Same goes for cars, but sadly wages don't follow the trend. The only way to get exponential pay rises to be on par with the price increases is by career progress, because the laughable yearly "corrections" won't allow you to fill up the same shopping trolley spending the same % of your income.
What's up with the ridiculous prices?
- Thread starter neverminder
- Start date
Correction. The Gigabyte Gaming line have had high end audio codecs for ages labelled under the "AMP-UP" blanket. You get SBX Pro processor along with the ALC1220-VB and high end capacitors with a swappable OpAmp stage too. I've been able to drive the HD650s no problem for example and in the past more demanding headphones too.
I don't use onboard or discreet audio though. Those days have been over ever since going USB DAC/Hybrid solid state amp route. The sound is just more natural and feels /right/ if that makes sense. You can get some top quality DAC amps that will connect via USB and then power normal speakers for not much money at all (Topping for example on Amazon have a bunch) and then just hook up some half decent bookshelf speakers to enjoy really really good stereo sound along with whatever decent headphone you have. It may cost a bit more going this route but then at this stage your audio gear is set for life if the sound meets your needs so you never have to think about audio again when you change mobos in the future.
For me my current setup is end game. I can't imagine ever needing better sound quality and this lot cost under £1000 for headphones, speakers and USB DAC amp combined. Given that it's for life, it ends up being cost efficient too as the benefits go far beyond the PC use case.
Hah - I get an average 3% yearly wage increase (I know a lot of people who get nothing) - my bills have gone up from 6% through to double over the last few months... fuel has jumped up about 16% or something over the long term average, oil has doubled, other energy prices are up around 20%. The only thing I can think of which has gone down was my van insurance which for a miracle dropped £50 on renewal!
Soldato
- Joined
- 28 Oct 2011
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- 8,659
Yep, Britian's Crapitalist scam economy.
- Joined
- 24 Apr 2013
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- 109
Prices are crazy right now, can spend £700+ on just a motherboard and ddr 5
£700 doesn't even cover the motherboard that I want. Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme has 5 x USB Type-C (3 rear, 2 front), alternatives are progressively worse. So If you want a motherboard that is at least somewhat future proof there are no other choices.
God dammit if 2 years someone told me I will be paying a grand for a damn motherboard I would have called them retarded. This absolutely sucks аss.
- Joined
- 24 Apr 2013
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- 109
Wait until ATX12VO - then you'll really know what expensive is when it comes to mobos
ps3ud0
Sounds like one of those "features" that nobody asked for.
I'm basing my expensive on the Asus Maximus Hero XIII & z690 Hero. Both use top of the range ALC4082 codecs, ESS® SABRE9018Q2C DAC/AMP's. Both tested on HD-660S. Both sound amazing.
My experience with Gigabyte boards in the £200 range is that their audio isolation is inferior, I've heard some electrical interference. This is likely due to less attention being made to isolate the signal on the motherboard, or possibly due to having less layers on the PCB.
Add that to the overclocking features, SP rating of CPU's, stability, XMP compatiblity, most extensive QVL list etc, explains why these are so popular and why Asus can comand such a premium.
That said, with £125 rebate (£100 from z690 promotion, £25 from review) they aren't such a high premium as it would seem.
Another example of Gigabyte cost cutting - only having 2 audio jacks > https://www.techpowerup.com/288353/...90-motherboards-only-features-two-audio-jacks
This must save them a few cents at most - why cut corners here? Suspect this is why I've had a bad experience with electrical interference with Gigabyte boards/onboard audio too, if they can't be bothered to include the normal audio jack layout solution, despite having a fully featured (though older) codec on paper.
This must save them a few cents at most - why cut corners here? Suspect this is why I've had a bad experience with electrical interference with Gigabyte boards/onboard audio too, if they can't be bothered to include the normal audio jack layout solution, despite having a fully featured (though older) codec on paper.
Which specific Gigabyte boards though? Only a certain range have the isolated power phases for audio, dedicated DAC-UP USB etc regardless of whether they are £200 or not. My old Z170 for example was less than £200 but had all of that.