Josh
Josh
Looking to upgrade to 4K? Worried about Atmos and DTSX support? Look no further!
Denon AVR-S710W – $349, Amazon
Denon has a very good reputation when it comes to their audio products, especially their home theater receivers. These typically feature very strong performances in the home theater setting, but also are very musical and easy to listen to. The price of $349 is a solid bargain for this type of model. Even though it is rated at 75 watts, Denon uses higher amperage amps that can really drive most speakers. The 4K and 3D pass through are a must for anyone looking to upgrade their TV to 4K. The addition of Atmos support, as well as updating to DTSX through a firmware upgrade, makes this a must have for any home theater enthusiast.
Thrustmaster T300 Alcantara Edition Wheel – $469, Amazon
Seems like all I can talk about anymore is about wheels! I have been on a racing kick as of late, and a lot of it has been due to the outstanding DiRT Rally title as well as upgrading myself to a TX F458 wheel from Thrustmaster. Happily, excess is never enough. If I were to do it over again and buy a serious wheel for the first time, I would choose the T300 Aclantara Edition. This wheel supposedly feels better than some actual, professional racing wheels from Momo or Sparko. It is hand stitched and features the same alcantara leather that Ferrari features on their cars. This is probably C or D grade leather from that factory, but what do you care? It is supposed to feel great. I am testing the T300 servo base right now and it is a fantastic addition to any racing setup.
Asus R9 390X STRIX – $389, Newegg
In terms of price/performance not much matches up well against the 390X. For $358 after rebate, this is a fantastic upgrade for anyone not wanting to spend a small fortune on better performance in the latest 3D games. The 8 GB of memory should allow a user to play the very latest games at moderate to high resolutions. This also seems like a good solution as a single card pushing Eyefinity resolutions. It pulls more power and runs hotter than the GTX 980, but it runs just as fast and for a lot cheaper.
Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB – $147, Amazon
These things just keep getting cheaper and cheaper. We love that. This is an extremely fast and competent drive that can just be plugged into any modern system and take away most I/O bottlenecks. It is large enough for some games and plenty of productivity apps, but the speed really spoils a person when running day to day programs that just seamlessly start up and allow work or play to happen.
I can build an entire system
I can build an entire system for what ONE intel chip costs.
Wellll if you wanna play that
Wellll if you wanna play that game, I can get an entire system for $5
Well played. (Too bad it’s
Well played. (Too bad it's sold out everywhere.)
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-zero/
except it wasn’t sarcasm.
except it wasn’t sarcasm.
The AMD Athlon X4 860K (quad
The AMD Athlon X4 860K (quad core Kaveri sans graphics) is indeed a great budget choice. It has not let me down yet when it comes to budget builds, and when paired with an SSD system performance is plenty fast for more tasks — even gaming with a dedicated GPU.
TRUTH! Great chip, killer
TRUTH! Great chip, killer price, can’t go wrong on a budget box with the 860k.
but…….. you must use a dedicated GPU, the 860 has no video.
Yup, some may think this
Yup, some may think this blasphemy but I've used a GeForce 750 Ti in both those 860K-based systems ;).
oh yea, who cares whatever
oh yea, who cares whatever good graphics you can grab for the $$$ I mix match nvidia cards in my AMD builds all day long haah.
860k and a 750Ti sound like a perfect match perf wise.
I could use a new tablet to
I could use a new tablet to use about the house. I haven’t seen the ASUS’ ZenPad S 8 in person. I would wonder about the build quality. Can you easily find protective cases for it or is it relatively impact resistant from the start? People make a big deal about phones being made of glass and aluminum, but if I didn’t have my iPhone in a strong plastic case, it would have been broken shortly after I got it and probably several times since.
I was thinking of a dell venue tablet, since the main thing I care about is the quality of the screen, and I have seen several reports saying that the screen is excellent. Some of the other features are lacking though. The AMOLED screens kind of worry me though. I was looking at some Samsung phones a while ago at Best Buy. They had been left in some kind of demo mode, and it looked like they had some screen burn in.
The Zenpad S 8 is a nice
The Zenpad S 8 is a nice peice of tech. Screen looks nice, fits in the palm of your hand (well, mine at least), and seems to have a bit of power. The 64GB version has the upgraded CPU, but I opted for the 32GB because of the price. I was able to find quite a few cases for it off of Amazon as well…
It’s a good job folks. I
It’s a good job folks. I like these sort of things.
You did great with many of the products like the 850 EVO. I’m not in love with 3 figure headsets, but it’s nice to know.
Can I make a suggestion?
Could you expand the list to address budgets and product fans? There are many that are stuck on Apple, AMD and $$$. Perhaps you can expand the list to include those as items rather than waffle on some of them in the narratives. I know it might make the article too long, but maybe have multiple articles?
Well, just some ideas.
Whats the minimum dollar
Whats the minimum dollar value video card / video card combo to feed a 4K TV at 30 FPS?
Just 4K video or gaming?
Just 4K video or gaming?
Gaming.
Gaming.
I think an AMD 390X or NV 980
I think an AMD 390X or NV 980 Ti would be minimums from newer gen. You might be able to get away with an older gen dual gpu single card but eh it would depend on how well the games you play support multu gpu.
Thanks!
Thanks!
I find my GTX 980 fares
I find my GTX 980 fares pretty well at 4K. I play on a 4Ktv from my Ultra HTPC. Personally I prefer to either play at 1440p at 60 max graphics on the 980, or 4k 60 at slightly reduced settings. A great example is Metal gear Solid 5. It runs great at 4k at medium to high settings and still ooks leagues better than the consoles.
I recently bought the S710
I recently bought the S710 and have been happy with it. Of course up here it costs double what it does in the USA.
That SanDisk Ultra II is a
That SanDisk Ultra II is a screaming deal in any of its available capacities. Decent (if not remarkable) as an OS drive, but really comes into its own as a place to install Steam and enjoy SSD load times on the cheap.
Am I the only one that thinks
Am I the only one that thinks that GPUs are WAY overpriced these days? I see no compelling upgrade to my “old” Sapphire Tri-X R9 290X I bought online slightly used for $275…
What is the better $200
What is the better $200 tablet the shield or the zenpad
Gaming isn’t a factor