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Sound Card Advice

F

FUBAR

n00b
Joined
Nov 14, 2004
Messages
35
I've decided to upgrade the onboard audio on my ASUS Rampage II Ext.
I think I've narrowed the choices down to 2 cards... the Auzen Forte or the ASUS Xonar D2X, however, I've heard of driver support problems in Windows 7 with both vendors.

So my question is this...which one would you pick, and why?? One physical restriction is the card needs to be a PCI Express interface. There aren't any accessible PCI slots left on the board after video and wireless adapter.


System specs:

Mobo: ASUS Rampage II Extreme (with imitation X-Fi add-on audio card)
RAM: 6GB Corsair DDR3
Video: ATI HD4890
Primary HD: Intel X25-M SSD (160GB)
OS: Windows 7 Pro x64
 
I've got no experience with either under Windows 7, so take my advice with that qualifier

I would take the Forte over the D2X if the following seems to somewhat match your usage:
you use headphones often
you don't have a 5.1 or 7.1 system connected via analog outputs (while Forte can do it, I just don't like breakout cables due to them being wire spaghetti)
you don't have a lot to plug in
money is somewhat of an issue

I would take the D2X over the Forte if the following seems to somewhat match your usage:
headphones aren't a huge priority
you have a multi-ch system connected via analog or digital
you find the lighted jacks awesome (I do)
you have other stuff to plug in
money is somewhat less of an issue

both will offer their own surround/spatilization voodoo (CMSS from the Forte, Dolby techs for the D2X)
both are high quality parts
both have decent drivers in terms of features/abilities (remember I qualified this above...)
 
Sounds about right, other than I prefer breakout cables over jack proliferation since it keeps things neat, assuming you don't have a cat that likes to chew them.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

I forgot to mention what the primary usage of the card would be in the original post ...DOH!! :eek:

To that end, it will be primarily for gaming. I have a Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 setup hooked to it. It's not the greatest in the world, but I like it. Headphones are seldom used now, so that isn't a requirement. I'm not as concerned about the money as I am getting a quality card that will work with my OS.
 
FUBAR said:
Thanks for the replies guys.

I forgot to mention what the primary usage of the card would be in the original post ...DOH!! :eek:

To that end, it will be primarily for gaming. I have a Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 setup hooked to it. It's not the greatest in the world, but I like it. Headphones are seldom used now, so that isn't a requirement. I'm not as concerned about the money as I am getting a quality card that will work with my OS.
Click to expand...

if headphones aren't a concern, then I would probably get the D2X, unless you think you'll eventually be getting headphones (the D2X will handle most headphones just fine, mind you)

and don't take my comment to mean the Forte is lower quality than the D2X, its only about a $10 savings, I just know for some posters $10 is a big deal with their budget requirements

really either is a good choice
 
obobski said:
(the D2X will handle most headphones just fine, mind you)
Click to expand...

Well, cheap ones.

Which isn't necessarily an issue since at higher budgets it's desirable to move amplification functions out of the case and use sound cards strictly for source and input functions.
 
i just got a forte tonight tried out some sennehiser 497's

the headphone amp sounds really nice on the forte

i don't know much about headphones and amps though
 
ashmedai said:
Well, cheap ones.
Click to expand...

it should handle the vast majority of headphones your average user is likely to purchase, and a good deal of somewhat higher end parts as well (it'd drive MDR-V6's for example, might not sound the same as your setup, but it'd work just fine)

I'm not trying to insist that it would handle some high impedance/low sensitivity kit (like AKG K340's), but the average gaming headset or stereo headphones shouldn't be a problem (and like I said, D2X isn't a good choice if you primarily use headphones for listening)
 
V6 work fine off nearly everything...just better if you give them better.
 
ashmedai said:
V6 work fine off nearly everything...just better if you give them better.
Click to expand...

oh yeah, I wasn't trying to say you should trash your setup and get a D2, but if you had a D2 and started getting into higher end audio, its not a bad starting off point

kkl1014 said:
Sorry to hijack the thread, but Newegg lists an Asus DS sound card for $50.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132013

The descriptions says that it uses the same chipset as some of Asus' more expensive cards, so i'm wondering why this is so cheap. It also says the hardware decoder is DTS instead of Dolby Digital. What difference would this make in ordinary usage?
Click to expand...

that card looks brand new, I've never seen it before, so no overall idea

as far as DTS vs Dolby, basically it means you don't have Dolby for digital output, you have DTS (which doesn't mean a whole lot, both are compatible with most any receiver you'll find today), and it'll use DTS' upsampling/resampling technologies instead of Dolby's, so for example if you want to resample stereo as 5.1, it uses a DTS developed algorithm, instead of a Dolby developed algorithm, again, nothing really better either way, just different

doesn't look like a bad little card at all, I'd be curious to know more about it though
 
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