Onboard Sound Died

M

Magnus042

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 3, 2010
Messages
79
So the onboard sound on my x58 sabretooth died.
As i wait on an RMA from ASUS, I'm wondering:
Are there any sound cards out there that are worth the money?
I'm no audiophile, I have Klipsch Promedia 5.1 speakers.
If there is a soundcard out there that will take the load off my CPU, I may be interested.
No one seems to talk about soundcards anymore since every mobo has onboard audio.
Thoughts? Comments?
 
I'm not sure yet, ASUS is supposed to send me a new MOBO.
I'm more curious about whether or not a soundcard is worth it over the onboard.
 
I am using onboard with my spare board while I wait for my new stuff to arrive.

Compared to my X-fi, it is kind of horrible.
 
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Magnus042 said:
So the onboard sound on my x58 sabretooth died.
As i wait on an RMA from ASUS, I'm wondering:
Are there any sound cards out there that are worth the money?
I'm no audiophile, I have Klipsch Promedia 5.1 speakers.
If there is a soundcard out there that will take the load off my CPU, I may be interested.
No one seems to talk about soundcards anymore since every mobo has onboard audio.
Thoughts? Comments?
Click to expand...

CPUs have so much power these days, especially Intel Nehalem and above that processor load incurred from sound is negligible. As far as audio quality, if you have to ask onboard is good enough for you.
 
Yeah thats what i thought.
Im afraid to spend the money and then see no noticeable difference.
Although t may be nice to have some insurance should this ever happen again..
 
Magnus042 said:
Yeah thats what i thought.
Im afraid to spend the money and then see no noticeable difference.
Although t may be nice to have some insurance should this ever happen again..
Click to expand...

It entirely depends on what you're doing, and how good your ears are combined with your source and your headphones/speakers/amp/DAC. I'm in the music field and I know trained musicians who are happy with crappy $10 earbuds or those awful Beats Audio crap cans, because they're used to MP3s and poor headphones and have never heard what great cans can do.

Many audiophiles will insist that the only way to listen to music is DACs, but top-shelf sound cards these days are pretty damn good.

If you're gaming with a cheapo pair of PC speakers and a boomy tin can of a "subwoofer" from Logitech you may not see much benefit. I wouldn't go back to onboard myself, then again the difference is night and day to my ears for what I do.
 
I think I may bit the bullet and try a card.
If i dont notice the diff i can always return it.
Any good ones to look for?
 
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