Sound card and Video card

[t7riggah]

Hi guys,

I am about to buy a new sound card and later, a new video card. However, I have no idea what is the difference between onboard and a soundcard because the soundcard I have right now, sounds exactly the same.

I currently have this sound card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829120103

my budget for a sound card is around 50-120 Anything under 110 would be nice though, but I am willing to use 10 more for a good sound card.


And as for the video card, I don't plan to do heavy gaming like Battlefield 2142, however my budget for a video card is up to 200. And I currently have a 6600LE...

Thanks guys

[blue60007]

Do you have a nice set of speakers/headphones? If not you probably won't notice the difference.

I'd much rather spend the money on a video card. Even a $200 video card would greatly improve over what you have now.

[Tin]

The AV-710 is a very good soundcard. I suggest you download the VIA drivers instead of using the Chaintech supplied drivers...the VIA driver is much better. If youre not running surround, use the rear output and switch it to 2-channel high sample rate mode with the VIA driver. It will let the AV-710 use the sweet sounding Wolfson DAC found onboard. If you have a 5.1 receiver with optical-in, you can flash the AV-710 with the Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 BIOS and have top-notch sound, plus retain the surround feature. If you do flash it to a Prodigy 7.1, you will not be able to use the analog outs, only the digital. Great card for $25 you have there. Aside from games, the Envy24 chipset on the AV-710 will rival the X-Fi. Do a bit of Googling, theres alot you can do with it.

[t7riggah]

Thanks Tin,

I am actually going to look into that. For the video card, what is the best bang for the buck? 7900GS? Right now , im using the logitech x-530s. These speakers are probably not very good compared to the one's blue is talking about.

Well, i will focus on the video card then, and look into the sound card's options

[Tin]

You can get an X1950 Pro for ~$200....take a look into that. That will perform better than the 7900GS.

[blue60007]

I can't comment specifically on those speakers...but the video card upgrade would offer a lot of performance boost where a new sound card may not make any difference.

[Tin]

Do you have your rear speakers positioned behind you? If you just have all 4 sitting on your desk, you could shop craigslist or garage sales for a used stereo receiver. Get a pair of decent bookshelf speakers to go along with it, and it will sound excellent. You can get a 1/8" stereo to dual RCA to run your soundcard to the receiver. The bookshelves will offer far better sound quality because they are a 2 way speaker with separate woofers and tweeters...also the speakers in general are larger. If you have the desk realestate that will be your best bang for the buck sound to go along with your card.

[glc]

The X1950 Pro is a very hungry video card - that PSU may not be able to handle it.

[t7riggah]

I am really interested into getting some bookshelf speakers, can anyone help me lead into that? As in, what I need, what is good, what are good brands, and where can I buy? amazon? I've done some research and I realized stereo receivers are quite expensive, but Im pretty sure I can just take one of my dads. haha. He is an audiophile, but I would like to learn by myself.

EDIT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882177011
Are these speakers any good? Okay brand I hope? Looks nice, but I am not sure about performance.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882108150
Nice tag for a 7.1 receiver?

EDIT 2:
I found these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...e=UTF8&seller=
I can get them for 197.99 cause of some savings... Good deal? ^^ called Harmon Kardon HK3480... Thanks guys