Help me choose my first sound card.

Garyj881 · 22 Nov 2009 at 22:19

I mainly play games on my pc but do listen to music ocasionally.

I have never used anything other than onboard sound, everyone I know who has a pci sound card has nothing but praise and brag about how much better the quality really is.

Ok I want in, my budget is £75.00.

I'm using Windows 7 and the spec is in sig.

The only thing I fear is getting a card that doesn't work with Windows 7 64.

Toastor · 22 Nov 2009 at 22:57

An Asus Xonar DX will do very nicely and well within your budget: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-002-AS&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=

wakayoda · 22 Nov 2009 at 23:09

Would that card work with a 5.1 surround sound system ??

Toastor · 22 Nov 2009 at 23:13

Yes, it supports up to 7.1 surround.

kkbigal · 23 Nov 2009 at 12:54

Another vote for the Asus Xonar D2X here, but ask yourself if your speakers/headphones are up to the job - they need to be good enough if you are going to hear any noticeable difference from having a Xonar over on-board audio. The last thing you want to do is buy the card then end up disappointed

Marsman · 23 Nov 2009 at 14:16

kkbigal said:
Another vote for the Asus Xonar D2X here, but ask yourself if your speakers/headphones are up to the job - they need to be good enough if you are going to hear any noticeable difference from having a Xonar over on-board audio. The last thing you want to do is buy the card then end up disappointed

D2X is more than £75 though. OP could stretch the extra maybe, but I think the DX or D1 might be a better choice in this instance.

Marsman · 23 Nov 2009 at 14:25

wakayoda said:
Would that card work with a 5.1 surround sound system ??

What type of 5.1, analogue or digital? If digital, what format does the 5.1 system support, DTS, Dolby or both?

Wrekriem · 23 Nov 2009 at 16:23

I've been looking at sound-cards recently and I have to drop it a vote for the Xonar. I've been using a creative X-Fi Xtreme Music setup and while it works fine on my vista machine, the driver support is pretty rubbish elsewhere. The Xonar will just be all around better.