To upgrade or not

catcher · 20 Feb 2017 at 09:07

Hello everyone.
I hope I am posting in the right forum?. At the moment I have an Asrock extreme 6 z77 motherboard and I find the onboard sound rubbish, could someone please spec me a new board with good onboard sound for gaming I am using i7 3770k cpu, Or maybe get a sound amp like the Fiio Olympus E10 Headphone Amp & DAC. I use the Sennhieser HD 595 headphones. thankyou

hornetstinger · 20 Feb 2017 at 09:10

Just upgrade with a external DAC, or USB soundcard. Why upgrade your motherboard?

catcher · 20 Feb 2017 at 09:38

ok thankyou very much

Marsman · 20 Feb 2017 at 10:55

Yeah, get a sound card or DAC. No point buying a new motherboard just for supposed better onboard audio. Besides, being an obsolete socket type, you'd be looking at a second hand one. They don't come up that often and are not cheap, given that they are used.

Depends whether you want the positional sound thing over headphones. If you do, then you'll need a sound card. If you're not bothered about that though, then the FiiO E10K is a good inexpensive choice.

SMSL SD793II is also a good choice.

Either will be good for the Sennheiser HD595 and other similar easy to drive headphones. E10K has a more powerful amp, so would be a better choice for harder to drive headphones.

catcher · 20 Feb 2017 at 18:34

Sorry to bother you guys again, I have been looking all day for sound card or dac for pure gaming pc, so could you guys please spec me sound card or dac for fps gaming positional sound as I have no idea at all my budget is up to £150 many thanks.

mdixson · 20 Feb 2017 at 18:36

catcher said:
Sorry to bother you guys again, I have been looking all day for sound card or dac for pure gaming pc, so could you guys please spec me sound card or dac for fps gaming positional sound as I have no idea at all my budget is up to £150 many thanks.

Do you have surround sound speakers? Or just headphones?

rids57 · 20 Feb 2017 at 18:38

For pure gaming and your headphones, the best one out there is the Sennheiser GSX1000 but that comes in at around £200

If you don't need the absolute best in virtual surround then the Creative Sound Blaster Z (OEM) will do what you want for £50

catcher · 20 Feb 2017 at 19:06

cool thanks

Dwaindibbly · 22 Feb 2017 at 10:08

I would like to add that in my opinion the gsx is a significant improvement on the SBz for surround but at a significant cost. Whether the extra cost worth it or not is purely personal but for me it was.