End of Year PC Build

Delta makes some good fans, namely the bigger industrial ones. But for small scale 12V systems I always choose Papst fans. They only make industrial spec stuff; check them out: ebm-Papst

My local store used to carry them (they were quite popular in PC builds say, ten years ago), but not anymore. There are dropshippers though, if you wan't to check prices: Farnell

That ASUS ROG picture belongs in the STAR WARS thread

Nah, that's digital. I got it mixed up.
All too familiar, sadly. My son managed to destroy my Pioneer A-series amplifier. It was old, granted, but it had a mosfet with a large ring amplifier; they don't make them like they used to.
Safer is better. Lasts longer too.
Yeah, you have to build your own setup with those brands, unfortunately.
No, that would be my mistake too. I was thinking about an AV receiver.

Back in the olden days your setup was like this: source -> surround decoder -> analogue 5.1 amplifier -> speakers

I've always like BOSE, Boston Accoustics, B & W, Klipsch, Wharfdale and old school companies like Patterson and McIntosh or Martin Logan.

As for Amplifiers, I like Yamaha, Denon, Marantz and of course premium companies like Nakamichi which is only in Japan.

Though I have heard that Marantz has severely dropped in quality over the years.

I've onl;y recently come across those brands (Moukey, Rockville), but have no knowledge of them.    The only 5.1 Amplifer that I know of that has HDMI In/Out supporting 5.1 channels is the Yamaha V385.   Here in Canada at stores like The Brick (whole sale discount stores) it sells for 349.99 CAD.

Denon is a really good brand but they are quite expensive here in Canada and most recently only support a minimum of 7.1 (up to 13.2) channels and the most top notch formats and inputs/outputs.  My suggestion is try Yamaha.

All good brands (although I don't like Bose much ). Would add Sony, Technics, NAD, Quad, Pro-Ject, Naim and Rotel.

Yes, I agree....I would also have added NAD, Technics (a Div. of Panasonic which I've awlays liked on many levels), Quad and Naim if I didn't have to type-and-dash so those were the only companies I could immediately think of.   Adding to this list now, I can also think of Paradigm, Cambridge, Canton, Wharfdale, Monitor Audio, Cerwin Vega, Rotel, Velodyne, OKEF, Roksan, Rockford Fosgate, Polk Audio, Furman, Sunfire, Harmon Kardon, JBL, and TEAC.   If we are adding Car Audio, I also like Mark Levinson, Bang & Olufssen and Blaupunkt.

The list goes on....  This is a privately-owned, family run Home Theater and Electronics store whose owners/founders my dad has known since 1980.  This is the store where I bought my first stereo system with my own money in 1998.   A 75-watt Amplifier and a seperate 5-disk CD Changer (both from TEAC), and 6" bookshelf speakers from Design Accoustics.  The CD player was 349.99 I got for 200, the Amp was 399.99 I got it for 150.00 and the speakers were 300 for the pair, I got them for 100.00.

I had the CD player for five years, and every year I had to replace the chip that drove the tray....it was 75.00 dollars CAD to replace it every year, so I figured it would be less expensive in the long run to buy a new CD player.   Then in 2003, my dad bought me the PD600 from Technics.  It was a 500 dollar unit at the time.  It's now 10x less than that on ebay.  I still have the TEAC amp and DA Speakers.

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