Is it worth getting a soundcard for these?

coffeehair · 17 Apr 2011 at 09:47

I never thought I'd end up buying a set of 5.1's (and certainly not a set of logitechs at that) as I'm quite the 2.1 advocate, and use M-Audio's on my other rig.

Anyway, I managed to pick up this set of speakers (Logitech Z506) for £40 instead of £80 (fell off of the back of a lorry

)

What I'm wondering here is, I have an onboard Realtek card thats sitting in this mobo . Is it worth me getting a soundcard to bolster my sound? Or are the limits of this 5.1 system bottlenecking any difference that I'd be able to grab from another sound card anyway?

Cheers, and please don't hate me for getting a set of Logitechs

RedvGreen · 17 Apr 2011 at 14:01

Speaking from experience, 5.1 surround sound will be fine onboard until you start stressing the system (high load apps, high end games etc).

I'm picking up a Xonar Xense when they're back in stock.

Azuse05 · 17 Apr 2011 at 14:34

f00f1ght0r said:
Speaking from experience, 5.1 surround sound will be fine onboard until you start stressing the system

You mean it will work. Fine is subjective but on-board snr is crap, around the sort you'd expect from a sub £10 sound-card. The difference in clarity for even something like a mid range xonar dx can be quite astonishing.

Comparing on-board to listening with a cloth over your ears is an accurate analogy but sadly you don't really know what definition is being lost until you've heard the better sound card.

RedvGreen · 17 Apr 2011 at 14:48

My only reservation is BSODs when trying to install the drivers.

coffeehair · 17 Apr 2011 at 16:32

So we're leaning towards yes?

King Damager · 17 Apr 2011 at 16:48

Depending how much you want to spend
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-012-AS&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=
might be a good choice

kd

Auraomega · 17 Apr 2011 at 17:27

The difference for me was pretty substantial with headphones, but not so obvious with speakers; it's there but it's not night and day. For the price of a cheap sound card (such as the Xonar DG, aimed at headphones but perfect for speakers too) what have you to lose?

coffeehair · 17 Apr 2011 at 19:42

Auraomega said:
The difference for me was pretty substantial with headphones, but not so obvious with speakers; it's there but it's not night and day. For the price of a cheap sound card (such as the Xonar DG, aimed at headphones but perfect for speakers too) what have you to lose?

Yeah, I think I'm going to go for it. Cheers guys! I'll let you know how I get on :cool: