Estella - Legen- wait for it- dary! Ultradark build

[Wolf_Lbh]

Week 9:
Mic - Mod Mic 4 & audio+speaker to usb adapter
Webcam - Logitech HD Pro
Tools - 99% isopropyl alcohol, anti-static wristband



I already own the Vsonic GR07 Mk2 earbuds so I can use them with my mic to avoid audio loops, I just need to mount it somewhere creative as I don't like headsets. So all I need now is an os, chair, and to replace my tv with a 42" 60fps 4k monitor with g-sync when one gets invented!

[Wolf_Lbh]

For some reason Corsair denied sponsoring me...

Perhaps it was because a few weeks after they "couldn't comment" about their possible top secret release of an all black 12 button mmo mouse (Dear God! What if Logitech and Razer found out and released all black versions of the Naga or the G600?!? ...oh wait those are already all black because it is fucking stupid to put accent colors on rgb devices made to match any theme in the 16.8m color spectrum.) they released an all black version after I already had to buy the regular and fix it myself. They couldn't seem to understand why I wasn't happy about the "surprise".





Btw finished modded product:

[Wolf_Lbh]

Week 10:
Chair - Maxnomic Pro-Chief Total Black Edition


Also successfully modded my Corsair Neutron XTs to be black and match my system theme!

[Wolf_Lbh]

Funny story that isn't funny: I thought the cables that came with the Evga 1000w platinum psu were pretty dang nice. Braided, mostly black, some grey. Fairly good looking cables. Compared to everyone else on the market I would say they looked top tier with only cablemod cables looking better, not to mention Evga makes the most efficient and well priced psus on the market. But then I found out the horrible truth: Evga pcie (vga) cables are bright red! They made literally every cable except the 1 mostly black with a little grey and then threw a bright red cable into the mix! WHY?!?! The cables and ports they use are labeled do they really need color coding as well and for 1 cable only???
 

Anyways I had to fix that so I went with the Cablemod black set, 6 sata data cables, as well as the cablemod magnetic rgb case lighting setup, and a second strip of lights.

[Wolf_Lbh]

Made 2 suggestions to the guys @CableMod and while they completely ignored one of them (That they sell cables individually so people won't have to spend $100 on a set where $50 worth of cables is stuff they will never use) my other suggestion which was to make right angled cables for sata data already got approved and they say will be available next month. God damn that is some fast customer service right there.

[Wolf_Lbh]

What in the name of Odin's Mother! Maxnomic Pro-Chief Total Black Edition arrived in under 24 hours after my ordering it! Was not too bad to build.

[CableMod]

we believe that customer service is important - the faster, the better!

 

Thanks for your feedback and keep it coming!

[CtW]

Says no overkill,

buys a maximus 8 extreme

[Gofspar]

You bought the most overpriced hunk of shit your could find on newegg.

 

OC Formula is a thing.

[Wolf_Lbh]

3 minutes ago, CtW said:

Says no overkill,

buys a maximus 8 extreme

 

1 minute ago, Gofspar said:

You bought the most overpriced hunk of shit your could find on newegg.

 

OC Formula is a thing.

Also says "first build". I didn't know anything about mobos and it wasn't that expensive so I just bought the most expensive thing on pcpartpicker that was compatible. I figured at the very least it would work.

[Gofspar]

return it, you literally threw money down the drain.

 

Not only is it overpriced it sucks for overclocking..

[Wolf_Lbh]

1 minute ago, Gofspar said:

return it, you literally threw money down the drain.

 

Not only is it overpriced it sucks for overclocking..

How so? It has bios flash on the outside which sounds very handy in case I brick something. Clear error reporting, reset to last stable oc, and a pretty damn good soundbar. I'm fairly certain it is fine. Now that I know a bit more about mobos I understand that there really isn't that much you can screw up on them. Asus has a lot of bells and whistles and charges you like crazy for them but a good few of those features sound like things I would like to have.

Unless you can suggest me a good mobo that comes in black that is. (And has a good soundbar,  I don't want to have to run a soundcard)

[CtW]

1 hour ago, Wolf_Lbh said:

How so? It has bios flash on the outside which sounds very handy in case I brick something. Clear error reporting, reset to last stable oc, and a pretty damn good soundbar. I'm fairly certain it is fine. Now that I know a bit more about mobos I understand that there really isn't that much you can screw up on them. Asus has a lot of bells and whistles and charges you like crazy for them but a good few of those features sound like things I would like to have.

