Official Post Your Gaming HQ Thread

@AdamK47: Wow, you made exactly what I said a perfect PC gaming setup should be. Wish I could find my own quote. A desk in the middle of a room surrounded by speakers and a big TV a few feet ahead. Awesome.

Edit: Actually, not quite. Next thing I'd do is upgrade that 5.2.2 to 7.2.4, meaning one speaker to each side and two more Atmos.

Physically, a 7.2.4 setup would work. Aesthetically, I wouldn't like it. For a balanced setup I would have to place one of the side speakers in front of the window to my left. I do have an extra pair of Atmos speakers in a closet. Klipsch RP-140SA. Older cabinet style. Wouldn't match the black wood grain of the Klipsch Reference Premier series that makes up my system now. I would also have to upgrade my Denon receiver. That wouldn't be a big deal.

I also didn't want to go crazy with sound absorption panels all over the place. I chose areas that would have the biggest impact and look good aesthetically.

@AdamK47: Have you thought about putting carpet in that room to help with the sound?

That setup is nuts...

Don't want carpet. I don't have any carpet in this new house.

I know carpet isn’t for everyone, but it does wonders for audio quality. Less echo, reverb and damn near instant decay.

@AdamK47: My god your setup looks amazing, job well done! I also like how you have used sound treatments, and toe'd in your speakers properly, that should further help everything else sound great (I should toe mine in too, but lol for some reason I do not like the way it looks when toe'd in even though that, in 90% of cases, is the proper way to do it). Also, use of towers as surrounds, great move (and frankly given the cost of quality speaker stands, in some ways going tower for surround, if placement allows it, makes a lot of sense, less compromise). That is a definition of a very very good mancave (lol whenever I think I have a decent mancave, I see something like this and I am like...yeah mine still needs plenty of work, really want to move one of my setups to 5.1.4 but damn receivers capable of that have gotten quite expensive). Anyway, just an amazing PC gaming and media consumption setup that you got there!

Literally the only comment I would have would be related to the choice of the subwoofers, curious why you decided to go with those instead of something else (like say HSU VTF-2 12inch, Monolith 12, SVS PB2000 or Rhytmik 12). Those all cost the same (or less if I recall correctly) than the ML but can go down lower. Granted in that relatively smaller room (from a pressurization perspective) I am sure the 2xML's work well too. Anyway was just curious on the decision, don't get me wrong not criticizing or anything.

Went with the two 800X subs since they have a lot of power in such a small size. Good for the room size. They sit comfortably where I placed them. No bass distortion problems and the lows are clean and tight with them being sealed.

@AdamK47: Ah OK makes sense. Yeah a lot of people prefer the nice tight bass of sealed subwoofer (I keep hearing sealed subs are more musical too) . I tend to prefer ported on my end (since they tend to go down lower, for movies, love playing the first minute of edge of tomorrow and hearing everything in the room shake and rattle lol).

It's a shame most video games have terrible LFE/very little bass, imo developers should really start putting more of a focus on this, especially now after covid (since many people, from what I have seen, have upgraded their home sound setups during the pandemic, including myself, hell I had some cheap budget 2.1 setup with pioneer andrew jones speakers and a jbl sub when this all started).

@tribesjah: I have SVS SB-2000 which is sealed as well. It has nice lows which are more linear and you don't get that artificial bump on the low end that you do on a ported sub. I prefer it. Edge of Tomorrow intro is just insane and I honestly never heard anything like it.

As for most games not having too much bass... Games are different than movies. There are a lot of sounds being repeated often unlike a movie. So, if that sound has crazy bass, it will get fatiguing and annoying real quick.

