5.1 speakers and sound card (PCI-E) ~£200

Gazza123 · 26 Apr 2011 at 22:17

Im looking for the best combination of speakers and sound card for around £200. The card needs to be PCI-E and preferably have a headphone amp.

Uses are mostly gaming with some music listening then least movies.

Fire away!

PJM315 · 27 Apr 2011 at 01:24

I just put a DG 5.1 in mine @ £23.00. Sounds great, nothing special but no hiss/buzz with ear buds.

Main reason was the optical @ that price for my headset. It all works great for the price.

Gazza123 · 27 Apr 2011 at 04:55

I need a PCI-E sound card due to available slots on motherboard.

Gazza123 · 27 Apr 2011 at 05:03

The Xonar DX 7.1 sound card seems the best choice for my price range and spec needed (PCI-E). Thats ~£60

That leaves £140 for a 5.1 speaker system.

Auraomega · 27 Apr 2011 at 11:22

Or...

Skip the sound card altogether and spend some time sourcing a cheap AVR and 5 retro hi-fi speakers; much better quality, a lot cheaper and has other advantages such as being able to connect to other devices easily. I've done the same thing and spent around £130 on my setup, once my replacement speaker arrives it'll be complete and at that price the quality is unbeatable!

Margaret · 27 Apr 2011 at 18:05

Auraomega said:
Or...

Skip the sound card altogether and spend some time sourcing a cheap AVR and 5 retro hi-fi speakers; much better quality, a lot cheaper and has other advantages such as being able to connect to other devices easily. I've done the same thing and spent around £130 on my setup, once my replacement speaker arrives it'll be complete and at that price the quality is unbeatable!

I really doubt you'll be getting that good quality for the price. When I was looking into hi-fi seperates the cost of a half-decent 5.1 system altogether was going to exceed £300 easily.

Maybe you can wing it if you don't include a subwoofer.

tonyt3rry · 27 Apr 2011 at 22:24

I dont know if im allowed to link but I bought a 5.1 from dixsons for 130 quid its a 1000wat with hdmi in and optical input i just use my onboard optical to use the 5.1

Auraomega · 27 Apr 2011 at 23:17

Margaret said:
I really doubt you'll be getting that good quality for the price.

You'd be incredibly surprised; it's taken a lot of effort on my part to source everything as cheap as it has been, I admit I have no sub (my speakers have enough bass to satisfy me though), I have the same speakers as rears too, and my replacement centre channel is probably the worst speaker of the lot; only an Eltax Liberty. From what I've heard so far (I haven't got the Eltax yet) this setup is head and shoulders above any of those £300 kits with the cheapo amp and 5.1 systems and beats any PC speakers too.