Onboard Audio @ 2016 vs Dedicated Sound card?

Hello Hardforum members,

I'm planning on a "Skylake" build and I was wondering do I still need a dedicated sound card these days? Online audio in some of the motherboards these days seems to have come a long way? I'm strictly talking 2.1 bookshelf monitor speakers and high quality headphones.

Motherboards like the G170X GT have the Sound Core 3D chip. Even the Realtek 1150 I hear is similar to some of the dedicated sound cards from the past? What do you guys think? Any personal experiences with some of the newer mobos with better onboard audio? Does it still make sense to get a dedicated sound card?

Thank you

If you really like the best sound - yes, you would need a higher-end sound card. Otherwise - no. I bought an Asus Strix Raid DLX recently. Before that I used whatever dongle Kingston HyperX cloud2 uses and, while I could hear a difference when switching between the two, it's not really massive and it would probably be smarter to spend the money on something else.
Also, if you listen to a lot of music and care about how it sounds - then it's probably worth it. There was a definite improvement in the way music sounds, in my particular case, at least. Gaming - not so much.

I like external sound cards or dac's because of convinience of plugging headphones on a desk and having volume wheel

Depends on the individual motherboard. Even if it has a Sound Core 3D chip, that says nothing about the DAC it might use. (DAC is simply the chip that performs the digital to analog conversion, and is on sound cards and motherboards also, even though the name has been usurped to generally refer to external audio devices). In that situation, it would probably be best to combine the onboard Sound Core 3D chip with an external DAC via SPDIF (coax or optical). Many external DACs only connect via USB, so you get what amounts to a shit USB soundcard even though the digital to analog conversion is high quality. I generally avoid those and only recomend external DACs that can also accept SPDIF (Coax or Optical). You could even get a cheap soundcard like a Sound Blaster Z or a X-Fi Titanium (Great processing, weak internal DACs) and then run SPDIF (Coax or Optical) from that to an external DAC. If you are going to go with a Sound Card only, it makes sense to go for a higher-end model like a Sound Blaster ZxR or X-Fi Titanium HD as they have high quality DACs built in.

Wtf is wrong with usb dac's ?

If Your usb ports are not "clean" enough for some reason or perform weirdly, just buy pcie usb controller to have separate usb ports just for that dac. I really recommend that thing becaause there are no drivers in use at all

As far as I understand, modern sound cards don't really do any processing on-board. What you are buying, essentially, is DACs, amps and a software package.

Thanks for all the feedback. I was actually considering an external DAC. I also got an offer from a friend to get his Creative X7 at a good price as well.

It really depends on what you're driving. Saying you have 2.1's and "high quality" cans doesn't really say much, as high quality to one guy can mean entry-level to another.

As a good rule of thumb, if you have to ask, the answer's usually no. Buying a DAC for sub-$500 cans or speakers is just fluff, as lower end DAC/AMPs will act as hardware equalizers more than anything. Upgrade your speakers or headphones first, then add on when you've reached your wallet's limit.

This thread has fucked up everything I thought I ever knew about PC audio. Thanks for that LOL

I would say it depends on what's doing the conversion. If you just want to pass the signal via optical to a good dedicated AMP/DAC then the onboard is fine. You won't gain anything getting a dedicated card. However, if the card itself will be doing the conversion then get a good dedicated card. Never heard a good DAC on an onboard card. I imagine they still suffer from interference as well.

I have an external EMU 0404 USB and it has coax, optical and USB, never heard a difference between any of the three.