@BassMan: That is another excellent sub! Did not realize so many people on GS actually cared about good/decent sound! And you are right, Edge of Tomorrow is insane. First time I heard it to test scene on sub I had volume at like 75 (I think - 5db from "reference", I usually listen at max 60/-20db or lower since I live in an apartment and don't want to piss neighbors off...can't wait to move to a house so that I can enjoy sound properly but anything in decent neighborhood/close by is $1m/1.2m and up so I am sol for now) and I freaked out and immediately paused since I thought it may damage the sub lol. I do also rub the subs around 4db or so hotter than what autocal sets them to

As for the video game comment, I respectively disagree, the more bass the better lol, would not personally annoy me in the slightest. Then again, I might be a bass head and my music genre of choice is EDM (mostly trance/progressive house/deep house/house) so I am super biased lol

@tribesjah: I think my name describes my love of bass well enough. hehe :)

As much as I love bass (I also share your taste in music), I can be realistic about things and understand why things are done a certain way. Aside from games having repetitive sounds and the fatigue that can cause, an overly boomy sound design will also negatively affect the impact sounds have on players. You need to be able to use the full dynamic range so that when you do hear that boomy sound, it has more impact.

Okay, makes sense. I only mentioned it because a 5.1 configuration ideally has the surrounds more to the sides, so that there is not so much space when sounds pan around. 7.1 has the back surrounds, as you may already know. A few games, Naughty Dog's for example, let you position the channels yourself, which I find pretty cool.

But yeah, a desk in the middle of the room with a surround system and a big TV ahead is the ideal PC gaming setup, I've long thought.

@BassMan: Haha that is noted, yeah figured you may be a bass head as well but did not want to assume.

But true you bring up good points, too much bass could be fatiguing as well and certainly don't want something sounding muddy (I can't stand some headphones, such as beats because they are too muddy/imbalanced). Had not thought of it being fatiguing tbh (I usually associate fatigue with treble, even though personally don't find treble fatiguing) but could certainly see the bass being an issue if it's just constantly "boom boom boom" due to things exploding.

I guess my issue (and granted I have not looked into this empirically at all, nor taken the measurements in game, so this is more of a feeling) is that bass/LFE effects in video games do not go that low at all, rarely would anything go under the 20hz or 30hz mark (I would guess most is focused at the 40-80/120hz mark). From a practical perspective though I do not know what this would imply (games having effects that go as low as say 16hz), but I can see what you alluded to being the case (too much/frequent bass).

Lastly, from another practical perspective, I would assume that even if games had a good focus on LFE effects and effects got down low, most people would not be able to take advantage of it as they either a) game on headphones (which, unless I am mistaken, tend to fall off dramatically under 100hz, I think - 3db point of many headphones may be close to the 100hz mark), b) game on TV speakers or blah (imo) logitech/razer pc speakers or c) don't have a sub powerful enough to go that low anyway (as those things tend to be costly and extremely bulky...man are good subs a massive waste of space and hard to integrate visually in a room) so i do understand why developers may not elect to focus on the low notes, since, frankly, the minority of a minority would be able to take advantage of that. Cost/benefit does not make sense here. But one can dream right? Lol

Even I, to be honest/frank, probably do not get the full benefits of having a decent subwoofer (or my ears lol) since I never listen loud enough and bass tends to be something where the perceived volume is harder to hear than the rest of the sound spectrum. So me playing at -20db (or even lower, in terms of movies), I won't hear the bass in my content that well, so in some way all this "complaining" could be moot in my case. On another note, turning up close to reference volume for movies, frankly I do not understand how someone can listen at those volumes, it's too loud imo.

@warm_gun: True but I think the way his setup is done for the rewrs still conforms with the (ever changing) dolby recommendation,or at least close to it (110-120 degree). But all this proper speaker placement is a little complicated since say thx say 90-110but dolby says 110-120 (for 5.1). More importantly I think in his case, the height of the surround may be an issue, I don't think so personally but it's possible (potentially, but like I alluded to earlier, given the ever changing recommendations by even dolby, as well as differing recommendations based on company, hard to know). Some place say surround should be placed (the tweeter) a few feet above ears (while other say ear level). Bringing in atmos into this further complicates this as atmos speakers (upfiring) should be above ear level but no more than half the height of ceiling, but if you rears are several feet above ear level fba. Your upfiring (if on top of rears) would be too high. Anyway yeah kind of confusing on what the best/correct setup is (personally I have given up figuring that out and try to enjoy the compromised setup I have)

@AdamK47: Gorgeous setup!

