Sound Card

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Capn Stabby

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Hello CAGs,
I was hoping I could get some help on a sound card. I just bought the Logitech X530s for a low-end speaker solution, seeing as my former speakers were integrated with my monitor. I'm using the integrated sound card right now, and they sound pretty good, but I'm wondering if I should spend an extra $20 or so bucks and get a real sound card from newegg.
Would it make that much of a difference?
What are the benefits of a better sound card? More oomph?

And I know that with video cards, you should look at the pixel pipelines, bits, memory and all that, but what are the things to look for in sound cards?

I'm looking at this page right now:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010360057+1101108501&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=57

Any help is appreciated, thanks!
 
If you are just listening to stereo sound @ low sampling (11khz) and it's sounds good to you, then you're fine. The only advantage to a dedicated sound card is that it's not dependant on your CPU as much. This comes more into play when you have a 5.1 setup where you would want a dedicated sound processing system instead of offloading it to your processor and bogging your system down. If you have a fast processor then it will maybe be a 5-10 fps difference between onboard and dedicated sound card.
 
Well, there IS EAX support on the cheapo SBLive 24 bit and theres decent support for it. I team mine with 530s as well and it was certainly worth the extra cash it cost to get off of intergrated.
 
Hmm, I didn't know the onboard sound took away from the speed of my computer. I have an Athlon 3700+ (only 2.2ghz) so I suppose I should go grab a dedicated sound card.
Yeah, the x530s are 5.1 so I suppose I should go grab the SBlive card.
Thanks!
 
[quote name='invinceable104']Hmm, I didn't know the onboard sound took away from the speed of my computer. I have an Athlon 3700+ (only 2.2ghz) so I suppose I should go grab a dedicated sound card.
Yeah, the x530s are 5.1 so I suppose I should go grab the SBlive card.
Thanks![/QUOTE]
Make sure you get the internal one. The external was a pile of cow dung.

Yeah, I dig the SBLive24 value wise. Cant run the latest EAX of course but its a decent card for its price.
 
Hm, I just realized that Itunes doesn't support 5.1 speakers. I didn't notice because I was blasting the music anyway and I assumed that was the sound. Gah, that's what I used my speakers for anyway.
I guess I don't need a sound card anymore, seeing as 3 speakers don't even do anything when I use Itunes.
 
[quote name='invinceable104']Hm, I just realized that Itunes doesn't support 5.1 speakers. I didn't notice because I was blasting the music anyway and I assumed that was the sound. Gah, that's what I used my speakers for anyway.
I guess I don't need a sound card anymore, seeing as 3 speakers don't even do anything when I use Itunes.[/quote]
If you're looking for 5.1 sound from itunes (or any other music download service), then you're out of luck. They're all stricly stereo format. Only 5.1 music you can get is in not on i-tunes. You'll have to go the route of DVD-Audio or SACD (Super Audio CD).
 
[quote name='invinceable104']Hm, I just realized that Itunes doesn't support 5.1 speakers. I didn't notice because I was blasting the music anyway and I assumed that was the sound. Gah, that's what I used my speakers for anyway.
I guess I don't need a sound card anymore, seeing as 3 speakers don't even do anything when I use Itunes.[/quote]

Hold on a second, they do support 5.1 speakers; the songs individually aren't in 5.1, but they produce the song through all five speakers. I have the X-530's, and I'm using them right now with iTunes. I have a Soundblaster Live! and I have the CMSS 3D set to CMSS (Surround sound).
As I said, I'm using iTunes right now with them and they are all pumping out sound.
PM me if you have anymore problems/questions.
 
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