Other Monitor or Speakers - Sorted, now I need a soundcard... HELP!

yeah asus xonar cards are well reccomended. try the sub-£100 soundcard article on bit tech

 

I bought a brand new Xonar DX PCI-E from the evil bay (retailer auction) for £22.00 delivered the other week. Bargain.

I have a Xonar DS PCI spare that I bought off the marketplace, never used it (apart from testing it works).

 

Where?

Is the PCI stuff ok?

 

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/soundcards/2010/04/08/sub-100-gaming-sound-card-reviews/1

I'm not an expert and only got the PCI card to use for gaming. I am sure audiophile's here will chip in with more expert opinions. I got the PCI-E version because I am running now an SLI rig and using a PCI card would block the outside GPU intake.

 

I have PCI and PCI-E free, so either is an option really. I just want something thet'll compliment those speakers. I know little about sound cards though.

And remember, it's only a 2.1 setup, so I don't need lots of channels, just one good channel.

Edit: I plug my PC into my TV to watch iPlayer and so forth, via HDMI, will the soundcard screw up the HDMI audio?

 

I am not an audiophile so I think you need other opinions - you need to match your requirement to a card, not the other way around.

If you want my Xonar DS, let me know and we'll talk turkey.

 

Looked up the DS, and it seems ok but limited. Should I go for it or a DX or perhaps a D1?? After that they rocket upto £80ish, which is more than I'm willing to spend really.

 

Just saw this, worth it? (Also it that the Currys, as in the retail shop?)

 

They are the same but the DX is pcie whereas the D1 is pci. Iv just bought the DX from Scan, you will need a 4pin floppy power connector to run it if you get the DX

 

Good spot! I never noticed that. I'll aim for the D1 over the DX then as then I don't have extra wire cluttering up everything, but apart from that they look the same...

 

Yeah I think they are identical apart from the interfaces. I suppose the only downside would be that pci is so-called being fazed out but I doubt this is an issue tbh.

About the fact the DX is powered directly from the psu, Bittech say there is a (possible) benefit to this: "because the power from a PSU is far cleaner than it is from the motherboard, meaning you again get far less interference and therefore better quality sound".

I dont know if this actually translates into a noticeable difference in the real world (between the DX and D1) but its still something to think about maybe

 

I'm aiming for a nice tidy build, so an extra wire would be a huge pain! If there is noise, it'll be so small I wont be able to register it, there are parts of motherboards that are much more affected by noise I suspect...

 

I'm planning on buying the Sp2500s as well. Is the x-fi xtremegamer enough?!

 

Went for a DS from Fingers Thank for all the help

Still haven't decided on that LG IPS screen though...

 

If you're on about the LG model I think you are, then truegamers the guy to ask because he bought 3 of them recently. I was considering that model also but backed out at the last min because a couple of reviews said its response time was very poor (even for an IPS panel), and because I play twitch shooters alot I didnt want to take the plunge on something that I might notice motion blur on when gaming coming from a very fast tn panel.

I got the Dell U2311H instead, but in the end returned it because it had a couple of manufacturing defects - fairly prominent backlight bleed on the right hand side (even though it was a rev A02 model), and the bezel was not flush against the screen around the same area - but it was a very nice display nevertheless. In Windows I noticed less colour shift coming from a TN panel, like on the bittech forums the colours of threads sometimes changed depending on the position of my head, but with the Dell being IPS it didnt do this (which is good of course).

For gaming on I still did prefer my Benq panel though because on the Dell I noticed very very slight blur when making fast movements on cod (blur might be too strong of a word but it didnt look as clear basically), and I couldnt get the overall image contrast to reach the same levels as on the Benq. I was dying to try an IPS display, and they are definitely better for Windows etc, but if your a heavy gamer and play alot of very fast paced games you might notice the same things I did (which is why I would have kept the Dell for windows if it didnt have the manufacturing defects on my specific model)

 

I grabbed a Dell U2311H from the marketplace

Also, those speakers, AMAZING!!!!!! Easily worth the money!

 

I've got the Xonar Essence STX [ dabs | eBuyer | Scan ] and I honestly will never, ever go back to onboard sound again.

I am a confessed audiophile (my IEMs are Sennheiser IE8s) and have the Xonar running into a Behringer Xenyx 802 mini-mixer, then a Cambridge Audio A1 amp and then a pair of 15-year-old Kenwood hifi speakers. Absolutely love it - less bass than a sub but I generally find subs too "muddy" - I like bass punchy and crisp.

The Essence might be slightly too "audiophile" for your budget, but if you can afford it, then get it - your ears will love you

Edit: photos of my setup

 

Have you tried just removing the Behringer from the chain and spotting for a difference?

 

I got a Xonar DS from one of the guys on here for £20, so more than enough for my needs And these speakers are beautiful, you can go from crisp, sharp bass to full, deep bass by modifying only a couple of settings and you loose none of the sound quality

 

So it arrived ok then? All okay?


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