Do you have any issues with heat in the room due to the hardware?

That is an odd question. He is not running a mining operation or server farm in there. That is a standard home theater setup. The only real sources of heat are going to be the TV, PC, AVR, and subs with built in amps, none of which produce excessive amounts of heat.

Looks like a small room with all that hardware, and with my stuff running, I've seen my room increase a few degrees over time which is very noticeable going from 68 to 73 for example.

@Stevo_the_gamer: It does impact it for sure, but I don't see anything in that setup where maintaining a good room temp would be an issue. The factors outside the room play a bigger role. Is the room downstairs/upstairs? Does it receive a lot of sunlight? How is the air circulation? Is it connected to an HVAC system? Things like that.

Yeah, or south facing portion of the house. Desktop powerhouse is probably quite the heater. lol. Besides, even my PS5 and Xbox Series X both generate a ton of heat. Whenever I build my "forever home" and have a dedicated movie/game room, it'll have a dedicated ac system for the room (maybe a split ac).

@Stevo_the_gamer:

I do agree with BassMan that it's an odd question (sort of) since there are other factors that come into play that are more important. That being said, his PC certainly is capable of serving as a space heater, probably outputs around 750/800w or so at laod (aka a space heater on the low setting lol).

I think the bigger issue is (in a setup of that calibre) is making sure the electrical can handle the load of everything running at once and that the circuit breaker does not trip (as in having a circuit dedicated to that room). I would guess everything combined (pc, tv, receiver, subwoofer) at load could draw close to 1500w peak or more (when listening loud and subwoofer being stressed in his case, since that massive OLED also draws a decent amount of power). My rooms circuit breaker is shared between the sunroom/wife's office and I have def. Led to the thing tripping, hence why I am mentioning (and I think it is something someone could over look when designing a dedicated space, certainly something I never thought of until it happened to me)

@tribesjah: Yeah, the power draw is pretty substantial - altho reading up on the power consumption of that OLED was very surprising. Didn't know they pulled that much power tbh. I really do not like heat, and being in California in a house built in the 50s, insulation isn't the best so temp variance happens more often than not so I guess that's why it comes to mind immediately for me.

It's a valid question and one that I've contemplated even before moving into the house. I moved in at the end of January. This room is at the very end of the house. The room gets much colder than main sections of the house. I have a small silent radiator that does well.

I do worry about the heat in the warmer months. None of my components sip electricity. The 3090 has a 500W BIOS and certainty gets up to that with a 4K resolution. The 12900K is overclocked and consumes its fair share of electricity. The Denon receiver gets mighty warm when constant sound is sent to all the speakers. The subwoofers get fairly warm too. Then I have the 77" G1 which also uses a lot of power.

Are you married? Tips for convincing your spouse to splurge on the goods like a 77" OLED. Lol

Ask for forgiveness not for permission.

That worked for the 83” C1 and 77” C1

83” already looks small ugh

Got tired of walking around my coffee table, so I took it out. My bedroom looks more like a bedroom again, and I don't feel so cramped in. But the keyboard and mousepad are usually on the floor now, and I'm using the former on my lap or sometimes sitting on the floor where the table used to be. Wonder how the owners would feel if I nailed a board above my bed.

Added some of the final pieces to my battle station. Everything Razer (including the chair :p), minus the desk and monitor on the left. I expect much hate for this, but I am not ashamed. :)

Except for the Razer phone. I'm kind of ashamed of that...and maybe the cable management.

@Miyomatic: That is a lot of RGB. What are the specs of your laptop? Also, the beverage holder is funny, but I guess it prevents spills.

@Miyomatic: chair looks comfy! Nice setup.

