Ask Engadget: Which sound card should I buy, if any?
By Darren Murph 
posted Jun 19th 2009 2:13AM
posted Jun 19th 2009 2:13AM
It's practically the weekend, which means it's practically time for you to drop some knowledge on the world right here at Ask Engadget. We've got a good one queued up this week, so have a peek before sending in a question of your own to ask at engadget dawt com."I was hoping to get some help deciding which sound card to buy these days. I need it to work with Windows 7, and I'll be using it mainly for gaming and for casual music. I have a reasonably nice 5.1 speaker system. It has to be PCI Express (of course). So yeah, are the Creative cards actually what I want? Or is there another brand I'm not familiar with that will suit my needs? Or should I not even bother, and just go with my motherboard's sound output like I'm doing now?"
So, friends -- is a sound card even worth the cheddar? If so, which one is the best to slap down some hard-earned cash for? Do tell.
ON BOARD ALL THE WAY!
Second for on board. Nowadays, on board processing and the 5.1 to 7.1 jacks on the board are good enough for any regular user or game junky. And the good thing is, if you are an audio junky/pro (pros tend to use specialty equipment that costs more than your car if they really need the best though), you wouldn't be using those jacks anyway, and most boards have digital out connectors (both of my new towers have toslink and digital coax on the mobo) to connect them to real sound processing equipment (like your amp/media center). No point in spending 80-200 bucks on a sound card that you either won't benefit from or later find out that the audio was bypassing it anyway.
Well, partially agree. If you're using digital to hook up to a reciever, you're just as well off with most onboard chipsets, at least for gaming.
BUT, if you're actually wanting to use the analog ports, from my experience, no onboard solution has acceptable DAC's. Use any decent headphones and you'll hear noise.
I bought an M-Audio Revolution 5.1 last summer. The drivers are fussy (though, miraculously, they work great under Win 7 64bit), but the analog sound quality is simply phenomenal. I'm certainly no audiophile, but the upgrade from my Realtek chipset was simply night and day.
But yeah, with digital, you don't need to buy a card, unless you need the special decoding the new cards do for HTPC stuff, which the OP doesn't appear to need.
I haven't really used the digital out from my onboard before, but I would not recommend the onboard analog out if you can help it, unless you're just wanting to do some casual gaming with a 2.1 or 4.1 setup. For music, definitely get a cheap USB sound adapter and a nice amp/set of speakers. Just look on Newegg for the cheapest, highest rated USB sound card (the brand isn't terribly important since, like a lot of wireless cards, there are only a few chipsets being rebranded amongst the manufacturers, anyway).
The problem is that your case is like an EM storm in a box, and it is almost guaranteed to affect your sound quality to some extent. Even a cheap USB card will isolate the Digital Audio Converter (DAC) better than an onboard or expansion slot sound card. The only drawback with a cheap USB adapter is that unlike a PCI card, it isn't going to be taking much, if any, of the processing load off your CPU when you're gaming.
Creative X-Fi for me. For every possible use. There's also ASUS Xonar, but I never tried those...
But don't buy the ones that cost under $100 - same as build-in sound.
From my experiences, integrated cards produce a lot more noise then PCI cards, although it really depends. If the noise doesn't bother you, the integrated card should be fine.
As for specific cards, I've had good experiences with my HT Omega Striker card. It's a 7.1 card, but it will work with a 5.1 system as well.
I'd have to agree with Will -- the HT Striker Omega is a great card.
I use the Logitech Z-5500 5.1 surround system on my PC. Its 1000 watts of joy.
I only recently upgraded from the on-board sound (onboard was Realtek HD 7.1 on an evga 780i Ultra), and I noticed considerably less noise -- even when using an optical connection for both sound devices.
I've mainly had experience with the Realtek ALC888 chipset for on-board and I can tell you this: I wouldn't trade it for any soundcard under $100 (for analogue, if you're a sound junky) and wouldn't trade it period for digital.
