Rampage IV Extreme sound card or not ?

[f847]

Hi,

I am running my system with Rampage IV Extreme and have heard some people saying the sound chip on this mobo is quite a good standard already.

What I am trying to get is a pair of head set with good surround sound for gaming.

However I am also running two Asus 3 slots graphic cards in crossfire, therefore I basically have no space at all to put in a sound card, unless i put it between that little gap between the two graphic cards, then I would have trouble on cooling my GPUs I guess.

So I wonder what my best option could be?

- External sound card?
- usb wireless hadset?
- just good 5.1 surround with onboard sound?


Thanks in advance

 

[cmcghee358]

You can achieve awesome 5.1 surround sound for gaming with the built in sound of the motherboard.

But if you're a music major, and you do a lot of music editing on your PC and have a super high end sound system attached to it, you would need a Sound Card.

If that's not the case, then stick with on board sound.

 

[f847]

No, I am not a pro at sound/music. That was why I didn't plan to include a sound card when I was building the rig at all. However since the graphic game experience is awesome so far, just think it might be nice to have surround sound, because at the moment I only have stereo.

Thanks for your reply.

Needs to find a good pair of 5.1 headset now

 

[gamerk316]

Onboard is OK, but to me, its like playing a game at 1024x768 with no AA. Sure, you CAN, but it looks ugly. Even a cheap soundcard (ASUS Xonar DGX) is a significant upgrade.

Secondly, avoid surround headsets. They almost always stink. Driver overlap is a problem, and the drivers are all undersized. I prefer virtualized surround (via Dolby Headphone, supported by most soundcards) to "real" 5.1 surround when using headphones.

 

[f847]

I would love a sound card too, plus money isn't the issue, however i really don't have the space for it, if i put one between the little gap between the two 3 slots graphic cards, heat is really going to be an isuue.

So I wonder if there is any good external sound card??

Or any good headset recommended for the on board sound?