Looking to upgrade

[Bravo25]

I currently have, Sentey Harmoniq Pro Gs-4841 Real 5.1 Channel Surround Sound Gaming Headset, but my son's puppy chewed the cord. So I plan to spend roughly 100 dollars on my next pair. I'm thinking about getting the HyperX Cloud Revolver headset, but am not sure. So here are some questions I have...

-Will I need to buy a dedicated sound card?
-Will they sound better with a dedicated sound card?

I'm open to other suggestions.

 

[GotNoRice]

-Will I need to buy a dedicated sound card?
-Will they sound better with a dedicated sound card?

These questions will be almost impossible to answer, in a large part due to the fact that we have no idea what you already have. As long as you have onboard motherboard audio, you should not "need" to get a dedicated sound card. As to if a dedicated sound card will sound "better", that depends on many things. The most basic thing that helps determine how good a soundcard will sound (or pretty much anything that outputs analog audio) is it's DAC. Beyond that there are the features that come with various sound cards. Creative cards include features like SBX Surround or CMSS-3D which can downmix 5.1-7.1 sources to 2-channel for headphone usage. It does tend to create a more convincing surround experience than it would otherwise IMO. Opinions vary on the actual usefulness of these features however.

I think you are making the right choice by abandoning the gimmicky "5.1 headphones" and going with a nice stereo pair, but I think you should go further, take the next step and get an actual nice pair of stereo headphones (real headphones, not a "headset"), and use a desktop microphone or a clip-on microphone. Most "headsets" are marketed the same way beats headphones are; targeted toward people who care more about how their headphones look while taking a selfie than how it actually sounds compared to other headphones/headsets.

 

[Bravo25]

These questions will be almost impossible to answer, in a large part due to the fact that we have no idea what you already have. As long as you have onboard motherboard audio, you should not "need" to get a dedicated sound card. As to if a dedicated sound card will sound "better", that depends on many things. The most basic thing that helps determine how good a soundcard will sound (or pretty much anything that outputs analog audio) is it's DAC. Beyond that there are the features that come with various sound cards. Creative cards include features like SBX Surround or CMSS-3D which can downmix 5.1-7.1 sources to 2-channel for headphone usage. It does tend to create a more convincing surround experience than it would otherwise IMO. Opinions vary on the actual usefulness of these features however.

I think you are making the right choice by abandoning the gimmicky "5.1 headphones" and going with a nice stereo pair, but I think you should go further, take the next step and get an actual nice pair of stereo headphones (real headphones, not a "headset"), and use a desktop microphone or a clip-on microphone. Most "headsets" are marketed the same way beats headphones are; targeted toward people who care more about how their headphones look while taking a selfie than how it actually sounds compared to other headphones/headsets.

I have the ASROCK Extreme4 Z77 motherboard. (7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC898 Audio Codec))

What would you recommend in the 100 dollar range?