Help choosing soundcard

[Henry8601]

First off - do I actually need a sound card. I have an EVGA 680i board and the on board sound seems to be pretty good - but would it be improved by getting a sound card?

If so, which should I get - I really have no idea about sound cards. My budget would be upto £110ish but is slightly flexible. My system is mostly used for gaming, and I am thinking about getting the Logitech Z5500 system.

I was thinking about the
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional 7.1 Soundcard - Retail
and the
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty 7.1 Champion Series Soundcard - Retail

Are these any good, and what is the difference between the two apart from the price? Do any of these sound cards have an optical out? My onboard sound has an optical audio out, and this will be useful for connecting up to my other systems.

Any help is very much appreciated as I currently do not have a clue.

Henry

 

[Hen_Dawg]

Hi Henry, I'm also a Henry.

Anyway, by the looks of your kit you probably should get yourself an X-fi as you seem like a keen gamer and they are great for it.

I find my Xtreme Music sounds very good for games and reasonable for music/movies. Alll better than on-board. X-fi is especially worth it for 5.1 gaming and headphone gaming. The 3DSS really makes the difference playing online FPS with headphones. With normal stero speakers X-fi is less worth the expense.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-045-CL&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=
This one above performs almost as nicely as the 2 you suggested, just without the X-RAM which is next to useless.
Or the Xtreme Music version which costs about the same and performs just the same as well.

Optical out is only available on this one
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-050-CL&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=
Or via the other X-fi's and a break-out box that costs about £50 IIRC

Last point to make, beware of X-fi problems. Many have them. From crackling sound to ones like I have, sometimes starting windows with a loud hiss or just not loaded at all.

Henry