from proprietary DSP "surround" tech/noise cancellation (a big no no) are super excellent way more than needed for games. How did 1000$ headphones enter into gaming culture anyway? (Really, I want to know).
-Any headphone /w specs (real-life) like the AT50=more than needed
What's most important to consider after that has everything todo with:
Ergo-Comfort
Build Quality
Parts Replaceable?
Warranty?
etc.
I use ATH50s when listening to music for 100% enjoyment. They're so bass heavy (in a good way) it's fun listening to most everything with em. I would never mix with them, though- mixes would come out crazy thin on the low end.
I use Sennheisers' for mix/checking and DSD audio when away from speakers.
Speakers are best! but not practical with many living arrangements, and are a hassle to calibrate.
I don't want to see anyone (you) throwing down 100-200$ extra on some marketing B.S., I hate PR/Advertising Departments

1 very cool thing about headphones and decent speakers: Moores Law does not apply. Unlike GPUs where a 2 yr. Old card is ancient, a good pair of speakers/headphones, when taken care of will last decades.

The 7750 is a entry level GPU, it's not very capable and while you were able to play ESO BL2 and Skyrim those aren't even in the same league as Metro LL is for system requirements. A good inexpensive upgrade that would enable you to play any game at reasonable settings at 1080p would be a Nvidia GTX 750 Ti, or you could wait and see what comes out in the 8xx series and pick one of those cards to upgrade to.

I gave my last build to my friend and her daughter. I could of made a decent amount of $ selling it but both mom and daughter are 1. Under poverty level and more importantly super-crazy talented. The mom made speakers (no diagrams) from junk found in a dumpster, built a wi-fi receiving antenna, DIY routers, switches and can code like crazy. The daughter (13 when I met her) grew up with zero (not 1 minute) TV. At 13 she'd rip though a 500 page novel in a day. Can paint like crazy and with a super hand-me-down 5 yr old Mac-something could make some very impressive movies. She's going to some fancy university 100% scholarship. All that (and more)...single mom, no help...asshole father of kid payed 0 child support and has never bothered to meet his own friggin' daughter.
It was a Haf full-size
ROG II Mobo
1200 mod Antec PSU
670 FTW
24gig DDR3 vengeance
and other stuff.
If you know anyone who will put older stuff/gear to ultra-use, nothing is better than empowering 'em. I do want a 1440 monitor and this and that but it's no contest between the two choices

The wonderful thing about music is that everyone can do it. Maybe not in the way people initially wish to do so, but the same dynamic applies to everything in life. Someone may want to be a movie actor but "innate" looks prevent them from being one. That person may find themselves getting into writing scripts, editing, cinematography, FX etc.
Lots of musicians want to be "the best" at their instrument. A few years post music degree doing jazz gigs in NYC will end that dream quickly.
Composing electronic music needs little in the way of music virtuosity. It's the ideas and arranging which count.
The whole thing however requires total dedication, unless one wishes to dabble in music creation. An excellent computer game requires total dedication- but I imagine a few years spent can result in something great as well.
On/Topic- it's easy to go OCD on gear which can have deleterious effect upon the music and wallet.
I agree with what most here are saying, re: a program such as FL being a great way to get into music creation. There certainly will not be a lack of tools with the program. Ppl can spend a lifetime exploring "only" subtractive synthesis- FL has modules which would (should) keep anyone busy for a very, very long time.
Just because a newer version of a program exists doesn't mean it's better.
One strong recommendation: Learn 1 instrument (it may take a while to find which one fits you..."clicks").
Don't let anyone convince you "you're late to the game" concerning learning an instrument. The key is to practice with consistency.
For now, have fun! FL is a mature "all-in-one" program. Don't dedicate 500-800$ on a program yet! Many have "LE" or "Artist" versions, which if beginning will provide more than enough stuff to mess around with.
Try studio one, it has a 30 day fully unlocked trial period.
Reason is like FL in that it consists of many modules and is for the most part an AIO program.
I do the stuff professionally, have been a drum teacher since 1996 and a piano teacher since 1999. My first daw was Logic for DOS way before Apple took it over. It was a nightmare. Go to the bookstore and buy a copy of Computer Music- you'll learn a lot about the stuff.
Happy music making!

What he said^^^
Remember when you buy an SLR you're buying into a system. Lenses are the most important piece of kit (aside from the shooter). Camera bodies come and go like GPUs/CPUs (faster). A lens however mundane sounding (if a quality one) will keep it's value. A few generalizations re: Canon vs Nikon (it's worse than Apple/PC ever was).
Same as comp-benchmarks: synthetics don't pan out to real-world use. Be skeptical of abstruse technical reviews, testing iq, and shooting photos of many brick walls.
Nikon kills canon when it comes to flash, remote flash, syncing etc. On paper, Nikon (generally) has wider dynamic range (64fps vs 60fps...a lab would notice). Until very recently Nikon was kinda the Apple (older, slight underdog) and Canon was the Gates PC. People base their Brand off two criteria- (Nikon or Canon) Lenses and the layout (buttons, menus) of the camera. No one likes to tap thru 5 menus using 2 hands to adjust the aperture. Canon has a slight edge in this dept.
Going to SLR is a a commitment, a good one of course...and expensive as hell. Good zooms (for slrs) are WHOA!!$$$. Things add up quick.
The package you linked to is a "put as many (cheap) things in as possible" deal. Not recommended.
For canon, you can find t3is, t4is, for the price you're lookin' at. They use the same sensor in the 7D, which a super great cropped SLR.
Hmmm. Analogy time!
The package on amazon would be like...
a 500$ PC with-
discreet GPU (GeForce 210)
8 gigs ram (ddr1)
750 watt PSU (zinc rated)
"Gamers case" (?)
2 TB HDD (10 platters/100rpm)
A free inkjet!
a lozenge
it has all the stuff, but...
Unlike computers where many parts are needed to "go"
SLRs aren't a "get a build" deal, you start with:
Body+Lens
A Nikon 3200/t4i would (and should) keep any photographer busy forever.
It also depends on what you want to do, as in
Do movies take precedence over stills?
(If so, stop!)
There are way better cameras out now (non SLR) which exceed at movie-making, ESP at your PP.
Hmm. What kind of stuff you wanna do?