For digital you're not going to get a sound difference because it's just pushing 0's and 1's and your processor can do that just fine. For analogue you will not be hearing any noise unless you get to volumes that make your ears bleed and won't notice any difference unless you're a sound junky, in which case you wouldn't be asking.
So: on-board.
A third vote for the HT Omega. The Striker is fantastic for me, and I too am using it with the Logitech Z-5500's, which, when using the optical digital inputs, are absolutely unbeatable for sound quality. Literally, my $300 computer sound system is louder, clearer and with better bass and treble than most of the home theater systems we sell at the Best Buy I work at.
does anyone know if there are any onboard motherboards/drivers out there that will allow you to do analog 3.5mm out, as well as digital coax or optical at the same time. reason being, i run coax to my speakers, but i also run the 3.5mm to my monitor...and sometimes i dont wanna run my desktop speakers and sub.
GET THE ONE WITH THE THING!
it's the best ;)
i heard the one with that stuff is better
I thought that the ones with all those shiny bits and that other thing was best...
Or maybe, are you talking about the one with the thing that does that stuff, without using the thing?
Get one that's got both stuff and junk... but a little more junk than stuff.
Na... make it an equal amount of stuff and junk.
Stuff, yes. Junk, no.
I'm pretty sure that there has to be a small ratio of junk to stuff.. the link to that thing that proves about this junk:stuff ratio eludes me at the moment though.
However, I would say that if there had to be junk, just make sure there's much more STUFF so that you might drown out the things that come from the junk.
Good stuff.
Just a warning -- if you do end up getting that one with the stuff, the junk sometimes does this to that and messes up the stuff.
Which ever way you decide to go just remember that black is always more powerful.
Stripes also improve performance a lot and any neons and LEDs you can get on there also give you a big boost.
And a bigass fan too... especially if that too has LEDs in it.
Basically get the (physically) largest one you can find that's black with lot's of colorful shiny and blinking bits on.
I listen to a lot of music so I can tell the difference between sound card vs no sound card. I currently have a Creative Labs X-Fi and it works ok with Vista. There may be better cards out there, I haven't researched in years.
Better is Asus XONAR D2X. I won't try to prop it up with my own words, instead read the reviews.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132005
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=xonar+review&aq=0&oq=xonar+r&aqi=g1g:s1g1
do creative cards still downsample audio?
No way... you can tell the difference between a sound card and no sound card? crazy!
I agree, a sound card is worthwhile....assuming the rest of your system is already up to snuff. This is coming from a gamer's perspective. So the emphasis is on overall system performance, as that is the true benefit of a sound card to a gamer...it offloads sound processing from the CPU (and allows for more voices, better surround effects, etc). And the nice thing that makes a sound card really worthwhile is that it will last several system upgrades. I had a Creative Audigy for 6 years before I recently upgraded to an x-Fi gamer. So you get much better longevity than most of your other system components.
Basically you should have these specs before considering a sound card, otherwise you should save your money to upgrade that component instead, as you will see much better performance gains for your dollar.
Core 2 Duo or late model AMD Phenom CPU
4GB RAM
nVidia GTX 260 or ATI HD 4870
Now as for brand, typically in the past, Creative's EAX was MUCH better supported than anything else. However with Vista and above, I'm not sure that's the case anymore. Since Vista completely reworked the audio, Creative adopted OpenAL (They call it Creative Alchemy IIRC), which is an open standard, so any 3rd party manufacturer should be able to utilize it properly. I would check out that Asus card mentioned in a post above.
Creative Alchemy was a technology that Creative developed to transform EAX-based audio to OpenAL so that older games that required EAX support would work properly in Windows Vista.
In terms of gaming, yes onboard will work pretty well - as will TV shows and casual listening/movies. However, if you're someone like me who paid for a really nice sound system, then you are required to get an additional soundcard to exploit your sound system. That still hasn't changed, and Creative, for all it's driver bullshit, still makes the best cards when they actually work.
