Which Soundcard?

[sqeaky4100]

Sorry, I realize this is kinda a Hardware Forum for multiboxing, but you guys know your stuff. So why not ask?!?!

NOTE: These will be used for music, and not WoW gaming. So keep that in mind when picking:



1) HT Omega Claro Plus+ ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271003')

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll200/29-271-003-08.jpg ('http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll200/29-271-003-08.jpg')







2) ASUS Xonar D2X ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132005')

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll200/29-132-005-03.jpg ('http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll200/29-132-005-03.jpg')







3) Azunetech X-Fi Prelude ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829156005')

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll200/29-156-005-03.jpg ('http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll200/29-156-005-03.jpg')






4) Creative Fatal1ty Tatanium Championship ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102021')

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll200/29-102-021-01.jpg ('http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/ProductImageCompressAll200/29-102-021-01.jpg')

[alcattle]

I can't say one over another, but look to make the card supports your OS. Many do not have Vista 64 drivers, at least as I looked around quickly for my own card.

[Enndo]

I was looking for a sound card also, not looking very hard, but a quick search of the egg and even though cards say they can run vista64 the reviews stated driver failures, crashes etc.

[jdpatt]

Hate to post such a noob question, but what is the advantage of adding a sound card?

I remember way back when they were necessary to use speakers, but with onboard sound capale of 5.1 digital, what do you get for buying a sound card, above and beyond surround sound?

[Enndo]

Sound cards alleviate cpu usage, and in most cases provide clearer sound than onboard sound.

[sqeaky4100]

They add clearer sound,they provide things like virtual 5.1 in games when using headphones , and they also include onboard Amps for headphones. Things like that.

[Enndo]

I just looked over the sound card choices you have there. After reading the reviews HT Omega seems to be better than all the others as far as sound, customer support, and basically just functioning lol. The fatality card has tons of reports of DOA cards, non functioning ports etc etc

[confusedtx5]

I have the Fatality Titanium Champ myself, no issues here - i love it. Digital connection to my speakers then 5.1+mic to my headphones at the same time.
Uses a PCIe x1 port instead of the aging PCI. as a plus, my mobo has a PCIe x1 slot above the first graphics slot, so i dont use up one of my graphics slots for the sound card.

[MaltheMM]

i dont know which outputs you'd like but Lynx TWO ('http://www.lynxstudio.com/product_detail.asp?i=12'), Lynx AES16 ('http://www.lynxstudio.com/product_detail.asp?i=13') and ESI Juli ('http://www.esi-audio.com/products/julia/') all produce faboulous sound

EDIT: I dont know the exact difference but there is a "mac" version of the AES16, called AES16e and it uses PCI-Express instead

[sqeaky4100]

I went with the HT Omega Claro Plus+


I don't use sound in games too much. And I heard the chip it uses far outdoes X-Fi in terms of sound clarity and music quality.

Plus it's reviews are basically perfect, as opposed to the others.