Unless you can suggest me a good mobo that comes in black that is. (And has a good soundbar,  I don't want to have to run a soundcard)

The main thing that makes a board good for oc is the VRM (power delivery). Asus's solution, while good for most people, isnt the best for overclocking and won't be sufficient for anything extreme. If you want to oc, get an Asrock OC Formula. As far as cheaper black boards, all of EVGA's z170 boards are cheaper and completely black...

[Wolf_Lbh]

9 minutes ago, CtW said:

The main thing that makes a board good for oc is the VRM (power delivery). Asus's solution, while good for most people, isnt the best for overclocking and won't be sufficient for anything extreme. If you want to oc, get an Asrock OC Formula. As far as cheaper black boards, all of EVGA's z170 boards are cheaper and completely black...

Do they have any kind of aura interface like asus has for handling led strips?

[CtW]

4 minutes ago, Wolf_Lbh said:

Do they have any kind of aura interface like asus has for handling led strips?

no, but with the money you saved you could just buy an nzxt hue+ which offers much more control/customization. If you already purchased the board, keep it. It's a great board, just really over priced. If not, don't purchase it, as it seems to be massive overkill for your needs.

[Wolf_Lbh]

5 minutes ago, CtW said:

no, but with the money you saved you could just buy an nzxt hue+ which offers much more control/customization. If you already purchased the board, keep it. It's a great board, just really over priced. If not, don't purchase it, as it seems to be massive overkill for your needs.

Had it for weeks. And have Cablemod rgb led strips on the way so I really need those aura connectors.

[CtW]

Just now, Wolf_Lbh said:

Had it for weeks. And have Cablemod rgb led strips on the way so I really need those aura connectors.

Yeah no point in returning it now since you have it lol.

[Wolf_Lbh]

1 minute ago, CtW said:

Yeah no point in returning it now since you have it lol.

meh, could be worse. It isn't like anything else on the market offers the sound quality or wireless speed of it. Although I'm going to running a line in at some point. You would think a mobo that is "built for overclockers" and is the most expensive thing on the market would be good for overclocking though. Then again I did think the Asus "g-sync ready" monitor was actually ready for g-sync. Starting to think Asus as a whole is a pretty shitty company.

[CtW]

11 minutes ago, Wolf_Lbh said:

meh, could be worse. It isn't like anything else on the market offers the sound quality or wireless speed of it. Although I'm going to running a line in at some point. You would think a mobo that is "built for overclockers" and is the most expensive thing on the market would be good for overclocking though. Then again I did think the Asus "g-sync ready" monitor was actually ready for g-sync. Starting to think Asus as a whole is a pretty shitty company.

On the issue of sound quality, iirc, their supremeFX stuff is really just a realtec chip with some fancy software and an amp. If you really want the best sound quality possible, you'd need an external DAC (sound cards are not worth the money imho) and an amp if you had headphones that need one (like my dt990s). For most people tho, onboard stuff is fine. The only issues I have with asus as a company lie in their marketing and how crazed their fanbase is. They go around talking up their shit and get people to spend way too much on hardware and if you ever try telling an Asus fanboy that their are better options available, you are in for a bad time.

[Wolf_Lbh]

7 minutes ago, CtW said:

On the issue of sound quality, iirc, their supremeFX stuff is really just a realtec chip with some fancy software and an amp. If you really want the best sound quality possible, you'd need an external DAC (sound cards are not worth the money imho) and an amp if you had headphones that need one (like my dt990s). For most people tho, onboard stuff is fine. The only issues I have with asus as a company lie in their marketing and how crazed their fanbase is. They go around talking up their shit and get people to spend way too much on hardware and if you ever try telling an Asus fanboy that their are better options available, you are in for a bad time.

I am most certainly not an Asus fanboy. It was just my first build and they are one of the top companies and evidently lie a lot.