That leaves you $100, $150, and $200 options from Creative... all of which are good choices. Newegg has the $150 one for $10 cheaper and includes a free Fatal1ty branded headset - sounds like a decent deal to me!
I have a Creative X-Fi and I upgraded to Windows 7 on Monday. The official Creative drivers snap, crackle and pop any time any sound is played. Daniel_K's drivers work flawlessly though. YMMV.
The Asus Xonar Essence STX is a very tidy package. Great on board DAC for analog out, and includes an optical adapter for its S/PDIF out. Pretty pricey at ~$200, (181 on Amazon), but probably worth it to audiophiles.
if you go creative - you HAVE to get Daniel K's drivers. Creative's driver team = the Enron of sound cards
"I listen to a lot of music so I can tell the difference between sound card vs no sound card. I currently have a Creative Labs X-Fi and it works ok with Vista. There may be better cards out there, I haven't researched in years. "
I fail to believe that with current HD on board audio, get a good motherboard and that should not be the case, sure on a cheapie mobo maybe. I hear that line 1000 times in a year from people all around the net, and unless you have very high tech equipment or are doing some real heavy sound processing, then forget it. On board HD audio is amazing compared to last decade or the last 5 years. Paaa leeeasse...
Phray and Phenoum...URL please for Daniel_K drivers.
From my personal experience, playing audio through the motherboard is fine. unless you're a big audiophile or maybe your mb doesn't support 7.1 then you should buy the sound card.
No dont give me that bullcrap
Not just Audiophiles or picky people get something not integrated
that's like people who work with video or play games more then solitaire ask if they should bother with getting a $35 used Radeon 9800 or use their integrated Intel junk.
People who enjoy music or have Good speakers or headphones who don't want NOISE or Hissing or pops introduced into their music Buy sound cards
Sorry, Pat, but it's been my experience, too, that if you're just listening to some music with "reasonably good" speakers, onboard will be just fine. I'm sure there are motherboards out there with crap onboard just like anything else, but buying a sound card just to listen to some music is hard to justify.
Try this. Use the onboard sound, and if you're not satisfied, get a sound card like Pat says.
I've always liked Creative because they're pretty good quality, but I admit I really don't know what else is out there. I also suspect sometimes Creative likes to inflate their price because of their name, too. Or Fatal1ty's name, too.
As an audiophile who happily uses the built-in audio on his custom box, I can say it all depends on the chip and the board. The realtek chipset on my gigabyte mobo gives me nearly no noise over the analog inputs (unless I jack the volume on the computer and the receiver it's running through up quite a bit) and, should I wish to use it, has both a toslink in and out for digital use which leaves decoding to other end anyways.
Honestly, if you have a motherboard, and you don't have an explicit qualm with your audio chipset, I see no reason for you to drop 100 bucks on (or any money for that matter) on dedicated audio. Hell if you're asking the question, you have the answer. You go out buy the card, only to find that the albums you torrented or w/e are nice lossy mp3s and the quality bottleneck is there, or perhaps your headphones aren't up to snuff. Point is, well...there's really no point in buying a sound card if you don't need one.
So give me any solid evidence of why onboard sucks, back it up with some facts. I have been running onboard for quite sometime and I would rather run an onboard Realtek solution than any card in the Creative camp any day of the week. My reference system is running onboard from an asus m4a78 and I have been running onboard since the legendary asus a7n8x deluxe. If you want to compare sound quality I would put my system up against yours any day of the week.
Pat's a numbnut, ignore him.
The days of hissing, distorted onboard audio are long past. Any on the onboard audio chips are just fine for audio playback, though if you look carefully some boards have slightly more full-featured audio chips than others.
