Sound Card worth it?
 

Hey guys, i'm starting my new build soon (Specs will be listed down below) and I want YOUR opinion if it is really worth it to hook up a sound card. Me never having one before, has no experience with this field, so you the enthusiast of sound should have the best opinion. All opinions are appreciated! :)

SPECS:

Case: Cooler Master Haf-X RC 942
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV (LGA 2011)
GPU: 2X 680s
CPU: 3930k SB
SSD: Samsung 830 Series
RAM: 32G of G.Skil DDR3 1600
Storage: 2TB WD Red Drive
Cooling: H100i

Not to be a dick, but there is one of these threads once a week. See if you can use search to find one of the many threads asking this question.

I pretty much expected that, but there is still no hurt in trying. :)

This.
And yes it is.

Since I lied and apparently its not quite once a week that this is asked... You should give us an amount of cash you're willing to spend on a sound card and someone can recommend one for you. Generally the consensus is yes, a sound card is worth it if you care about sound quality but it also depends on what you're using for speakers or headphones to actually be capable of delivering improved sound quality.

Here's the latest discussion we had on it a couple weeks ago. http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...-included.html

The RIVE has probably the best onboard sound you can get in the market. Unless you are looking to drive some high resistance headphones, or some Klipsch Promedia 2.1's, your money might be better spent elsewhere. However, if you do get into discrete sound cards and better audio, there's no going back. (on my 4th sound card, 5th set of headphones, and 2nd set of 5.1 speakers).

Well considering you can find this: "Thread Hijacking - Start your own thread if you wish to direct a new conversation" in the rules, I'd say that if he doesn't find an answer that is specific to his system and needs it's perfectly fine to create a new post.

As for searching, you might find something that could be useful to you. My question would be what are YOUR needs? Will you be using headphones? Are your primary sound needs with games, music, movies? Are you going to hook up a surround system to it? The more specific you get the more we can help, when you have general questions that's when people are going to say search for an answer.

I have the same debate going on for me right now as well, from what I have seen, the better headphones you have the more of a need you have for a sound card because of use of power and amps for the headphones and clarity, boost, etc. Plus it depends on what sort of on-board sound you have.

Ironically enough that's my post LOL

Yeah, always try a quick forum search before posting a question, 40% of the time you'll find an answer :)

I am also a firm believer that unless you're driving high end audiophile headphones (i.e. > $250 range), onboard sound on a high end motherboard is more than you need!

With my HD650 (expensive headphones) I notice a difference between my onboard audio (which was a high end one in 2010) and my Xonar Essense STX, everything thing seems just a little flat on the onboard, BUT on my HD515 G4ME headphones ($120 range), I don't notice any difference. As for the myth about better gaming performance on a discreet sound card, that was so 2006. (lol almost typed sound car :P)

If you are not an audiophile my recommendation is the safe/cheap one. Build with only onboard, and then if its not to your standards add a sound card.

Yes its important & YES as much as someone says onboard doesnt affect preformance in gaming ... IT DOES not just on the fps side of things, but also the gameplay experience itself.

My honest advice for a safe choice in that reguard would be a Asus Xonar DX.