Best External Sound Card

pcsuperhero · Jul 14, 2013

Hello folks! I am planning to build an ITX system in a Bitfenix Prodigy case (for portability) so the onboard audio on the motherboard is going to be mediocre at best. Unfortunately, ITX motherboards have only one PCI-E slot which will be taken by my GPU so I cannot add a PCI-E based sound card.

What is the best external sound card out there for listening to music and gaming? Are externals as good as their PCI-E counterparts?

Someone Somewhere · Jul 14, 2013

There's no real need for a dedicated soundcard. Onboard is usually very close to dedicated sound card quality.

Your best option is actually to use a receiver/set of speakers with a digital input.

sna · Jul 14, 2013

who said so

http://www.pcper.com/news/Motherboards/Computex-2013-ASUS-Unveils-First-Mini-ITX-ROG-Motherboard-Z87-Maximus-VI-Impact

watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW5BUqQ-JVY

Someone Somewhere · Jul 14, 2013

Yeah, but you know it'll be overpriced.

Besides, a digital connection is essentially ∞dB. What goes in is what comes out until it gets too bad for the checksums.

sna · Jul 15, 2013

Someone Somewhere :

nop , it will be around $200

Someone Somewhere · Jul 15, 2013

Which is $100 more than you need to spend, especially if you're not OCing or aren't getting Haswell.

sna · Jul 15, 2013

Someone Somewhere :

lol a good mothorboard that can OC well is never 100$ for Z87

please stop bothering me

he asked for good sound , and I showed him a better solution.

I know about receivers .. but good ones start from $400

any way stop bothering me.

Someone Somewhere · Jul 15, 2013

How am I bothering you? I'm answering his question. If you want to take it that way, I posted first, so you're the one 'bothering' me.

Most good speaker sets have an optical input. Most cheaper ones aren't good enough to reproduce the difference between soundcards.

pcsuperhero · Jul 15, 2013

I am planning to get the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers which are somewhat high end and THX certified speakers. I am aware of the ASUS MAXIMUS VI Impact motherboard that they are about to release and I was considering it for a while. However, isn't ROG's SupremeFX just a mediocre Realtek with a fancy name? I heard the sound quality is 'meh.' Another option for me would be to just get a mainstream ASUS Z87 ITX board and buy a separate external sound card. What do you guys think?

Someone Somewhere · Jul 15, 2013

I'd say you'd be hard pushed to tell the difference between an onboard soundcard and a dedicated one (whether internal or external) - it's usually just FUD.

What CPU are you going for? If it's not a k-SKU chip there's no point in Z87.

pcsuperhero · Jul 15, 2013

Someone Somewhere :

I'm going for the 4770k.

What is FUD?

Someone Somewhere · Jul 15, 2013

Fear, Uncertainty, and Delusion. It's misinformation designed to confuse you into thinking you need something, or that something is superior to an identical competitor.

An example would be this:

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Best External Sound Card

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