First off to get the most out of anything, you'll want to invest in some cans, sure those might be good plugs but they're still never going to delver what a good set of cans can.


Dedicated sound cards are nice period, more possiblites to config settings such and such and an audiophile would tell you the audio quality is far better.

The suppot for 5.1 will possibly be better as well on dedicated than on-board.


but any way you go you're going to have sound...I'd make sure that you don't need to to upgrade anything else on the machine first (video such an such) before you put money on audio because well for some reason in my mind investing in sound should come last when it comes to comp builds.

Thanks for the input =) .

Yeah, I understand that my headphones will still be a tad limiting. I'd just rather wait until those go kaput to replace them rather than replace 'em immediately. They're still a nice pair of headphones IMO (plus they were a gift...). I was just looking at the soundcard now as it'd be nice to have that in place when I have to replace the headphones and it'd be great to get the card while I have the money.

As for your last point, I agree that investing in this should be the last thing. That's why I waited a long while before looking into soundcards. I just upgraded my video card to this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product... , and as far as I'm concerned my CPU/Mobo should last me for another few years (barring anything going bad...). It's one of those things that I always felt it would be nice to have if it makes a noticeable difference, but I couldn't see it being a top priority. Heck the reason I'm considering it now is because my friend offered me the deal on his 5.1 set when he moves out.

Yeah a sound card is DEFINITELY worth it. You get such a better, stronger 3-d directional sound. Right now it sucks for me going from my house playing then going to work playing and having 3 sounds, left, right, and in front of me.

I have and recommend X-Fi Xtreme Gamer. Mainly because they have 3 profiles you can use, 1 gaming, 1 entertainment, and 1 Audio Creation. I always use the entertainment for music and never have to worry about it F*CKING up my sound in CS due to it being louder with more bass.

Yeah i use the X-Fi Xtreme gamer too and its a major improvement from onboard buttttttttt ive heard the asus xonar sound cards blow any x-fi soundcard out of the water idk why or how but from all the reviews ive read from the audiophiles and all the crazy audio people that azunetech and asus xonar are like the best sound cards sooooo thats my recommendation

Yeah that's it. The 2 weeks that I had Win7 I didn't have any problems from the sound. I always install with the CD first though because I like the control panel at the bottom right that you don't get when you just install only from the website. Sometimes the update takes FOREVER through the update thing though which sucks, but I don't reformat often. And that is the only Creative product I've ever had, so it isn't like I'm just some huge fan of it.