Sound Card Q's

A

ATLPIMP

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 27, 2002
Messages
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I'm looking for a sound card for my pc. I've been looking on-line and can't find any sure-fire winners... seems like everyone's having problems with something.

I do a lot of gaming, and have my entire cd library backed up for listening so I need something that will handle both.

Coming from on-board 780i audio most will probably be an improvement....

I think spending less than $100 is reasonable for me, and I've been pretty happy with the Sound Blaster cards I've purchased in the past (live!, audigy, audigy 2zs).

Must work well in Vista 64.

TIA
 
ATLPIMP said:
Must work well in Vista 64.
Click to expand...

Ah, there's the rub.

If you've seen many of the threads in this section, you know the first response is us going "hey, don't blow that $100 on a sound card - spend it on a receiver or USB DAC instead!" Reason being, it is unlikely to cause major problems for the gaming and will do worlds of good for your sound quality, particularly with the music.

What are you using now to listen with? Model of speakers/headphones? Surround vs. no surround?
 
currently using some cheap-o ca headphones... probably paid $30 for them. My other pc that this replaced I have an audigy 2 zs and even with crap headphones it's night and day in quality/clarity.
 
Really? Usually for the same source, there's not much difference between onboard & sound card for things like music these days. Sometimes the specific implementation is crap, but that can happen equally to either. The recent nVidia chipsets...well...I've been hearing things, but I didn't know it was bad enough to show up with throw-aways. o_O

If you're looking for better SQ, you'll probably get a much better boost by spending the same money on better headphones. After that, from an external DAC of some sort.

If you're set on a sound card, try to avoid spending too much on it...many of the higher-end models (especially by Creative) have very little advantage in sound quality unless you want to track down some hardware more intended for audio processing...and probably not cheap. One of the older models with a break-out box might actually do you much better than one of the newer $200 cards with shiny pictures on the box and an uberleet name with lots of Ultras and Extremes in it.
 
Problem I' running in to is the phones sound good enough on the old pc with the audigy, but like crap with the alc888 that's on this board. I don't want to replace them after I've heard them on the Audigy.

As far as older cards, I can't find anything that seems to be well-rounded and works well in vista 64.
 
asus xonar cards, have serious dacs on them, same as flagship dennon models and works well in vista.
 
Zero DAC review / writeup

This will force the audio to be processed by the DAC in it (you might have to tinker with your default audio device at most). Thus, good bye ALC888...even with Vista. Since it's an external device and particularly provides its own amplification, you'll also get a lower noise floor which is pretty nice for gaming purposes (footsteps etc can become much clearer) as well as improving music SQ. It will also hold up very well with pretty much any headphones you care to get in the future.

Only place I know to pick it up is eBay and the shipping is a bit of a pain, in both cases because it's imported.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=zero+dac&category0=

There are cheaper around if cost is an issue, for example the E-MU 0202 (which Newegg unfortunately no longer carries, so you'll need to do a bit of shopping). A USB DAC will give you pretty much the best stereo sound you can get out of Vista without upgrading your phones and without any driver hassles.
 
Rinthe said:
how good is the DAC in that card compared to DAC-only devices?
Click to expand...

They use some Burr-Brown chips, which are very good as far as sound cards go. It still suffers from the same design problems as any sound card, though. Also the resultant S/N is only 118dB, which isn't stellar but not horrible either. Vista is still an issue, i.e. the sound card isn't doing much processing anymore and is basically an internal DAC/amp with crummy amplification and loads of extra noise tossed into the mix.

All told...if you HAVE to use a sound card, the Xonar cards are probably a good choice without breaking the bank. I think they're still in the $150-$200 range, though...if they were closer to < $75 I would feel a lot better about it.
 
zero is too much $$ looks like.

koss sb40 + what? = $100 or less. that is the equation.

b/c you know he needs to upgrade those headphones if he doesn't even name them lol.
 
ashmedai said:
Zero DAC review / writeup

This will force the audio to be processed by the DAC in it (you might have to tinker with your default audio device at most). Thus, good bye ALC888...even with Vista. Since it's an external device and particularly provides its own amplification, you'll also get a lower noise floor which is pretty nice for gaming purposes (footsteps etc can become much clearer) as well as improving music SQ. It will also hold up very well with pretty much any headphones you care to get in the future.

