Decent budget Sound card?

Associate
Joined
2 Aug 2010
Posts
694
Location
London
Hello my fellow OcUK'ers, I'm in the market for a sound card after suffering for so long with the unusually bad on-board on my extreme 4 gen 3 paired with roccats. Im sure most of you are familiar with the noise from the motherboard being present in the roccats, very annoying.

Im looking for a decent sound card to replace the on-board. My budget is not that high, it will be sub £70. What are your opinions?

Cheers.
 
Just occurred to me that the interference that you are getting may not be coming from the onboard audio. I seem to remember a thread sometime back where some people found the USB connection which powers them was the problem. If that is the cause, then getting a sound card won't solve the problem. One person used a powered USB hub that just connected to the mains to get round the problem.
 
Tried a usb powered hub just now, no dice, same problem. The easiest way for me to see if it was sorted was to move the mouse, as this is the most noticeable noise that occurs.

Nadda.
 
If the hub is connected to the PC in any way, you will get the same result. Only if it's a mains powered hub, then you can safely say it's the onboard audio that is the culprit.
 
Have you tried the USB on phone chargers as well? That got rid of a slight interference noise from my headset.

But if that doesn't work, then the DX will do nicely, have one myself and it's a huge improvement over the onboard in terms of clarity and bass.
 
Yeah tried my nexus USB mains charger too, no dice. In fact, it wouldn't let my mic on the Roccat transmit. Weird.

Yeah the DX looks lovely.
Not too keen on creative as suggest above as I've had bad experience with their software before.
 
Last edited:
Yeah it connects with Four 3.5mm jack plugs and one USB.
How comes Asus haven't resolved the issue by now?

No idea. And it looks like they haven't even updated the stock drivers ever since I bought the DX. Seems to me Asus is pretty lazy... At least they have beta drivers for Windows 8 though.
 
Yeah tried my nexus USB mains charger too, no dice. In fact, it wouldn't let my mic on the Roccat transmit. Weird.

Yeah the DX looks lovely.
Not too keen on creative as suggest above as I've had bad experience with their software before.

I had that problem, noise in my headphones everytime I moved the mouse. Got a Xonar DG, interference still there, but not as bad. Then got the creative Z and it's gone completely.

And there is no worries about drivers with the Creative Z, they work perfectly.
 
No idea. And it looks like they haven't even updated the stock drivers ever since I bought the DX. Seems to me Asus is pretty lazy... At least they have beta drivers for Windows 8 though.

Last update was nearly 1.5 years ago. Pretty poor really. Both Asus and Creative are rather lame when it comes to the software. On the bright side though, at least there are alternatives. Some devices get none but the official manufacturer ones, and if they stop updating them, you end up with a rather useless product.
 
Is the price difference between the oem version and retail SB Z worth it for the lack of EMI shield and beam form microphone?
 
If you don't need the microphone, then the OEM version is the better buy. Hard to say how much of a difference the EMI shield will make. It would be logical to assume that as you are getting interference with your onboard audio, that a sound card with EMI shield would be needed. Not necessarily the case though, as many a person that has had onboard audio interference problems didn't get any with a sound card without a shield. I think mid range cards and upward, have better shielding than budget cards. That might not be always be apparent though, as too much EMI is going to affect most cards.

I suppose it comes down to whether you are happy paying an extra £24 for the retail one, to have a better chance of the card not being affected by EMI.
 
Yeah ive ordered the OEM version now anyhow, i couldn't justify the cost difference between an extra two parts. I was able to order an OEM with the shield.
 
Back
Top Bottom