Best sound card for the buck?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

raevyn

Distinguished
Jun 4, 2007
7
0
18,510
I am wanting to buy a sound card. I am currently using the integrated audio with my Asus Striker Extreme mb. I have Creative Labs P7800 7.1 speakers and would like to get more performance with the audio.

What would you guys recommend as a really good sound card? I have looked at several SoundBlaster cards, but am unsure as to which would be the better choice. I am a big gamer and also like to listen to music. Price is not a huge issue (looking to drop no more than 300-400 usd) in my choice.

What do you guys think?


ravn
 
Yes Creative is the Top leader in sound cards, but is bloated in their software for it that takes a good portion of your computer resources. Plus Creative is still having drivers problem for Vista.

Here is a upcoming sound card you should at least look at before buying. Bluegears b-Enspirer 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card. It costs $109.00 at NewEgg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829127002
 
x-fi probly unless you want bragging rights er something in that case go to newegg and select the most expensive card you can afford with the best reveiws :roll:
 
Yikes! Why spend so much for a sound card? I almost didn't let myself buy the Creative X-fi Xtremegamer for $90, might be a little cheaper now.

Anyhow, I also like to run games fast and listen to music. I have good Sennheiser PX250 headphones and decent 5.1 surround system and everything sounds as good as can be, to where any possible gains I might get from a 3-4 hundred$ card would be barely noticeable. Clarity is amazing as is the surround sound.

But even more I love the performance boost I get on many games with this card. Called Xtremegamer for a reason, I have seen with my own eyes the advertised (up to) 15% performance in games compared to both onboard audio or even the $30 soundblaster cards.
I've seen both the most generic Live card and my xtremegamer work just fine in vista now, creative is actively updating drivers and some are very new. I haven't noticed any issues, but if there are some I feel pretty confident that they will get anything major worked out, if they haven't already.

If you said you weren't a gamer and were solely dedicated to audio and do some serious HiFi stuff that is beyond the norm, then the $300+ card might be for you.
Also, if you are simply rich$$ and don't care about gaming, then by all means, as was mentioned, buy the most expensive card with the best reviews.
There is one person I happen to know that is on a budget and has been willing to spend $300+ just for perhaps a 3%-5% increase in sound quality for his very HiFi 7.1 (and very expensive) speaker setup.
It only makes sense because he is dedicated to audio and he isn't a gamer at all. His computer is just a sound machine, basically.
He mixes and produces some tracks, does some serious HiFi work.

But even in his case, he followed the general rule of thumb, which was to buy a really sweet and expensive speaker system before buying an expensive sound card.
However, even for the average extreme gamer with a nice speaker setup, a $300+ card still doesn't make much sense in most cases.

Furthermore, since you are a gamer, it is very possible that you can lose out on a potential 15% increase in gaming performance by going with a $300+ card that is dedicated entirely to audio.

Now, if you have like a $300+ speaker setup and gaming is a much lower priority than good sounding audio, then maybe, just maybe, the $300+ card might be worth it. But you have to be the kind of audiophile that is OK with spending a couple hundred extra dollars just for maybe a 5% increase in quality on a high end HiFi setup, and don't care about gaming, then again, the $300+ card might be worth it.

But like I said, even if you are loaded with $$, keep in mind that you are a gamer. And if you are anything like most gamers, I would assume you would want something like the xtremegamer that will give you a performance boost as well as crystal clear audio.

Yeah, the xtremegamer does sound great even on my Sennheiser PX250 phones, and my 5.1 that I paid nearly as much for. I can't imagine a more expensive card being to improve things much further as things already sound pretty much perfect.
And for the price, it was a great purchase. Perfect for somebody that wants a good all around system, but isn't a dedicated audiophile, but is however a gamer and all around computer user.
Not saying you need to get an xtremegamer, although the X-fi series might be perfect for you, but I am saying you can likely meet your needs in that same $100-ish price range.

Don't know if this post helps at all. Depending on how familiar you are with sound cards and sound, maybe I just told you what you already know. But in case you aren't incredibly familiar, hopefully this helped you out.
Spending more $$ for certain things doesn't always make them the best choice, even without a budget. Usually, yes, but not always.
 
I would like to pay less than that for a card, but 300 to 400 usd would be the maximum I would be willing to spend
 
Is this one out of the question?

@Yoosty: thats an eggcellent card, nice pick. You will toss those 96kHz Creatives right into the garbage, bloated and unfriendly drivers go 1st. 😛

f61
 
I can't tell if your speakers have a digital in. But if they do, I suggest you buy an ASUS S/Pdif module (it's about $10-$20) and a digital co-ax/fibre optic and connect direct to your speakers. Ie. bypass the onboard sound and let the speakers decode the digital signal. I do this with my PC connected to a Yamaha dolby digital reciever. The sound clarity is outstanding compared to the mangled signal sent by the onboard sound.
 
My X-Fi XtremeGamer card was the best while I was running Windows xp(which it was designed for). When i switched to windows 7 it was the worst card in the world. The software is a nightmare, and I've spent a lot weeks e-mailing creative and being on forums. (a joke because there is no support, its buyer beware) I heard more success with the higher end more expensive cards So I decided to never buy a creative sound card again. They e-mail you (and it takes a week if your lucky) and tell you to re-install the software. Really creative? Huh I never would of thought of that. And thats the very best of creatives support. I think I will look at ASUS or someone else next time. creative has totally dropped the software ball on their sound cards.
 
ASUS Xonar DX ($89.99) or HT Omega Striker ($89.99). Blows the old ExtremeGamer out of the water, quite frnakly.

My list of recommended cards:
ASUS:
Xonar DX
Xonar D2/D2X
Essence ST/STX

Auzentech:
Forte
Prelude

HT Omega:
Striker
Claro

Frankly, the Claro (HT Omega) and Essence ST/STX (ASUS) are the best soundcards on the market, bar none (with the Prelude not that far behind). The Striker (HT Omega) and Xonar DX (ASUS) take up the budget space, beating pretty much everything in Creatives arsenal quite handly.
 
Is one of the cards you mentioned designed for Windows 7 specifically? Most I have found are designed for Vista, then get a problematic upgraded driver to W7. Also what is your choice as the best card and software combo in your list hands down (ASUS Xonar DX ($89.99) or HT Omega Striker ($89.99)) I game a lot- Left 4 dead 2- Crysis plus I listen to a lot of MP3's
Asus P5LD2 motherboard
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX
Intel Pentium D 3.20 MHz
500 gig WD harddrive
3.00 gig ram
Windows 7 64 bit
Thanks


 


That does not matter because you are not going to use the Drivers disk that came with the card. Just go to the website and download the latest Drivers and you will be fine. All sound card companies have the latest Win 7 drivers so that is not an issue.

http://www.htomega.com/downloads.html
 
I know all the ASUS cards support 7. I don't know about HT Omega, although they use the same C-Media chipset that ASUS uses, so they almost certainly have 7 drivers.

Last I heard, Creative still hadn't gotten 7 drivers, which would mean Auzentech would also be without them [Let me know ASAP if that situation has changed].

Note: Worst case, Vista drivers work fine 99.9% of the time.

As for DX vs. Striker: The Striker has slightly better analog playback, and I think [correct me if I'm wrong] supports both Dolby Digital Live and DTS connect [the DX only supports Dolby Digital Live], but the DX has support via drivers for EAX 5.0.
 
Hi guys - thanks for the excellent advice, as I too am now at the sound card comparison stage.

1st time poster :hello:

Randar007 is right to be concerned about Windows 7 support - at least, where Creative is concerned.

Creative may officially 'support' Windows 7, but like myself and Randar007, many people (XFI-range users in particular) have experienced major problems when they upgrade from XP/Vista to 7.
It is not reassuring to see that despite these well established issues, the last official Creative Windows 7 XFI drivers were released back in May 2009, with one subsequent minor release that only fixes their 'auto update' software.

I can only speak for Creative and, like Randar, was hugely impressed by the performance and compatibility of my XFI XtremeGamer card with XP 32/64, but my experience over the last 48 hours has turned me off Creative for life.

I have more than little (perhaps less than alot) of technical knowledge when it comes to installing, building, tweaking etc, and I spent over 8 hours patently running through what I am now fairly confident are almost known fixes for my Windows 7 install problems via the helpful (user community) Creative forums.

A couple of searches in these forums will reveal a lot of irate users with a shockingly wide range of issues. Although many of the problems are fixable, the general consensus seems to be that their customer service is almost non existent. As a result, almost all of the fixes and driver packages are unofficial, designed by enthusiasts who have built up a whole community of followers as a result of Creative's pathetic support.

I'm certainly not knocking this card on performance when it works, but it seems that there's an unusually high overall occurrence of Windows 7 setups that Creative XFI drivers simply do not like.

I'll be selling my fully functioning XtremeGamer card on eBay, but I'll feel morally obliged to warn any buyer to read up on their system's compatibility before attempting an install on Windows 7.

Based on the info in this thread, and the favourable compatibility/performance/support-themed reviews found elsewhere, I think I'll be giving the HT Omega Striker a go :)

Does anyone have any other suggested sound cards to throw into the mix?


 
All you say you want is "more performance". I suspect that not even you know what you mean, exactly. I wouldn't expect any noticeable difference in the overall quality of straight sound going from your ADI AD1988B to anything else. There are many different features that you can pay for on a sound card, including DDL/DTS Direct, simulated surround, and EAX effects, and you'd need to decide optical or coaxial SPDIF (coaxial is better under most conditions). So you'd need to narrow down just what it is you're looking for before you could decide which one to get. But I always try to get people to consider upgrading their speakers instead, because you'll hear the greatest improvement that way. How about a nice, slammin' 18-inch subwoofer or a 10-pound Bose center speaker?

Just do yourself a favor and don't get a Creative card. I think they must have been what Douglas Adams had in mind when he wrote that you're paying for the sense of accomplishment you get from making the damned thing do anything at all.
 
I have 3 PC's with windows 7 64 bit, the first one is my gaming rig (crosshair III) and it currently has an XF-i working flawless, the second PC is my backup (dell XPS 410) paired with an HT-Omega Striker and it also works fine, I also have a work/gaming pc that has an extreme-gamer and I have no issues whatsoever when it comes to the drivers.... All i had to do was go to the website of each manufacturer and download either the most current 64bit drivers or use a beta driver that can easily be found by using google....
 
Anyone know where I can buy an HT Omega Striker, ordering from UK?

I can only find them on non-international shipping sites NewEgg and NCIC.

Thanks!
 
I think Amazon may have them...

Creative drivers aside, their sound quality is still a notch below everyone else:
Titanium Pro: 109 dB, 96Khz
ASUS Xonar DX: 116 dB, 192Khz
HT Omega Striker: 117 dB, 192Khz

All for the same price. Creative is lagging behind the times.
 
listen to what gamerk316 is saying

ASUS WINS over any creative junky sound card out there...

everything u can compare with , asus will always be top, i mean just look at the reviews, where they compare the 2, its everywhere over the internet....
 
and where exactly is this all over the internet? creative based cards are rated above asus's c media chips across the board for gaming. for entertainment, yes the c media wins. the auzentech forte is an excellent card.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom