Asus or Creative for soundcard

MarcLister · 15 Oct 2015 at 17:22

Currently I use onboard sound for my PC. I'd like to get a dedicated PCI-E card but I'm not sure whether Asus or Creative are the current best of the market. Which company should I look at? Would want to spend no more than £75.

Marsman · 15 Oct 2015 at 19:29

I'd probably go for a Soundblaster Z. Either OEM for £50, or the retail version for £70.

Personally I prefer Xonar cards, but the Z OEM for £50 (with a good amount of features, better than any similarly priced Xonar) is hard to ignore.

A used Xonar Essence STX for around £70 could be a possibility, but it does depend on what you'd be connecting to the sound card.

Scougar · 15 Oct 2015 at 21:47

Read up on multi channel issues with the sound blaster z. I think it is ok for stereo though.

MarcLister · 15 Oct 2015 at 22:10

Cheers guys. I have some Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II speakers that I'd be using. I haven't really got the space for a 5 or 7.1 setup.

I'm also an Xonar fan so will probably go for one of the DX 7.1 for £55.

Marsman · 15 Oct 2015 at 22:27

DX is a very good card and a good choice if you're just using speakers.

For speakers and headphone use, SB Z would probably be the better choice as you can connect both to it without having to use front case audio; plus has headphone amp.

Scougar said:
Read up on multi channel issues with the sound blaster z. I think it is ok for stereo though.

Interesting. Creative driver problems again... I seem to remember that we've seen that before.

Maybe they are getting ready to release a new range of sound cards

MarcLister · 15 Oct 2015 at 22:38

Creative drivers is one reason I prefer Xonar cards!

Jony27 · 15 Oct 2015 at 22:39

Marsman said:
DX is a very good card and a good choice if you're just using speakers.

For speakers and headphone use, SB Z would probably be the better choice as you can connect both to it without having to use front case audio; plus has headphone amp.

Interesting. Creative driver problems again... I seem to remember that we've seen that before.

Maybe they are getting ready to release a new range of sound cards

Is there any other soundcards/external soundcards that let you do this?

Westie · 16 Oct 2015 at 10:43

win10 SBZ connected to 558's marantz amp and 2.1 edifier speakers.. zero problems..

much drivers such bad!

Marsman · 16 Oct 2015 at 11:08

Jony27 said:
Is there any other soundcards/external soundcards that let you do this?

Xonar U7 has separate headphone and speakers connections plus a headphone amp. Also a volume knob, which is nice and handy.

Only other internal cards besides the SB Z below £100 that do, are the Xonar Phoebus Solo and PowerColor Devil HDX.