what sound card?

[EdGey]

hey.

im sick of my onboard sound as its really rubbish.

i understand that this is the best in its price range?:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-002-AS

i can get that if i really must but its a little more money than i was hoping to spend

i heard bad things about this card:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-057-CL

but ive only ever used onboard sound so would it still be a big boost? i just want good quality sound for music and games, no special features or in general anything special.

the free headset is pulling me in too.

so how much better is the Xonar than the creative?

or are there any others?

sorry, bit of a demanding post

 

[EsaT]

Xonar doesn't have hardware DSP but does things on software/CPU so for it to actually do as much 3D sound processing as X-Fi can take quite a lot CPU time. (Xonar is first card which tries to even emulate newer EAX effects on software)

But that Xtreme Audio is just rebranded old SB Live and also it does most things with software, Creative's pages never even mention EAX5 with Xtreme Audio cards.
Xtreme Gamer has real X-Fi chip.

 

[*Chris]

onboard isnt always that bad, maybe you need new headphones too?