Internal sound cards for PC

A

adaminside

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I just bought HyperX Cloud Alpha Headphones and I wasn't convinced with the sound quality of it. My PC isn't the latest and greatest, Core i7 4770 with Asus Q87M-E Motherboard. Been searching around for a while and found that the sound card on my motherboard isn't good. I can't upgrade my system so the only option left is to buy internal sound card for it.
Suggest me best sound card I can get.
Thanks
 
For surround speakers/headphones, the Creative AE-5.
For stereo speakers/headphones at even higher quality, the Creative X7 and EVGA Nu Audio.

For stereo only you can also consider external DACs and an amplifier.
You can go multichannel external but the cost rises dramatically when keeping the sound quality high.

Where do you place your sound quality needs and what is your budget?
 
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If you're gaming, probably best to get a Creative card. They do have a new card (AE-9) coming soon so that might be worth waiting for, but they also have an AE-5, Z, and Recon cards in the order chronologically by age. They should all be good for providing gaming audio for headphones.
 
adaminside said:
I just bought HyperX Cloud Alpha Headphones and I wasn't convinced with the sound quality of it. My PC isn't the latest and greatest, Core i7 4770 with Asus Q87M-E Motherboard. Been searching around for a while and found that the sound card on my motherboard isn't good. I can't upgrade my system so the only option left is to buy internal sound card for it.
Suggest me best sound card I can get.
Thanks
Click to expand...

I think in your situation since you have a 4th gen you might be on a budget so try going on the used market place route, i.e facebook marketplace or ebay etc and get a used creative x-fi pcie x1 card (any variant, they all produce decent quality, im also using the sound blaster sb1040 with my hyper x cloud stinger), those cards still produce amazing sound quality but on your local marketplace you might find different options and if you're looking to break down their main attributes I suggest checking this out. Let us know what you got. try checking out local craigslist as well. good luck
 
Nenu said:
For surround speakers/headphones, the Creative AE-5.
For stereo speakers/headphones at even higher quality, the Creative X7 and EVGA Nu Audio.

For stereo only you can also consider external DACs and an amplifier.
You can go multichannel external but the cost rises dramatically when keeping the sound quality high.

Where do you place your sound quality needs and what is your budget?
Click to expand...

The EVGA Nu Audio was just announced this month. I wasn't even sure if it is available for purchase yet.
If OP can get a hand on it, he can be the guinea pig to test it out for us. haha..

I have a Creative Sound Blaster E1, it's not bad. It advertised as a portable DAC/AMP so you can use it on-the-go with your headphones if your phone has a 3.5mm audio jack.

updated: aahh, I just realized OP were asking for internal sound card and I proposed a portable sound card. Anyway, just an alternative suggestion. :)
 
I have zxr from Creative with custom opamps. Really good card if you want 5.1 audio or go with Asus Essence STX II if you want 7.1 sound.
 
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