The best ASUS ROG Swift Review I've seen!

I have watched many reviews of the ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q but this is by far the best.

This monitor was one of the main reasons I decided to buy a desktop rather than a laptop.

Once you experience G-Sync, looking at any other monitor feels like getting used to the snappiness of an SSD then using a computer with a slow HDD

Please watch @Mr. Fox @Papusan

 

@Matrix Leader You have an expensive hobby. What about your Aw18? Is it parked?
ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q = +850$ home

 

Yes this monitor is super expensive, almost the same price as an entry level throttling laptop but once you see it in action, you will appreciate it and it's worth every penny.

The Alienware is collecting cat fur. My cats use it as a sleeping pad. I put it on sale on our local ebay like website with 0 calls for it since more than 4 months. RIP Alienware. Criminal = DELL.

 

How much you sell it for?

 

Yeah, those are really awesome monitors. If I were using a desktop I would want one.

 

trouble is IPS and VA G-Sync is here and coming. Going back to a TN panel is criminal as well

 

IPS sucks for gaming. Where IPS excels is photo editing as it represent more real life colors which I couldn't care less about. To each his own though

 

$2400 USD

 

You really shouldn't do such assumptions.
I game on IPS panel, and I do it a lot. And who says that it's not important to have good colours in video games as well?
There's this "reaction time argument" though, but I don't think it matters anymore these days.
If you just game and don't mind TN panels, sure, SWIFT is a way to go. It's probably the best monitor of its kind. But if you have do everything - game, work, watch movies, etc., IMO hands down IPS is a better overall choice.

 

I have been using the swift monitor since they week they came out, absolutely love it... It actually works really well with the aw18 (newest generation) with sli 780m's as well. I can easily make my 1500 watt ups scream at me when I turn dsr up to 200% is bf4 on my desktop with the kingpins. The monitor takes all I can throw at it and just laughs.. It's so smooth and fluid.

The final step to greatness a lot of people skip over is audio. Get yourself a sound blaster x7 and sennheiser hd800's or akg712pro's. Between the monitor and sound it truest becomes an experience..

 

Did you check my sig? I have a Sound Blaster Zx

BTW, how did you connect it to the Alienware 18 when the AW18 doesn't have a display port?

 

ROFL X7 and HD 800 for gaming?! Talk about overkill...

What speakers or headphones are you using?

 

Yup I love my rog swift and titan x sli, its definitely like gaming in a sports car

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

I recommend you check out TFTCentral's review of the Acer XB270HU monitor. It's a 144Hz IPS panel, and it games just fine in my own experience.

And tbh, I still can't see what the big fuss over GSync is about. I know most review sites gush with praise, but my personal experience has been far closer to what Eurogamer has reported. In short, yeah it improves things especially in the sweet spot, but definitely not the game changer or "once you use it you can't go back" kind of effect most sites seem to imply. In fact I even had to turn off GSync for a particular game (Saints Row IV) because for some reason it kept locking FPS to 60 with GSync on lol.

 

I just saw this. The SB X7 isn't that great a product to be honest. Especially considering the DAC's you could have in the same price range that are far better quality.

 

NVIDIA definitely seems to be more focused on smoke and mirrors gimmicks than they ever have been. They need to be razor sharp on the really important stuff, like hardware and drivers that just work right all of the time instead of fancy fluff. Nothing wrong with fluff, but it really needs to take a back seat. They're screwing up on the most important stuff and not really doing a great job even on the fluff.

 

Aw18 has mini display port.

The x7 has many more uses than just an dac and amp. The sbx chip for gaming is much better than the realtech crap
That is on motherboards. Plus bluetooth, nfc, mixing multiple inputs at the same time with independent control.

I use a wooaudio wa22 with the hd800's for music...

 

Only if you're listening to music on headphones; you can't use them for gaming or movies as they're stereo-only. The X7 is a different beast, really an all-in-one audio solution, so much more useful/versatile than a USB DAC+amp and a better value if you can take advantage of all its features. Good audio components too for the audiophiles that care. I just think it's overkill if strictly for PC gaming (I'd get a sound card instead), but if I had consoles, a home entertainment system, passive speakers, mobile devices, etc. I wouldn't think twice about picking it up.