[Wolf_Lbh]

Slight "mod" to the Evga Supernova 1000w p2 - Stickers removed for that epic sleek minimalist black look. (For the record I've yet to encounter any sticker residue a drop or two of Formby's Lemon Oil Treatment wouldn't immediately remove)


Anyways decided to do the first touch up of the Asus Maximus VIII and remove the red accenting. Before:


After coat 1:

I decided to cheat a bit given how easy plastidip is to remove and just do the entire SupremeFX section and go back with an exactoblade or something later and just peel away the extra paint. Also I cheated on the cover piece as well and just did the entire thing to make it simpler. We'll see how it ends up turning out.

Btw, remember to mod/build safely as you do incredibly stupid things like paint your mobos because you are ocd.

[Wolf_Lbh]

Either the last or second last coat depending on how well it dries. (I decided to just make it two toned, black and gunmetal and like it better this way personally, thoughts?)

[Wolf_Lbh]

My gpu shipped at last! Can't wait for it to arrive so I can build this sucker!



Also I decided to up my audio game and go with a 5.1 channel surround sound setup and some decent headphones. I hear headphones are superior to earphones because they have a better sound stage

Spoiler

Basically translates into the size of the area it feels like your sound is coming from. Typically the further the driver from your ear the more air it needs to move and the bigger the sound stage feels. So earphones would have the smallest, headphones (closed back) would have the second smallest, headphones (open backed) are considered god tier as far as portable gear goes, and speakers can go as big as it gets depending on the power of the speaker.

and imaging.
 

Spoiler

Characteristics of individual instruments like how loud or silent a brass instrument is vs a woodwind instrument is; even in the same piece of music at the same volume.

Personally I think the claims are exaggerated and that my gr07 mkIIs will be just as good as my AKG K553s, and I prefer earphones a lot more than headphones because they weigh next to nothing and with the over the ear design combined with a mic clip eliminates tugging and gravity pulling them out so they stay in my ears and comfortable for as long as I care to run them (like on hour long 5 mile jogs or full work days). But I feel it would be unfair of me to say that earphones are superior without giving headphones a fair try.

Even if I find headphones to be superior, and capable of comfort enough to wear for hours at a time I still won't be taking them out of the house though because they simply don't travel well. Also for the record the AKG K553 are not considered to be "fully open backed" but "hybrid" which basically means they do not have as good of a sound stage as full open backed headphones but in exchange have less noise leakage which fully open backed headphones have a considerable amount of and is an issue with streaming audio as it can give echos/feedback. While you can use software to mitigate how annoying this is to people listening to you and in some cases totally eliminate it I prefer to fix things at the hardware level because software eats up performance, especially when it needs to run 24/7, and it can stop working. Basically a setup that works perfectly without you having to run 24/7 adjustments just offers less headaches.

For the record both my earphones and my headphones are considered to be "reference studio" which means that they do not manipulate the sound signal they receive and simply play the sound with great detail. Many people prefer enhanced bass for a more "booming", "loud", "in your face" sound you can feel or enhanced treble for a "warmer", "more pleasant" environment but personally I feel that artists spent a lot of time and money editing their songs to sound how they intend them to and that as a result a clean reproduction of that sound is best. Also without any built in manipulation to the sound if I ever disagree with an artist it is very simple to use an equalizer to manipulate the sound in any direction I choose. (and even $30 mp3 players come with equalizers and most of them can be rockbox'd)

[Wolf_Lbh]

I found a deal I couldn't pass up and purchased a 4k 40" 60hz monitor! It is 2" smaller than my previous tv I was using but for $757 that is a damn good deal.

Note wasabi mango uses Lg tv panels that have defects to make their monitors and can come with up to 5 defective pixels but the pixel perfect version are monitors they receive that have no noticable defects and typically cost a grand or so more. For reference the pixel perfect 42" costs $1,890 at the moment ($1,133 more!) for just a 2" bigger screen. I can only assume they currently have a surplus of 40" panels for whatever reason so I pulled the trigger and got it while it was cheap.


I also ordered a composite and component to hdmi adapter as the monitor has hdmi and displayport inputs and I plan to replace my tv with this monitor and still need something to play all my retro consoles:

[CtW]

I think I can safely assume that you're favorite game is Sonic the hedgehog.