What sound card for my headset

muppetkiller

muppetkiller

muppetkiller

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Joined
6 Oct 2008
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343
I know its been asked a million times.

Anyways i have an old headset Sennheiser's, either PC 165 or PC 155. I cant remember as i must have them for 5 or more years.

But the onboard sound in games is not good enough for me. When playing FPS online people keep sneaking up on me or im not sure in the direction they are coming from which drives me nuts (im not a hardcore online gamer but i do like my games) I don't use the computer much for music or movies just games.

Have a gigabyte motherboard and I7 build with crossfire ati cards running on win7 64bit. Have 4gigs of ram DDR3. If u need any more info please ask.

So what would be the best card for me ?
Im thinking in lines of creative my self.
My funds would be around the €100 or £90 max.

Thanks
 
The best affordable soundcards with decent headphone surround virtualisation are from the X-Fi or Xonar ranges.

I find the surround effect more realistic on Xonar but X-Fi is somewhat better for other gaming effects.

A few affordable cards to look at would be X-Fi Xtreme Gamer, X-Fi Titanium, Xonar D1 or Xonar DX. Avoid the X-Fi Xtreme Audio or Xonar DS as these are both missing features for headphone surround or gaming.
 
Can't say any more than that really, this sort of advice should be made into a sticky.
 
Just wondering - how could we get a sticky 'stuck'? I'd be happy to write a guide to surround virtualisation on headphones but I think it would just get lost pretty quickly.
 
Does this forum support sticky's? Or do all forums have it?

It would be a good idea, probably would have to ask a mod about it.

I say no to the Xtreme Gamer, unless one can get it to near the cost of the DX/D1.
 
I got mine 2nd hand for £30 inc delivery & it's worth that, I wanted a Xonar card but I always missed out on the MM :( including the one Uriel sold :'( I was about 1 week from payday when he put it up lol.
Xtreme Gamer isnt bad, I get decent surround from it.

I think you would need to see a mod about the sticky, I would deffo vote for it if it came up, the sheer ammount of times this same info is repeated is getting silly, also I would like to have it as a reference for myself :D
 
Thanks for the help guys.

Ok i have made my mind up that i will go for the D1 or DX soundcard.

Just two more questions.

1. All i have left on my motherboard is one more PCI-E slot. So will the D1 fit into the PCI-E as i know the DX says its PCI-E. Or are they both the same card ?
2. And if they are not the same which one is better if any?

Thanks
Again
 
BeeP said:
Xtreme Gamer isnt bad, I get decent surround from it.
Click to expand...

It isn't a bad card at all, I just feel for £70 at about £15 more than the DX/D1, it's over priced. What makes is worse, is that the full size blue Xtreme Audio can still be bought for about £33 here at OCUK, which is half the price! Missing only EAX5 AFAIK.

For £30 though, that's a good deal. :D
 
D1 is a PCI card and takes all its power from the PCI slot

DX is PCI-E and requires a floppy power connector.

Otherwise they're practically identical.

Edit: Extreme Gamer £70 these days? Seems like a lot. I'd say £40-£50 would be more realistic.
 
I thought the price of the X-G was too much but for £30 almost new it had to be bought :D

I was watching your D2 (the one you sold on the MM recently) but I didn't have the funds for it at the time.

I might yet get a D1/DX & fire the X-G in the kids machine, can't really justify it right now though as it seems to do everything I want it to do.
 
Just something to keep an eye on. Someone on Head-Fi's mentioned some software that allows you to fit an X-Fi and Xonar in the same machine. Apparrently you can use the X-Fi for EAX etc and feed the sound to Xonar which can apply Dolby Headphone.

There are apparrently some glitches in a few games but it's supposed to work the majority of the time. I'll have to keep an eye on it.
 
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