Best soundcard for sabertooth z77..

[cosminrules]

Can someone tell me which soundcard is better?
1)Asus Xonar D2 PCI Sound Card or Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional Soundcard, which one is better. 2)Are they both compatible with the sabertooth z77 motherboard?
3)If you know any better soundcard max £80 please tell me.
4) Is it worth buying a soundcard?
Ty

 

[FinneousPJ]

4) Not if you're not a professional.

 

[abekl]

4) Only if you need professional quality sound.

 

[master_chen]

Asus Xonar D2 or Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty

1. In my personal opinion (based from personal experience of dealing with those), "Xonar" would be a better option, but only if it's the "D2X" (PCI-e) or "D2/PM" (Only PCI) versions.

If you know any better sound card for 80£, please tell me.

2. If you can't get/afford the "D2X", then I highly recommend getting at least this.

Is it worth buying a sound card?

3. Highly depends on your sound system and your personal preferences. For most people, no. On-board sound would be quite enough for them.
Especially since as of late (I'd say, in the last 3 years), on-board sound really became quite good in quality.

But for people that have very strong sense for sound quality, or have a "musical ear" (like me, for example), it really does matter a lot.
Especially if it's the "5.1" and "7.1" sound systems that are being used as the main sound output.

 

[InvalidError]

2) PCI/PCIe cards are tightly controlled standards, any card should work in any board with the appropriate slot on it. Quirks with standard-compliant components do happen but they are few and far between and often due to isolated manufacturing defects that could happen with any board/IC/packaging from any model and manufacturer - you could build two identical setups with one that works fine and another that exhibits quirks just because some components are from different batches with just enough production variance to trigger quirks.

 

[dansgas1000]

Just to let you know even with a 5.1 HQ speaker system is ok with onboard sound becuase its about 5.1 usually anyway.

 

[master_chen]

You could build two identical setups with one that works fine and another that exhibits quirks just because some components are from different batches with just enough production variance to trigger quirks.

Yeah, I totally agree on that.