I have an Onkyo SE-200PCI, mainly for the high resolution output. It does sound slightly clearer than the realtek chips, better stereo definition, better bass, better control overall... but you'd have to be an audiophile to care enough to make it worth the expense. It works well enough under Vista, but but the control panel and drivers are only so-so... a bit of a hack job in my opinion.
Unless there is a feature you need that isn't commonly found in the integrated, I can't see why you'd bother with a sound card.
And Creative sucks. Just so you know.
I have to give you all credit
its been a while since I have had to deal with many never motherboards so maybe they have improved
I use Optical so it doesn't make a difference what sound Card I use
My Mobo didn't have optical built in So I got a sound card with the best reviews at the right price for me to be worth buying it
I Pretty much think if Something doesn't sound right or good enough to me
Its time to upgrade or get alternatives or research!
Its all matter of ear and opinion though
Truthfully, it also depends on which ports you use. I've also got a realtek on board card, and the first week I had my computer I was planning on replacing it because the noise on the headphone jack was so bad, even though the rear ports sounded fine. Then I found that you could switch the frontside ports to "front speakers" instead of headphone, and all the noise goes away. The sound quality certainly doesnt rival a $200 card, but i dont even notice any noise now.
Buy a M-Audio. great quality
totally agree! i have a couple mobile pre usb preamps and a fast track ultra they are so cheap and great for recording with lappys and they sound killer for games too
On the topic of M-Audio I will say read reviews. Some M-Audio stuff is of good quality, but some of it is really cheap (and not the good kind of cheap).
My personal favorite is Asus Xonar range, in specific, the Xonar DX, a great combination of features, good quality, uses PCIE-1x slots and has better emulated EAX than Creatives Alchemy (ironic no?)
Please dear god avoid integrated sound. for $35 used you can enjoy Great sound quality.
noise is terrible..
do yourself a favor and pick up any decent Creative sound card and you will be thankful for it..
If you have decent 5.1 speakers
use them and enjoy them with a good source and material
Im a big Turtle Beach and Creative X -fi Sound card fan
turn off all the X-fi effects and EQ's and anything else..and they are decent sound cards with decent S/N ratios
Buy used. or Newegg it.
of course there are others out there..M audio and such
Ive just had great luck with the Creative X-fi fatality and a few turtle Beach products
Creative is pretty awful unless you like the EAX effects for games. Most of their cards are overpriced and have terrible drivers. Look on Newegg; they have tons of cards for decent prices.
Asus Xonar D2X -- I've heard a lot of great things about these cards... not to mention they offer a more full range of sound than many other sound cards with an SNR of 118 dB, whereas the latest Creative X-Fi sound card only offers 109 dB. Not a huge difference, but to know you have the latest and greatest sound technology, if you are picky, go with the Xonar.
http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=25&l2=150&l3=0&l4=0&model=1989&modelmenu=1
Personally, I have had nothing but problems with my Creative X-fi. When it works it sounds terrific, but it seems that every driver update or random games and applications just break it and I have to find some kind of fix. So I don't recommend them.
Is more matter which speaker you buy, sound card doesn't make a big factor because most new motherboard has decent hd sound build in, no need to spend $100 more, use that money to invest nice speaker instead.
problem with integrated sound is the unwanted background noise.
integrated sound always has noise (hissing and pops)
if you have a set of good speakers (Logitech Z-2300 for 2.1 hands down) you will hear this noise even more clearly.
on which to get.. don't know myself, haven't done research on it in a very long time.
integrated sound is good as a bridge, until you get annoyed of the noise.
afterwords you can disable it, or use it specifically for voice.
I would just like to say that integrated does not "always have noise, hissing and pops"
That is bs. Some maybe? Yes. All? No way!
I have 4 machines I use regularly, where each system may use integrated to x fi to maudio boxes to protools le recording interfaces. Don't buy into the hate. Check things out for yourself. Chances are integrated will be just fine. It is worth it to listen first. No blind hate like these other guys are trying to teach you.