sound card question

[ultraman7k]

ok so a while back i cannibalized my brother's pc before he sold it, and took the old SB Audigy LS from it to plug into my rig, as I had been using onboard.

While I did notice a slight improvement in power output from my Logitech z-2300's, I was wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade to something else? If so, what should I upgrade to? Will there be a significant increase in the output?

I remember there only being Soundblaster back in the day (SB16 come back!)...and now I see there are so many more choices lol. I remember when I bought the Audigy LS, the increase in power was so tremendous I wondered how I had ever used onboard...but, when I plugged it into my current rig, it was...minimal.

I'd use it primarily for gaming and watching movies and listening to music. I do switch back and forth from my z-2300's and my Bose headset.

[Rescue119]

i did the same one day to an audigy SE and i noticed a difference but when i get my new system i am gonna use onboard again. It just seems onboard is pretty good nowadays. I use headset anyways. if I want to use speakers I will hook the comp up to my 7.2 home theatre system

[Signal2Noise]

Yes, while onboard audio has improved for the most part over the years, a decent soundcard is still the best solution. An onboard audio chip utilizes power from the CPU which in turn can degrade overall media performance especially noticeable in games. Depending on the components used to produce the audio, onboard generally will use cheaper parts as it is more of an afterthought marketing ploy than anything else, trying to give consumers all-in-one hardware solutions.

As for which soundcard to get, It depends on how much audio performance you want and how much money you want to spend. You say you'd use it for primarily gaming, watching movies, and listening to music. Well, that pretty much covers everything you'd use a soundcard for other than MIDI applications.

I would suggest HT|Omega Claro, ASUS Xonar, or Creative Titanium series. May as well just buy the top end and there'll be no looking back. I've heard good things about Auzentech but none of the models they currently offer interest me. I just upgraded from X-Fi X-Treme Gamer card to the Titanium Fatal1ty Pro (which was on sale a few weeks ago @ Newegg) and it is great. I also run Z-2300 speakers and use Shure SRH840 headphones and a Logitech 960 Headset. Everything sounds stellar. This is next on my list when it's time for a build upgrade. I have heard ASUS and HT | Omega may be introducing new soundcard models within the next few months.

Apologies for the long-winded post. But audio is important to me and so is the hardware that produces it.

[Zero82z]

Increased power output is not what you get a sound card for. That is the job of the amplifier built into your speaker system. The reason for buying a better sound card is to improve sound quality, not intensity.