 

I like it and would buy it again...haven't talked to many people that doesn't like it. A true audio file only that is a purest is a totally different type of person and options. I do use a Bluetooth a lot with it when gaming.. It makes it easy to move between desktops and laptops and keep the same great sound quality instead of having a i thermal only option. Plus I do t want to take up anymore internal slots than I need to. I always seem to have internal sound issues with random noise and poping with internal sound cards. The external USB option works better for me.

 

Yeah that is the biggest problem with onboard audio. A shielded sound card like an Essence STX is a major improvement but moving audio out of the PC is the best solution.

Another plus about the X7 compared to a sound card is its lower headphone output impedance (2.2 ohm on normal X7, 1 ohm on X7 Limited Edition). Not quite as good as most high-end headphone amps which are near-zero (O2 and Magni are 0.5 ohm), but low enough to not really matter. You want output impedance to be less than 1/8th of the headphone impedance (1/8th Rule), otherwise low impedance headphones and balanced armature/multi-driver IEMs sound worse. All sound cards have too-high headphone output impedance; even the well-regarded Asus Xonar line is 10 ohm. Creative sound cards though are especially bad.

 

LOL... I don't particularly enjoy random noise like clicks and pops when I notice them, but you guys are really serious about audio if you're willing to spend almost $400 on something like that X7, as nice as it most certainly is. I know it's easy to spend far more than that if you're a hardcore audiophile and you want to get really crazy, but just saying... that's a lot of money. Maybe my hearing is just too messed up for me to appreciate $400 worth of quality, but I'm still good with my house-shaking antique Logitech Z-5300 5.1 PC speaker system running off of the jacks in the side of my laptops and my $50 airport kiosk Panasonic RP-HC500 headphones.

Spoiler: Logitech Z-5300 Product Description

Serious gamers will appreciate the raw power and superior sound of this 280-watt PC speaker system from Logitech. Featuring 5.1 surround speakers, this set adds THX theater-caliber sound to your games. Other features include 560 watts peak power; dual chamber subwoofer for louder and lower bass; selector switch for surround sound from stereo, 4 channel or 5.1 sources; subwoofer with 2X bass energy; and innovative design with removable grilles plus aluminum phase plug drivers. Comes with 4 wall-mountable satellite speakers, 1 center channel speaker, 1 subwoofer, power cord, color-coded audio cables, wired remote control, user's manual and video game console adapter.

I still remember being so excited about that setup when I bought it 8 or 10 years ago. My wife despises it because the bass from these bad boys is enough to fracture the drywall when you crank it up. Even at low volume it's obnoxious enough that you can feel it from the other end of the house, LOL.

 

I think it's important for balance. You only engage 2 of your 5 senses when gaming or watching a movie. People spend all this money on the fastest CPUs and GPUs to pump out visuals at high FPS and on expensive gaming monitors and TVs and projectors but barely scratch the surface when it comes to audio. Why not make sure sound in addition to graphics is up to snuff to round out the experience.

 

Oh, I'm not criticizing it by any means. I meant what I said as kind of a compliment. As I mentioned, I think my hearing is such that there is no way I can actually appreciate it. If I could I might already own something similar. Since I cannot $400 is a lot of money.

Edit: my hearing is still good enough that I can easily recognize how absolutely horrible the audio quality is from my P570WM. Even when connected to my Z-5300 system it is quite poor. I went to investigate the X7 specifically for that reason, but the price tag made me choke. I think something like this product for the P570WM is more in alignment with my ability to appreciate audio quality, and the price tag fits better on that basis.

I never used to appreciate the audio quality from the dinky speakers in the M18xR1 and M18xR2 chassis, but having the P570WM and a host of other laptops for comparison, it's actually a huge difference. But, I was surprised to see the low impedance of the M18x in that table you posted a bit ago. Where did you find that information @octiceps?

