Sound card for new computer?

Hi there. I am building a new rig and I want it to be a powerful gaming machine. I never had a sound card like Sound Blaster in my computers before so for this new rig would you advise me to buy one? I have 4+1 speakers so will the quality of the sound in the games be nicely enhanced?

Or maybe the onboard sound card is more than enough and buying a separate card won't do much and just cause problems. What do you say?

Is that your fact or just your opion of that caus I have had creative sound blaster cards for a long time and non of them have cause me to much of a problem. There is only one and that was the audigy 4. I'm not sure what or how exactly it would do this but it kept on uninstalling the driver every so offten and not reconize that I have a 5.1 surround sound and so I would reinstall it and a few days or moneths later the same thing would happen.

So guess what I did I got yet another sound blaster and every body said that they like it so I bought it and I'm not sorry that I did. It is the sound blaster extremgamer card and that is way better then the other one and this one is better it updates its self auto maticly and the sound is even great with head phones on cause I have done so.

Alll of what I said is what I have do in my opion and so I'm not saying that they are bad and should die cause nobody should say that. But every body has there own opion though.

Thank you for that artical there had no idea how bad they truly where no are.

From what I saw. It was talking about vista mainly. So what about xp. I know if the company ends up no supporting the vista people the xp people willl suffer as well and there for this company is truly in deep doo doo.

In the last post I put on here I was just saying that I haven't had any problems except for just that one and I'm not using vista either. I'm just glad that the current card that I have automaticly updates its self so far.

I wonder what would happen if they end up going under altogether. What would happen then to the people who still have there sound blaster cards? Would they still be updated or will that just be dropped off?

What would happen then to the people who still have there sound blaster cards? Would they still be updated or will that just be dropped off?blackleather223

If you have 170 US$ or so, look into the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude. Awesome sound quality, EAX 5.0 and ALchemy support, and the drivers aren't as bad as those for Creative X-Fi cards from my experience. However, I would recommend holding off on it for a while if it means not getting a nice CPU or graphics card, unless you're a serious audiophile who demands sound quality that integrated mobo sound just can't deliver.NamelessPlayer

Agreed. The Prelude is an awesome card. Best thing I ever bought. The sound is so good! Especially coming from onboard with 2 little speakers to this with my z-5500s :D

[QUOTE="NamelessPlayer"]If you have 170 US$ or so, look into the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude. Awesome sound quality, EAX 5.0 and ALchemy support, and the drivers aren't as bad as those for Creative X-Fi cards from my experience. However, I would recommend holding off on it for a while if it means not getting a nice CPU or graphics card, unless you're a serious audiophile who demands sound quality that integrated mobo sound just can't deliver.GuitarFreak2

Agreed. The Prelude is an awesome card. Best thing I ever bought. The sound is so good! Especially coming from onboard with 2 little speakers to this with my z-5500s :D

It's a whole new world. I was amazed when I first hooked them up.

Only thing is, I don't think my grandfather and my neighbors like them as much as I do :D

It is unfortunit that sound blaster is on the frits of going under cause to me at least they the sound card has some really nice sound and from my z-5450s it truly sounds wonderful.

I have all of this in a fairly good size room like 13x12 and am going to move into a room that is 12x10 cause that5 room I hope will be cooler then the one that I have now. Also it is closer too the router wich is on the other side of the wall.

Anyways at the moment I can have the speakers up quite a bit and all is ok cause the only room my room is near is the bath room and garage and the kitchen wich nobody is in usually but after I move into the other room I'll be by the familiy room and still the bath room but my Mom is mainly in the living room there and her pc is there as well. So it'll be back to her yelling at me again to turn down the speakers cause it is vibrateng the walls and I'll be back to saying like what did you say and that sort of stuff.

IMHO, if you have to ask if you need a sound card then onboard sound will probably be more than enough for you. I would at least try it first, and if unsatisfied, you can always add one later. Onboard sound has come a long way over the years.

Now if you are getting some nice speakers, it might be worth it to go on and get one.

Creative sound cards by themselves are ok. I've still got my Audigy 2 just because there was no real need to upgrade. Unfortunately drivers for the sound cards have ALWAYS been awful. If you auto update your creative drivers you are one risky person as they are just crap! I always suggest you find the one driver that works for your card and doesn't give you any other problems and then leave it be!

Thankfully their monopoly seems to be ending which means higher quality products should be on the horizon for all companies.

Actually I'm more interested in the sound quality in games rather than of MP3 tracks. I am building a powerful rig and got used to getting crappy sound from onboard audio so I thought I would rather have the atmosphere complete in the games I play and would like to get more from my 4.1 speakers.Athawolfus

Good example: I have a DFI Blood Iron P35-T2RL. The onboard sound is a Realtek ALC885, and this features 7.1 output, a separate dedicated headphone line, and the ability to output in either optical or coaxial digital. It has a 106dB SNR playing back and a 101dB SNR recording, and it supports 24-bit sound. And it supports most of the prevailing sound standards and is Vista-approved. For your average gamer, this is a pretty complete set of features. It makes me wonder what current sound cards offer on top of this set of features that would be necessary for gaming.