Should I but a soundcard?

[shahrooz]

Hi I have recently bought a Sennheiser HD 555 headphone currently I hook it up to the onboard soundcard of my sabertooth p67 motherboard, I have a PCI x1 slot available, all others are occupied, should I buy a soundcard? if yes what are good soundcards for my use? I listen to music and play games and watch movies most of the time.

I noticed a mistake in the title but it says you cant edit after I edit the title sry for the mistake guys

 

[signor]

The sabertooth has fairly good 7.1 sound support personally I wouldnt bother with a sound card.
Currently using the sabertooth mobo also, spent a good few hours contemplating a sound card for the razer tiamats (whenever they get released) and decided that its not even worth £50 when all it will do is change where I plug the cables in.

 

[sosofm]

Any cheap sound card is better then on board chip.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102003 25$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102024 100$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132007 85$

 

[Crush3d]

I wouldn't worry about it. For the average user listening to things such as music, games, movies, etc you probably won't notice a large enough distinction in quality that will be worth the price you pay for a decent card. I know I don't.

 

[shahrooz]

thanks everyone

 

[gamerk316]

I'm tired of the "you won't hear a difference" talk thats going on in these boards, I really am. With a decent set of headphones/speakers [which the 555's are], a soundcard will make a major difference.

Best all around bet is the ASUS Xonar DX, which currently goes for about $70 or so.

 

[Crush3d]

While the quality may be better, it in no way is worth 70 dollars to me, personally, when I'm focused more on shooting the guy across the map in the face than the newb that has dial up and is trying to talk through low quality in-game voice chat.

Opinion. Maybe you have keen ears.

 

[davcon]

^+1 it's a ridiculous statement "you won't hear a difference"!
I guess you won't see a difference between onboard video and a discrete gpu either when gaming!
Stupid statement !
If you have good headphones and/or speakers you'll definitely hear a difference.

 

[gamerk316]

While the quality may be better, it in no way is worth 70 dollars to me, personally, when I'm focused more on shooting the guy across the map in the face than the newb that has dial up and is trying to talk through low quality in-game voice chat.

Opinion. Maybe you have keen ears.

To me, paying an extra $200 on a GPU just to enable 8xAA is a waste of money. But lots of people do it, and insist on maxing every single graphical setting.

Running without a decent soundcard is like running a game at 1024x768 with every graphical setting reduced. You can, but most people with working eyes understand it looks horrible.

 

[Crush3d]

In my mind, the threshold for sound adequacy for the average person has been reached with onboard audio.

The expanding market in terms of HD and improved display graphics continues to expand. I agree forking out top dollar for the newest card on the market may seem futile, but some like the best, and in doing so they provide, in some sense, a form of future proofing against games that come out with better resolution and more demanding graphics before they upgrade their entire system.

The onboard audio vs soundcard and onboard video vs video card arguments are not apples to apples in this case. I think most would agree they would play a game with average sound and great video before they would play a game with average video and great sound.

The marked future proofing improvement of spending $100+ dollars on a GPU vs a soundcard make this a no brainer for any gamer as audio quality with onboard audio is more than adequate for most users.

The bottom line is that the marginal improvements in graphics beat out marginal improvements in sound any day. Video is more important that audio. In choosing a gaming system that contains onboard audio + GPU or onboard video + soundcard, I, and many others, would taking the GPU and onboard audio hands down. For gaming the cost of upgrading to a soundcard is just a misuse of money as you could have spent it elsewhere in your system to get better performance instead of the marginal upgrade in sound quality.

In the build forums here, it is rare to see someone suggesting $70 dedicated to getting a soundcard to anyone on any kind of budget gaming PC.

 

[shahrooz]

I like music and listen to it too much, think I'd better get one for myself, thanks everyone

 

[davcon]

I like music and listen to it too much, think I'd better get one for myself, thanks everyone

Asus,Auzentech,and HT Omega offer high quality products with good drivers.
I run 2 different Auzentech cards on Win7 platforms = drivers have been excellent and trouble free!

 

[shahrooz]

Asus,Auzentech,and HT Omega offer high quality products with good drivers.
I run 2 different Auzentech cards on Win7 platforms = drivers have been excellent and trouble free!

so i think I'll go for ASUS Xonar DX.

 

[davcon]

so i think I'll go for ASUS Xonar DX.

Solid choice!
ASUS Xonar DX 7.1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132006
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=29395&vpn=XONAR%20DX&manufacture=ASUS