 

Bought some Klipsch Pro Media 2.1 speakers from the USA (Amazon) but when they arrived I stupidly forgot to check the voltage and because the voltage here in Dubai is 240V the moment I plugged them in and turned them on the subject woofer got burned. I took them to a computer repair shop and he said only the fuse got burned so he changed it and claimed they would be fine. Now I bought a 240V to 110V convertDr and plugged them in, but I can heat the bass from the sun woofer the speakers have no sound at all I don't think they could've died I ensured I am connecting the red wire the red jack and the black in the black but still. So for now I am using some cheap 30 USD F&D A530U 2.1 speakers until I can get them Klipsch speakers fixed or returned although Amazon screwed me because they are not accepting a return saying that I had them shipped to my freight forwarder so they a return is not possible. The reason I shipped them to a freight forwarder is because no seller would ship them internationally to Dubai. As for headphones, I have the Alienware headphones that came as a gift with my AW18.

 

Look into the Asus Xonar U7.

Output impedance numbers from here: http://en.goldenears.net/17542

 

I am no audophile at all, all I want is some decent sound out of my speakers. So why did I not choose the on-board audio and went with a dedicated sound card? simple, I want to free my motherboard from doing these sound operations to squeeze every bit of overclocking power out of it

 

You made sure to disable onboard audio in the BIOS before installing your Creative sound card driver, right?

 

Off-course chief, that's the first thing I did when I got the computer.

I disabled onboard Audio and onboard WiFi, I ordered an ASUS USB-AC56 along with my PC. I try to avoid all onboard stuff in motherboards as much as possible.

 

Now that wasn't such a good idea as the included wireless is better. Didn't you have this crazy $300 router or something as well.

 

ohhh thanks for letting me know, let me search for those antennas though I don't know where I placed them.

I have an ASUS AC68U router. I also bought the AC87U and AC3200 a few months back and returned them back, even though they are supposed to be better/faster, they are very unstable, frequent disconnect then I got fed up of trying diff. firmwares all the time so I went back to my trusty AC68U FTW

 

Yeah man, the mobo's included WiFi is an mPCIe 3x3 AC card, so faster and lower CPU utilization than the 2x2 USB dongle you wasted your money on. Reception also looks to be better with the external antennae. The routers you listed are 3x3 as well so you're not taking full advantage of them with the dongle.

And after checking out the X99 Deluxe onboard audio, I'm not so sure the Creative sound card was really a necessary "upgrade" either for a "non-audiophile" like yourself, esp. when it means having to install Creative's bloatware and all you're doing is plugging in entry-level stereo speakers.

 

Oh darn, thanks for letting me know man I really appreciate it. Now the damage is done, let me keep that Sound Card and I agree about the Creative Bloatware, heck they add an auto start entry to register your product every reboot. Even if you do register it, the regupdt.exe is still there on startup, like freakin' Malware!

 

msconfig is your friend then.

 

Sell the ZxR for like $150 and get an Asus Xonar DG for <$30. That accomplishes what you're after, which is moving audio processing off the CPU, amirite? Although idk why you still believe this outdated info as it's not 2004 anymore, onboard nowadays sounds more than "good enough" if you're not picky, and you have a 5930K not a Pentium 4 so whether you're using onboard or discrete audio will make no difference on performance whatsoever. Also the SB ZxR wasn't the best choice for a flagship sound card either, the old X-Fi Titanium HD it replaced was better and the Asus Xonar Essence STX is cheaper, more powerful (power over molex not just PCIe), and uses better components on the PCB. And ofc not dealing with Creative driver software is always a plus.

 

I understand, but now the damage is already done so I'll just keep it I guess

You were 100% right about the WIFI! The connection speed went up from 867 MBPS with that USB WLAN to 1.3 GBPS using the onboard WIFI, also pingtest improved from a C grade to a B Grade:







Never thought that onboard WLAN could be this good.

 

It connects over mPCIe so not exactly "onboard", and being a tri-stream (3x3) card it's better than current laptop WiFi cards which are all 2x2

 

Rep added

 

Well if you're willing to forgo the AC bit, you can still get an older 6300 that's a 3x3 card

 

Dat gigabit doe

 

[insert snarky desktopmasterrace comment]

 

http://www.whathifi.com/creative/sound-blaster-x7/review

Wanted to throw this review into the mix