External soundcards any worse/better than internal?

Lydzor · 9 Oct 2007 at 15:54

Not thinking of buying one right yet, but i'm thinking of getting a new soundcard eventually, it will probably be used for recording/listening to music and gaming. The external ones seem like they could be a bit better logically - easier to reach ports for sticking a guitar jack in etc.. plus one would alleviate some space in my computer. But do they perform any worse or better than internal soundcards?

Mayoor · 9 Oct 2007 at 17:09

Id like to ask exactly the same question. I currently have an onboard AC Realtec 97 and would like to know if replacing it with an external card is the way to go for MP3's and DVD's mainly!

james.miller · 9 Oct 2007 at 17:35

you can get some very high quality internal cards. all things being equal, yes an external card would be better ideally - less noise from other components that could possibly affect the sound cards output.

I currently have an onboard AC Realtec 97 and would like to know if replacing it with an external card is the way to go for MP3's and DVD's mainly!

not worth it. not unless you are planning an expensive amp and speaker upgrade as well. better of getting a half decent audio card

helmutcheese · 9 Oct 2007 at 18:55

Same as above, some of the Creative PRO range were external as less noise etc, they were connected with proper cables not some cheap usb or such lol.

just Scott · 9 Oct 2007 at 19:06

A good external DAC would be a lot better, than both onboard audio and pretty much every sound card there is for sound quality.

cooljimy84 · 11 Oct 2007 at 16:56

gonna have to say an internal, just cause there not on a USB connection.
Never liked things on usb cause they kept messing up....
I would say if you need to connect thing, get an extention on the line in cable or what you use to get the audio in/out

bledd · 11 Oct 2007 at 20:33

i wish hercules made a new game theatre card, that was an awesome external card, not overpriced, had loads of connectors, but only had a usb1 hub on it

-edit

omg, they made vista 32 bit drivers for it!

http://ts.hercules.com/eng/index.php?pg=view_files&gid=2&fid=24&pid=119&cid=1

Lydzor · 13 Oct 2007 at 18:41

So it seems that external cards are on par with internal ones but usb cables let external cards down?

What are some good external sound cards?

bledd · 14 Oct 2007 at 16:57

no it wasn't powered by usb or anything like that, was powered by pci card, and that's where the data went too, it just had a hub for usb which was only usb1

just Scott · 14 Oct 2007 at 16:59

Lydzor said:
So it seems that external cards are on par with internal ones but usb cables let external cards down?

What are some good external sound cards?

External DAC's can be far far better than any sound card.

I strongly recommend a DAC. And you don't have to use USB. You could use a cheap sound card with coax as a transport to the DAC.

EMU 0404 USB is a good one. Lots of recording features also.