Should i get a sound card or use onboard sound

[thec1aw]

My Logitech G930 headset recently broke and I need a new headset. I was wondering if I should get a sound card and headset or just stick with only a headset.

The headset I was looking at is the SteelSeries Siberia V2 and the sound card is the Asus Xonar Phoebus. My MB is Msi P67A-GD65

I want to have surround sound for FPS gaming like Battlefield 3(I have heard there were some problems with the Phoebus but it got fixed)



So my question is: Will there be any noticeable difference with the onboard sound and the one on the sound card.



PS. If you have any suggestions for better headset or sound card then it would be much appreciated, and sorry if my English is really bad.

 

[shaun_shaun]

I have Phoebus .. you can clearly hear a difference between onboard and Phoebus .. it can be very handy in gaming specially if you want to hear sounds like footsteps .. but the tough question comes when comparing the price/performance ratio. I paid more than $200 for Phoebus. but it is really overpriced with its current buggy drivers.. currently there is a Beta driver which fixed most of the issues including BF3 issues but still waiting for a proper WHQL driver .. If you don't care about gaming sounds, you can always try an external amp to save some money ..
I always try to avoid gaming related headsets because they are nothing but marketing gimmicks to fool people... buy if you really care about gaming position and stuff you can try a 5.1 gaming headset.. but I cant really recommend anything related to gaming headsets.. ( do some research in head-fi.org)

 

[thec1aw]

I have Phoebus .. you can clearly hear a big difference between onboard and Phoebus .. it can be very handy in gaming specially if you want to hear sounds like footsteps .. but the tough question comes when comparing the price/performance ratio. I paid more than $200 for Phoebus. but it is really overpriced with its current buggy drivers.. currently there is a Beta driver which fixed most of the issues including BF3 issues but still waiting for a proper WHQL driver .. If you don't care about gaming sounds, you can always try an external amp to save some money ..
I always try to avoid gaming related headsets because they are nothing but marketing gimmicks to fool people... buy if you really care about gaming position and stuff you can try a 5.1 gaming headset.. but I cant really recommend anything related to gaming headsets.. ( do some research in head-fi.org)

thanks for the reply, i have looked into the headsets and overall people seem to agree that it is a good headset for its price. However the phoebus are pretty expensive i have to pay about 260$ for it in norway. Do you recommend any other sound card mainly for gaming.

 

[shaun_shaun]

you can try Sound Blaster Z ... if you can find it in Norway ..

 

[dansgas1000]

Even something cheap like a Asus Xonar series would be fine.

 

[thec1aw]

Even something cheap like a Asus Xonar series would be fine.

Thanks

 

[andrewsn101]

What a coincidence, I also use the Siberia V2, it's the best lightweight headset (despite the plasticky creeck when moving around).

When I bought the Xonar DG 5.1 /headphone amp. I noticed a difference when I used the equalizer with Foobar2000. Bass did not overrule the other frequencies, and the high hats weren't distorting, plus the amplifier allowed me to bump up the volume about 1.5x louder than before.

That was when I had a motherboard with ALC 989 audio chipset.
Now I'm using the ROG Crosshair Formula-Z's onboard since it does not support PCI legacy. I think I still preferred the Xonar 5.1.

However I'm now debating between the Phoebus or Xfi Titanium HD.

I have my audio rigged to the back of my PC so I'm not sure what the major differences will be.