Only place I know to pick it up is eBay and the shipping is a bit of a pain, in both cases because it's imported.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=zero+dac&category0=

There are cheaper around if cost is an issue, for example the E-MU 0202 (which Newegg unfortunately no longer carries, so you'll need to do a bit of shopping). A USB DAC will give you pretty much the best stereo sound you can get out of Vista without upgrading your phones and without any driver hassles.
Click to expand...

seems like the ZERO DAC is more for headphones? am i wrong?
 
*cough* Build an Alien DAC...$43. :D

Nah, not always an option. I think the EMU is in the neighborhood of $70 +/- $20, but I'm not sure where to find one.
 
Rinthe said:
seems like the ZERO DAC is more for headphones? am i wrong?
Click to expand...

It's a stereo amp. It's designed for headphones, so the impedance on some speakers may be too high to get sufficient amplification. If it has selective amplification, you could still feed it into another amplification stage. ATL is using phones, though, so no problem there (Right, ATL? If not, there are other options...).


The real giggles in hunting for a cheap external DAC is that the actual DAC chip often costs about $5 or less...
 
OP: If you do a lot of gaming and want true EAX support the baseline Creative X-Fi Titanium will do well in Vista x64 if you have a PCI-E slot free. I think it sells for around $100. It has the latest X-Fi chip and was designed to work better with Vista's Universal Audio Architecture.

I've been very happy with it.

If you don't play games with EAX, or don't plan to, then you may want to look for another card. The Xonar series will emulate EAX; it isn't true EAX support, but it is close.
 
The PCIx cards will work in any PCIx slot, right? Meaning I don't have to use the small slot just under the top...

780i_mid.jpg


I have two 9800s in sli and the second slot is blocked by the top card. I have one PCI and the middle PCIx slot. Th X-fi will work in a full length slot right??
 
x1 cards should work in the full length x16 slot.

Creative notes in their installation guide for their x1 PCI-E Titanium that some motherboards reserve certain x16 slots for video cards only, but if/when that is the case usually the x16 slot is a different color or something. I think you should be good with your motherboard.
 
ATLPIMP said:
The PCIx cards will work in any PCIx slot, right? Meaning I don't have to use the small slot just under the top...

780i_mid.jpg


I have two 9800s in sli and the second slot is blocked by the top card. I have one PCI and the middle PCIx slot. Th X-fi will work in a full length slot right??
Click to expand...

Yes a PCI-X card will work in any PCI-X slot.

That motherboard you posted does NOT have any PCI-X slots though so if you are looking for a PCI-X slot on a motherboard you may need to look at professional workstation boards or server boards.

The X-fi will NOT work in a PCI-X slot because Creative has not made a X-fi in PCI-X form.
 
Tedro said:
Yes a PCI-X card will work in any PCI-X slot.

That motherboard you posted does NOT have any PCI-X slots though so if you are looking for a PCI-X slot on a motherboard you may need to look at professional workstation boards or server boards.

The X-fi will NOT work in a PCI-X slot because Creative has not made a X-fi in PCI-X form.
Click to expand...



I have made a mistake... due to not thinking... I meant PCI-express or PCIe

I didn't think this would get things mixed up since I assumed everyone knew what I was referring to.
 
ashmedai said:
We do.
Click to expand...

I think only Tedro misunderstood... but it is very common for people to refer to PCI-E as PCI-X, and given the context it was apparent, to me anyway, what you were talking about.

It only gets more confusing when you throw in PCI-E x1, x4, and x16 variants. Isn't there an x8 as well?
 
I'm pretty sure Tedro understood. I just figured I'd ignore it instead of correcting it this time. :D

Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's x8. But given the low requirements of many consumer cards, you tend to see x16 for video cards and then a bit of x1 and x4.
 
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