Good Sound Card Worth it?

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notredameguy10

New Member
I'm gathering parts for my first build. Been buying parts on sale for awhile now. Entire build (with monitor) will be ~$1000.

CPU: i5 3570k
Motherboard: AsRock z77 Extreme 4
Graphics: GTX 670 FTW
RAM: Corsair 8GB (2x4) Vengeance
Storage: WD 500 GB Caviar Blue
Storage: Samsung 840 120GB SSD
CPU Cooling: Cooler Master Seidon 120mm
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast 650TX V2
Case: Corsair 600t
Optical: Lite-ON 24x DVD Burner
Monitor: Asus VS247H-P 24" 1080P Monitor

I'm deciding between Creative Audigy ($21.99) vs Creative Sound Blaster Z ($89.99). I have a 5.1 Klipsch ProCinema set already at home. Is their enough of a difference in quality using these speakers to justify the price?

Thanks!
 
voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
Creative's drivers aren't the best. Look into the ASUS Xonar cards instead.
 
Twiki

Twiki

Active Member
I was looking at sound cards and I decided on an Asus Xonar so it's a good pick. However I noticed that the new motherboard I got has a PCI slot so that meant I get to use my SoundBlaster Audigy card instead which I preferred.

I don't know what's the deal with SB drivers because I never had problems with them. I've used Creative/SoundBlaster products a lot because I like them. They always worked for me.
 
Motoxrdude

Motoxrdude

Active Member
Unless you have some pretty damn good headphones (no not dr dre's) or speakers you honestly won't tell the difference, but if you do it is definitely worth the investment. My $.02.
 
voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
Twiki said:
I was looking at sound cards and I decided on an Asus Xonar so it's a good pick. However I noticed that the new motherboard I got has a PCI slot so that meant I get to use my SoundBlaster Audigy card instead which I preferred.

I don't know what's the deal with SB drivers because I never had problems with them. I've used Creative/SoundBlaster products a lot because I like them. They always worked for me.
Click to expand...

I did too. I never had any issues with my old SB Audigy, but since I got this X-fi Titanium, I have to reinstall the driver every once and a while because it craps out and doesn't see the card.
 
Twiki

Twiki

Active Member
That's weird. I guess that means you have to have the just right drivers for it.

EDIT: I just remembered, I did had a problem with one I forgot which but I went by the model no or serial no and got the right drivers for it. IIRC it was a different name than the one I had.
 
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PCunicorn

PCunicorn

Active Member
Motoxrdude said:
Unless you have some pretty damn good headphones (no not dr dre's) or speakers you honestly won't tell the difference, but if you do it is definitely worth the investment. My $.02.
Click to expand...

Not true. You can notice a difference with $50 headphones and $80 speakers. And though Dr Dre's suck, they do sound better with a sound card.
 
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