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zen

macrumors 68000
Jun 26, 2003
1,713
472
Slightly tangential for this thread, but looking at people's systems, I wonder what folk would recommend for desktop speakers? I have a small desk and current use Harman/Kardon soundsticks on either side of a 27" display (subwoofer on the floor). The sound quality is fine, and they are nice and narrow, but I'm looking for other options.
 

robo456

macrumors 6502
Mar 3, 2008
377
49
New Jersey
Slightly tangential for this thread, but looking at people's systems, I wonder what folk would recommend for desktop speakers? I have a small desk and current use Harman/Kardon soundsticks on either side of a 27" display (subwoofer on the floor). The sound quality is fine, and they are nice and narrow, but I'm looking for other options.

I use the Klipsch ProMedia set... (https://www.klipsch.com/products/klipsch-promedia-2-1-thx-certified-computer-speaker) and absolutely love them... I tuck them behind a 27" monitor and the sub in the corner and it hits like a freight train when I put on some music... Great for games too!
 
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Lightning Cable

macrumors member
Nov 5, 2012
53
199
My PC. Built in 2013 with an i7-4770K and Radeon HD 7950. Upgraded to an i7-9700K in May and GTX 1070 last November. Overclocked to 5.0GHz (all cores, 81C Max) with the same Noctua NH-U12S I bought in 2013.

IMG_2534.jpg
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Lightning Cable

macrumors member
Nov 5, 2012
53
199
Very cool! What case is that?

It's the Bitfenix Prodigy with the Red Mesh Front Panel and the Window Side Panel (which was meant for the Prodigy-M, but fits on the Prodigy fine). It was a pretty popular case ~5 years ago.
 
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lowendlinux

macrumors 603
Sep 24, 2014
5,460
6,788
Germany
Slightly tangential for this thread, but looking at people's systems, I wonder what folk would recommend for desktop speakers? I have a small desk and current use Harman/Kardon soundsticks on either side of a 27" display (subwoofer on the floor). The sound quality is fine, and they are nice and narrow, but I'm looking for other options.

I've had Bose Companions since ~2015 I like them because they don't have a sub
[doublepost=1563908969][/doublepost]
Don't see a DRP4 used much in the wild.

It's a DRP3

I think BeQuiet! isn't all that popular here because they're still recently new and a bit pricey, but I love their stuff.

That computer finally got it's fanless power supply so it got downgraded processor and an upgraded GPU then moved to drive the TV.
 

lowendlinux

macrumors 603
Sep 24, 2014
5,460
6,788
Germany
It's that they're pricey. Noctua is a younger company and very popular.

You're right and by a couple years..I didn't know

I built that computer in Germany where BeQuiet! doesn't carry the premium it does here but the reason I bought was because I could single source just about everything I needed. More importantly though I'm a BeQuiet! fanboy, they make beautiful products in a market where ascetics isn't a priority.

That computer started life with BeQuiet! case, power supply, CPU cooler, and fans. The changes happened because the power supply and and case got damaged in during my move back to the states. When I go back Germany this fall it'll probably go back into another BeQuiet! case but I'll keep my fan less power supply.
 
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0388631

Cancelled
Sep 10, 2009
9,669
10,823
You're right and by a couple years..I didn't know

I built that computer in Germany where BeQuiet! doesn't carry the premium it does here but the reason I bought because they carry I could single source just about everything I needed. More importantly though I'm a BeQuiet! fanboy, they make beautiful products in a market where ascetics isn't a priority.

That computer started life with BeQuiet! case, power supply, CPU cooler, and fans. The changes happened because the power supply and and case got damaged in during my move back to the states. When I go back Germany this fall it'll probably go back into another BeQuiet! case but I'll keep my fan less power supply.
BeQuiet was cheaper in the past. As was Noctua. Prices have gone up. About 13 years ago some of the best HSFs were by Zalman, who are a nobody these days. A super premium chunk of copper set you back roughly $30 and was one of the best if not the best HSF on the market.

