970 vs i3

[texasgunsafe]

I am running a Phenom II 970 Black Edition on a GA-870A motherboard. The sound chip is giving me problems so I want to add an actual sound card to it. I'm looking at the Sound Blaster SBX AE-5. Creative only says minimum requirements are an Intel i3 or AMD equvilent. I even asked them in annemail and they just repeated that statement. If I pay $150 for this sound card, am I wasting my money on it withouy upgrading my system further?

 

[theonerm2]

I think your motherboard is in the process of dying. So when it does die you won't have a computer to use anymore until you buy a new motherboard. It's a definite waste of money to spend $150 on a sound card when what you really need is a new motherboard. You can get a used one too. It'll be new to you I mean.

Also. It depends on the Core i3 they are talking about but generally almost any Core i3 on the desktop will beat your CPU. A core i3 must have been the lowest end system they tested on. Really I can't imagine why you couldn't run the sound card on a system like yours.

 

[jaslion]

I am running a Phenom II 970 Black Edition on a GA-870A motherboard. The sound chip is giving me problems so I want to add an actual sound card to it. I'm looking at the Sound Blaster SBX AE-5. Creative only says minimum requirements are an Intel i3 or AMD equvilent. I even asked them in annemail and they just repeated that statement. If I pay $150 for this sound card, am I wasting my money on it withouy upgrading my system further?

Any soundcard nowadays except for driving certain gear or getting more ports is a waste of money. If your sound chip is dying then replace the board because once one part of a motherboard starts to fail it's an indicator that it most likely won't have long to live anyways.