New speakers and soundcard question

[bosox188]

I'm going to be getting my first 5.1 speakers, these ones:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836121118

Now my soundcard is nothing special, it's onboard sound. I wasn't planning on getting a new soundcard, but I want to make sure that the onboard sound isn't going to be so bad that there's no point in having those nice speakers. The sound is AC 97 and it said it's 8 channel sound, I guess that's 7.1. Here's the motherboard I have just in case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081

Thanks.

 

[Adabiviak]

They'll probably sound quite nice, but you may find that CPU-intensive games sacrifice a little speed as the CPU handles the audio. Is it using Realtek for onboard sound? I had Realtek for my onboard sound before I got an external card, and I really didn't see much of a difference except for high-end games.

 

[xombine]

Hey those are the same speakers that I have! They're awesome, amazing bass. Great for games and movies. I have a Mad Dog 5.1 sound card and it sounds pretty good. For you to really experience them you should get something besides onboard. A Sound Blaster Audigy card is really awesome, especially the Audigy 2 ZS. That's what I would recommend.

 

[bosox188]

Yeah I knew the onboard would affect performance in games, but my pc's pretty good and I've never had a dedicated sound card so I'm used to it. It is Realtek. I just wanted to know if the sound would be bad because of it, I'm glad it won't.

 

[Quixoticism]

I would (save if necessary and) go for the next step up which is the Z-5300s.
The X-530s are 'alright' but get blown away by the Z-5300s(which aren't too costly). Which in turn get blown away by the Z-5500s, which I have and can attest to their absulute awesomeness. It is absolute!

For the record, any soundcard that supports at least 5.1 will be okay, but if you want REALLY good sound you'll want either a Creative Audigy 2 or X-Fi card.
If you're going with the X-530s though you probably won't notice it.

Rule of thumb for future reference: Any sound card will beat onboard sound every day.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy whatever you may end up with.

 

[bosox188]

Well I don't care about absolute perfect, audiophile satisfying sound. I just wanted to make sure the onboard sound didn't do anything like crackle or make the signal really bad if it couldn't handle more powerful speakers. I've never had 5.1, I'm not even using 2.1 at the moment, just 2 little desktop speakers.

 

[The Brick]

Soundblaster X-fi fatal1ty FPS + Gigaworks s750 7.1

 

[JFry]

I have that logitech system and I have to say I am really unhappy with it. Treble and mids are pretty pathetic and the bass isn't really impressive either. For the sound to be balanced (not have the bass overpowering the highs) you have to turn the bass way down. Sounds like you already ordered your speakers but if not I recommend:
http://store.bostonacoustics.com/se...DetailsPage&SiteID=bostona&productID=36221600
Don't be misled by the small size. This set by boston has a MUCH better sound and the bass blows away the logitech sub.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

How does a sound card get more give more fps (i'm assuming this is frames per second?), I thought only ram,gpu, and cpu have to do with that...

 

[The Brick]

Well it's more a marketing trick, but they say that when you have the onboard X-ram the cpu doesn't have to handle the sounddata traffic from the card to the system ram.. :upstare: Ofcourse it does help, but only if you look at tenths of a percent. Now ofcourse, no games really use it yet. We'll have to see what the future brings us.
And yep that does means the X-fi xtreme music is a better choice atm. If you really want a front pannel buy the platinum edition.

 

[Asus]

I didn't want to bother with the XFI since with music it changes the sound a bit on compressed files in hopes it sounds better. I'd rather just listen to them as they are or adjust the equalizer myself. I recently bought an Audigy 4 for a good price (same thing as the Audigy 2 ZS but without a firewire port). It does have more punch and is clearer than my onboard sound. I'm glad I got one.

As for soundcards increasing FPS, it's because the chip on the soundcard takes the load instead of the CPU. The FPS increase can be anywhere from 0-15 FPS difference. Plus you get the newest EAX support in games if you get a creative card.
The X-ram on the highend XFI card doesn't really do anything at this point. I think the only game to support it is battlefield2.

 

[NJspeed]

I didn't want to bother with the XFI since with music it changes the sound a bit on compressed files in hopes it sounds better. I'd rather just listen to them as they are or adjust the equalizer myself. I recently bought an Audigy 4 for a good price (same thing as the Audigy 2 ZS but without a firewire port). It does have more punch and is clearer than my onboard sound. I'm glad I got one.

As for soundcards increasing FPS, it's because the chip on the soundcard takes the load instead of the CPU. The FPS increase can be anywhere from 0-15 FPS difference. Plus you get the newest EAX support in games if you get a creative card.
The X-ram on the highend XFI card doesn't really do anything at this point. I think the only game to support it is battlefield2.

Actually, the X-Fi's "Crystallizer" can be turned on or off. The Crystallizer is what your referring to when you say it changes the music... only it does a lot more than simply adjusting an equalizer, it actually fills in "gaps" in the music, which helps it sound better. You can turn it on or off though, and it actually does help... a LOT. It sounds sick on my Klipsch PMs.

Aside from less CPU usage, the other benefit you get by going to an X-Fi is an increased number of simultaneous voices and sounds. I think 8 is max for Realtec but it's 128 or something like that for the X-Fi. It's really noticable in games where there's a lot of different things taking place... Battlefield 2 for example.. Quake 4... OMG and Oblivion is a huge difference when your in a tavern and there's 10 people all talking conversations, plus sound effects and all that.. THAT'S when I really noticed the X-Fi's capabilities the most...

I think it will be even more noticable once physics gets in games more and there's 50 wood boxes and 50 metal barrels that are crashing into each other and bouncing all over the place from an explosion, while a war rages around you and your teammates are all talking... That's gonna be sweet.

How does a sound card get more give more fps (i'm assuming this is frames per second?), I thought only ram,gpu, and cpu have to do with that...

No it's not a marketing trick. Like Asus said, by freeing up the CPU's resources (of which up to 15% can be used to process onboard sound) you increase the FPS.

Of course this is true of just about any soundcard that you'd buy these days, not just the X-Fi.