@BassMan said: @Miyomatic: That is a lot of RGB. What are the specs of your laptop? Also, the beverage holder is funny, but I guess it prevents spills.

Yes a fuk ton of RGB lol I know people have thoughts about that, but I like it.

So I picked up last year's Razer Blade 14. Nvidia RTX 3070 (mobile), Ryzen 5900HX and 16GB of ram (unfortunately soldered on and not expandable on this laptop). I actually bring my laptop places so this setup works for me in my current situation.

I recently purchased the 27" Razer Raptor monitor considering it matches the 1440p 165hz of my laptop screen. The beverage holder is some cheap add on I got off of Amazon, but gets the job done I guess.

@Stevo_the_gamer: I upgraded from a cheaper standard "racing" style "gaming" chair and omg is it night and day. Razer Ishkur is what I got. Has adjustable lumbar support, and considering I WFH, its been a lifesaver.

@Miyomatic: Those are nice laptop specs. Shame about the 16GB RAM limit but still more than enough for gaming. Good setup overall.

Pretty sure my wife would slap me if I bought a $500 gaming chair. :P

If it is a legit good chair with proper back support, she should be thanking you.

I took my brother's computer chair, but I kind of miss the dining chair. Threw it out because of the permanent sweat stain. The dang armrests make this one a slight squeeze under the table.

@warm_gun said:

I took my brother's computer chair, but I kind of miss the dining chair. Threw it out because of the permanent sweat stain. The dang armrests make this one a slight squeeze under the table.

Is that a towel? Lol

@Stevo_the_gamer:

I don't want my taint ruining another chair. Started putting towels on after my faux leather chair a couple of years ago.

Finally got my Alienware AW3423DW QD OLED monitor yesterday. Check out the difference in contrast vs. my second monitor which is a cheap Asus VL279HE IPS. Those blacks....

@BassMan: Damn thats night and day, huge upgrade. Once you go that black, you never go back.

Yup, it is replacing my AW3418DW ulltrawide which is also IPS but has better contrast than that top monitor. Contrast ratio is shit on that Asus. It has decent colours and viewing angles though and is good enough for what I use it for. But yeah, OLED is the greatest. I have owned OLED TVs since 2016. Glad to have an ultrawide OLED on the desktop now. :)

I guess I have made some noteworthy changes since my last desktop pic..... I got a 5950X CPU, X570 Asus TUF Pro motherboard, upgraded from 16GB RAM to 48GB, another 2TB NVME drive, Corsair K70 keyboard, AW3423DW monitor, and a new riser stand to replace my RTX 3080 box that I was using. LOL

This QD OLED is like a dream come true. It is basically my living room TV on my desktop in ultrawide with higher refresh rate. So good.

It sure is nice playing games from MS, Sony, and Nintendo all on PC in ultrawide....

@BassMan: Thanks for finally making us see clearly again. Console peasant race. Pc ultrawide oled master race.

Imagine I'd have to do a lot to make sure my web browser tabs or window or whatever doesn't burn into the screen. Yeah, people keep saying OLED has gotten so much better with that, but here I am with the Windows logo and taskbar burned into my LED screen after seven years. The screen does turn off when I'm away from it.

I never had burn in on any of my screens. I have been using OLED on my phones since the original Samsung Galaxy Nexus and my TVs since 2016. You can also auto hide the taskbar or fullscreen the browser if you are worried about it.

What is the panel type (TN, IPS, VA) or model of your screen that has burn-in?

IPS

@warm_gun: That is messed up. It may be some image retention that you can get rid of. Try running a fullscreen of just white for a few hours and see if it goes away.

@BassMan: Doubt it's image retention. Have had the taskbar hidden for about two weeks now and ran this video for at least one hour.

I wouldn't have even checked if a user on another forum didn't try to convince another that his LED monitor has burn-in. Sure enough, the most visible part on mine is at the same place as his, the Windows symbol in the corner.