Audio
Sound:
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Platinum
Price: $166.99 (latest price
here)
The SoundBlaster brand has endured forever it seems... I
remember the
days when a 'SoundBlaster' really just referred to a sound card, sort
of like when 3dfx card meant you had a 3D graphics card. Despite its
successes, Creative Labs hasn't rested on its laurels and continues to
provide a wide range of audio products, their flagship being the Live!
Platinum. The Live! supports the EAX standard for 3d audio, something
that's a pretty safe bet now that it's become entrenched in DirectX. And
seeing as Aureal is pretty much up in the air these days it's safe
to assume that EAX will be around for a long time and that you won't
have to worry about it not being supported by the latest games.
Perhaps the greatest feature of the Live! Platinum
really isn't the
incredible audio quality, the MIDI features, the MP3 capabilities...
but the simple inclusion of front panel connections. Since your sound
hardware is probably the most often changed peripheral on your computer
(especially if you use headphones for gaming), it makes a whole lot of
sense to have all the ports right up front where you can easily reach
them. Some system integrators are starting to clue in and do this now
with USB and audio ports, but the Live! Platinum allows you to have
that audio panel up front on any system with a free drive bay.
Headphones:
Koss JR900 Cordless
Price: $239.99 (latest price
here)
Real hardcore gamers use headphones... they shut out
everything in the
outside world and fully immerse you in the game's audio landscape. Of
course you don't want to get tangled up in any cords while you're
leaning your body through corners and thrashing your head around to try
to dodge rockets so a cordless solution really is optimal in this
case... and for this project it fits the 'cool' factor as well. The
only thing that these headphones are lacking is a boom microphone for
voice communication. Unfortunately, despite all my scouring, I was
unable to find a set of headphones that offered top notch sound and a
boom mic. Perhaps as some voice capable games (TF2, Tribes 2) start to
ship we'll see some more high quality headphones out there with
microphones, but for now we'll have to do with high quality audio over
the convenience of a boom mic. And really unless you're using Roger
Wilco or something similar voice communications really isn't of a big
concern to most gamers... yet. Suffice to say that you probably won't
mind once the luxurious ear pieces are closed in on your ears and
filling them with the delightful sounds of gaming.
Speakers:
Klipsch ProMedia V.2-400
Price: $249.99 (latest price
here)
Despite having a name that requires some tricky tongue
articulation to
pronounce, Klipsch makes some damn fine speakers. While I haven't had
the pleasure of listening to them myself, every review I've ever seen
of them has had nothing but good things to say about them. In fact, I
don't think these speakers have been called anything less than the best
computer speakers that money can buy. With this package you get four
satellites and a subwoofer to take care of all your 3d audio needs and
with a total of 400 watts to play with these speakers promise to throw
you around in your chair. Lets face it, you only have to look as far
as the THX certification to know these are top quality, George Lucas
doesn't certify anything but the best so these speakers should suffice
to keep even the hardcore audiophiles happy.
Next page: Case/Power
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