I tend to rank BeQuiet! as high as Noctua. Their engineering is fantastic and it shows. Though there are obscure HSFs out there that barely anyone knows about and they perform as well as the more expensive units. I'm not a fan of closed loop or open loop cooling systems because they're too much a hassle and offer little in the way of noise reduction for roughly the same cooling. The benefit is space provided your case is big enough.

Scythe is another good cooling company. I usually recommend people the 212 Evo as the very minimum if they want traditional cooling. It's a good cooler, but there's far better out there. Its performance in cooling and its price point make it a steal for most use cases. Noctua has this one HSF that spreads out rather than towers out and it's pretty nice. There's more room for RAM modules, but most HSFs nowadays are engineered with enough clearance, even for heat spreader equipped modules. Like BallisticX with tall fins. Which I don't find useful unless you're doing work that relies on dumping data through RAM at X amount of clock cycles or you've overclocked it quite a bit and use it for its intended purposes at those speeds.

I haven't decided what I want for my next workstation. I'm definitely not liking active chipset cooling on say the X570 boards. Assuming you're old enough, in the past when such a method was used, it was usually terrible because fans would die and you'd need to jerry rig something. Or if you've ever used 20 mm housed fans for cooling something DIY, you know they can get loud if you don't have a good case or sound dampening.

Speaking of which, good fans cost a lot of money. I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $140 for fans for my current workstation. I got a few on sale.
 
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Arcade

macrumors 6502
Oct 1, 2012
410
212
Bronx, NY
computer 2.jpg
computer 3.JPG


Custom built computer I put together back in 2001 I made the blow holes myself. It used to have a Asus A7V motherboard with a 1GHZ processor, radeon video card running windows ME.

I posted this picture online on a tech forum back then and just found it a few days ago.
 
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user_xyz

macrumors 6502
Nov 30, 2018
389
443
Moved my office to a bigger room (No more door hitting my desk). My teenager doesn't use his Bed/Desk combo... so I moved it to my new office/music/gaming room. Always wanted a bed in my office. :)

dt_jan2017.png


Zoomed out a bit with shades opened (prefer my office dark) to show a piece of the bed and my bass guitars

new_offc1.png

Are you a Midget?? :eek:
Do you have to Crawl in?? :p

Nice Bass collection!! :D
 
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kamikazeeMC

macrumors 6502
Aug 18, 2017
476
524
Perth, Western Australia
Am I crazy for thinking about replacing this with an iPP? Haha.
Setup 9.jpg


I change my up peripherals a lot out of boredom, mainly mice. Have kept this keyboard for a while (by CODE) really like the MX Clears, so just changed caps. Would like a 60% but would miss the numpad.
DSC06451 - Copy.jpg
 
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silent alarm

macrumors newbie
Oct 28, 2019
9
11
East Coast
1572368250679.png


Photo is from June but zero things have changed, except I stopped using the webcam, and I changed mics to an XLR AT2020. Blah.

Custom PC - 5820K, 32 GB DDR4, 980 Ti, 512 GB SSD and a bunch of mechanical drives. Either moving to a Mac mini or a MacBook Pro as my main machine in the coming months.
 

S.B.G

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 8, 2010
26,670
10,447
Detroit
Not a Windows setup *puke*

Post my Linux setup:

View attachment 855520
*Still not a Windows desktop - puke! Post my Linux desktop*

I've made some updates to my setup over the last few months. I went with dual monitors on a pedestal, moved the PC to a side table and off the desk as well as the network switch. I upgraded my headphone DAC/amp and got a new mouse and deskpad thing.

IMG_20191231_165726.jpg
 
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Allyance

Contributor
Sep 29, 2017
2,074
7,662
East Bay, CA
Started with Windows 1, which was on floppies that you loaded at a DOS prompt. No pictures of that old machine. I was a reseller in the Finger Lakes of NY for many years. Sold and set up 1000's of machine over the years including many Small Business Servers. I always said that some day I wished I could get the 100's of hours back spent loading Windows. Now I just use an iMac, my Dell laptop just on my desk hardly used, crashes alot, can't be bothered to fix and upgrade it.
 
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