Questions before buying a sound card

[rds1220]

Ok as many of you know work in IT but my main strenght is gaming computers. However I have to say while I know alot about CPU's, video cards and watercooling I don't know alot about sound cards, I've always used onboard sound so I have a few questions.

When buying a sound card what am I looking for (chanels, bits and KHz?)

How much does interface matter PCI-E 1X Vs PCI?

When you plug in the sound card does it automatically over-ride the onboard sound? What I am trying to get at is do I have to plug my head-phones directly into the audio jack or can I still use the front panel audio jack?

These are the two I was looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102041

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132006

 

[noidea_77]

Would be easier if you tell us for what you want a sound card? The will be not much of a difference for headphones from onboard sound. And yes, the driver will deactivate the onboard sound and no, you can not use you front panel plug until you connect it to the soundcard instead of the onboard.

 

[rds1220]

Well this is for gaming and yes I'm using headphones. Problem is the onboard sound on my FoxConn motherboard is pretty crappy. I have good headphones (expensive) but crappy onboard sound that really pisses me off.

 

[jay_nar2012]

There is no advantage i can thing of between PCI-E cards and PCI cards, although it would be more wiser to get a PCI-E card as PCI slots are obsolete and more boards are being made without them.

The onboard audio should be automatically disabled when you install the card and drivers, if not you can change audio settings in the BIOS or you can disable the onboard chip in windows.

The front panel audio header is meant to be connected to the sound via a connector on the card.

The amount of channels will depend on what speakers you already have and what speakers you are going to get in the future, most sound cards support 5.1 channels for 5.1 speaker systems, they can also support 3.1, 2.1 and 2.0 speaker systems.

Bit rate and sample rate are used for recording sound, the higher the sample rate and bit rate means higher quality recordings (i think that includes ripped discs), but also means more hard drive space is used to store the sound files.

Here is a little guide - http://www.digitaltrends.com/buying-guides/pc-sound-card-buyers-guide/

 

[rds1220]

There is no advantage i can thing of between PCI-E cards and PCI cards, although it would be more wiser to get a PCI-E card as PCI slots are obsolete and more boards are being made without them.

The onboard audio should be automatically disabled when you install the card and drivers, if not you can change audio settings in the BIOS or you can disable the onboard chip in windows.

The front panel audio header is meant to be connected to the sound via a connector on the card.

The amount of channels will depend on what speakers you already have and what speakers you are going to get in the future, most sound cards support 5.1 channels for 5.1 speaker systems, they can also support 3.1, 2.1 and 2.0 speaker systems.

Bit rate and sample rate are used for recording sound, the higher the sample rate and bit rate means higher quality recordings (i think that includes ripped discs), but also means more hard drive space is used to store the sound files.

Here is a little guide - http://www.digitaltrends.com/buying-guides/pc-sound-card-buyers-guide/

Thanks. So out of those two which do you think would be better? As I said this is for gaming not sound studio work like a professional sound studio. So the frontpanel header HD Audio/AC 97' cable will connect directly do to the sound card rather than the motherboard header?

 

[jay_nar2012]

Yes the AC97/HD audio header should be able to be connected to the sound card.

I would say get the Creative sound card mainly because of the price if it, they are both good although the Xonar has more channels and is louder.

 

[Entw1ne]

I would recommend the Xonar DX far more than I would the SoundBlaster card. I did a ton of research before purchasing my card (Xonar Essence STX), and the general consensus was that the Xonar series as a whole is at the top.