well it's new nerd box day, it's built and all running
now I don't have to wait 2 days for stuff to load, and the CPU cooler doesn't even get warm!!! 25C idle, old box was 40C, the box is so quiet I forget it's turned on sometimes
I suppose I should review the £150 sound card
before I had an audigy 2, the difference isn't amazing on my not too expensive sennheisers (pc150s aka that one with a mic) I'd say it was 5 to 10% better, the sound feels less coloured is probably the best way to describe it, tight metal tones are tighter, and bass and bass drums are a smidge clearer depending on the song, it's certainly not the night and day difference I got when I changed from £20 platronic headphones to the £45 sennheisers
the headphones are probably the limit of my sound, I'm going to upgrade them in the future anyway and the card has a built in headphone amp, I have no rational reason to ever upgrade sound cards any more, unlike the old creative monopoly days with newer EAX versions for games (now broke by vista) and ASIO added to the audigy series, I hope to use the card for a very long time, and it should be future proof being pci-e
so the only way it'll ever get changed is if it broke or I got really deep into recording
