Sound card died (I promise this is a Mobo question though)

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TemjinGold

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Dec 16, 2006
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So my Sound Blaster Z is dying. The Center/Sub channel does not work. I was going to just use onboard sound but then realized my current motherboard does not have 5.1 sound.

Since I've also been annoyed that I can't get DDR4-3200 working (or anything higher than 2400 to be honest), I've been wondering: Instead of replacing the sound card, I might just replace the motherboard for one with good sound (and give this board to my brother to upgrade his machine as he has his own sound card).

Is there currently a motherboard out there with 5.1 sound that has also been known to work with DDR4-3200? Or are we still in the period where no board can do that without the extra special ram?
 
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TemjinGold

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Dec 16, 2006
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Thanks, can anyone confirm that the faster ram speeds work on this board?

Also, do you know how much, if any, of an audio quality is that onboard sound versus my SBZ? I used to have ROG Gene-Z (i5 2500k) and the onboard sound for that was pretty acceptable. Would this 1220 sound be better than that?

Oh I should mention, I'm not against an X370 board if one of those better suits both of these needs. I only got this B350 because at the time, all the X370 boards were out of stock and I didn't feel like waiting.
 
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dlerious

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The highest speeds I saw with the Gigabyte AB350 Gaming 3 was 2666 in their QVL. For B350, you have the MSI B350 Gaming Pro Carbon - lots of Gskill listed at 3200, ALC1220 sound and Intel Lan ($135). For X370, my Asus Crosshair 6 Hero does 5.1 (ALC1220) and 3200 (Gskill FlareX). It's expensive though. The Asus Prime X370 Pro is around $140-$160 and has ALC1220 and 3200 support. The Asrock Taichi at $190-210 is another decent board.
 
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TemjinGold

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Dec 16, 2006
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Thanks. Before I shell out a for a different board though, I'm curious if there is a board out there someone actually got to 3200 w/o needing special ram (QVL is fine). I know a lot of boards are supposed to do 3200 (heck, mine advertises it!) but I don't recall hearing of anyone actually getting there absent something crazy like the LN2 folks.

Also it may matter that I don't have 2x8. I have 2x16. I know that complicates things.
 
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TemjinGold

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Dec 16, 2006
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Thanks, it's painful but not being able to clock up my ram has sort of bugged me all along so hoping I can fix both in one go. I'm still interested in knowing if there's a board someone on this forum has actually successfully gotten 3200 ram to work though. If there isn't that's fine too. But at this point, I'm willing to pay more if it scratches that itch.
 
daveybrat

daveybrat

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dlerious

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TemjinGold

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Out of curiosity, I could also go the other way and just buy a new sound card. My brother has an Essence STX II but I can't use them since it doesn't have the 3.5mm outs I need for my Z5500 (unless someone here knows how I can get around that). I don't know that I really want another creative card with this one dying so fast (and quite honestly was kinda bleh) but then I see they are released a Sound BlasterX AE-5, which seems to have better specs. Any others folks could recommend? Should I post this question elsewhere?
 
UsandThem

UsandThem

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May 4, 2000
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I faced this same delima when I built my current Skylake system with Windows 10. My Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium barely worked because of drivers. Every time I put my computer to sleep, I had to go into device manager and disable it, and then re-enable it to get it working again.....most of time.

So I started using onboard which is comparable in quality (isolated, amp, etc.). However, there has never been any driver issues for me with Realtek.

After about a year later, I thought about getting a new sound card. I read some reviews, looked at the driver support on the manufacturer's websites, and then looked at the complaints. In the end, it looked like the few remaining card manufacturers don't support the cards well. For example, on many of the Asus cards there are one or two drivers for Windows 10. Many people seem to instead use Uni drivers, but I decided to pass on their cards.

Then you have Creative. They seem to have more recent drivers on their Z line, but the prices of their cards are higher right now (the base Z card was $55 or so on Amazon, now it's $95). If I were going to buy a card this second, I would probably go with the Sound Blaster Z (Or maybe the ZXR if caught on sale around $150 - $175).

Lastly, you have HT Omega. Their current card's specs are at, or even sometimes below high-end onboard sound (ALC1150 and ALC1220).

Just my .02
 
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TemjinGold

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Dec 16, 2006
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Thanks, all great info. SBZ is what I have right now. It's decent but not all that great, so if I buy something to replace it, I'm hoping for something better. Does it compare well to ALC1220? Also, any thoughts on the upcoming Sound BlasterX AE-5? I hate that they only have an LED version, which makes me think the card is overpriced.
 
UsandThem

UsandThem

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TemjinGold said:
Thanks, all great info. SBZ is what I have right now. It's decent but not all that great, so if I buy something to replace it, I'm hoping for something better. Does it compare well to ALC1220? Also, any thoughts on the upcoming Sound BlasterX AE-5? I hate that they only have an LED version, which makes me think the card is overpriced.
Click to expand...

I haven't read about that new card, but a few things to keep in mind:

- Just because they use the ALC1220 codec, it won't make the Sound quality better. They also have to shield the chipset, isolate the audio signal, use high quality capacitors, and other chipsets (like Texas Instrutments amp).

You will have to read a review of a particular motherboard where they analyze and review the audio (Many reviews will simply say what codec comes on the board). Some examples of the ALC1150:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...mus-viii-hero-z170-motherboard-review-14.html

https://www.eteknix.com/asus-z170-maximus-viii-hero-lga-1151-motherboard-review/10/
 
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TemjinGold

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Dec 16, 2006
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Yeah me neither. I hate paying more for something so it can have pointless bling. But if it's otherwise a good card, I might consider it.
 
UsandThem

UsandThem

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May 4, 2000
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TemjinGold said:
Yeah me neither. I hate paying more for something so it can have pointless bling. But if it's otherwise a good card, I might consider it.
Click to expand...

Spec wise, it looks really solid (if not overkill though). It's launching at $150, but honestly if I catch a good sale on the SB ZXR in the same range, I'd get it. It has replaceable op amps, and has pretty impressive specs. I read you can not plug a Molex power connector into the AE-5 and it disables the RGB lights. If I catch it on sale, I could even pull the trigger on that as well.

//EDIT//

Amazon currently has the Asus Essence STX II on sale for $199, plus a $30 MIR. According to Camel 3x, this is the lowest price ever there.

It is a nicely built card with great specs. The downside that turned me away from considering it was Asus' driver support. The only driver released for Windows 10 was dated 9-9-2015, which is pretty bad for their top-of-the-line card.

Anyways, I figured I'd share it for anyone who is ok with the driver situation:

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Sound-E...qid=1498708159&sr=8-1&keywords=Essence+STX+II
 
Last edited:
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TemjinGold

Diamond Member
Dec 16, 2006
3,050
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UsandThem said:
Spec wise, it looks really solid (if not overkill though). It's launching at $150, but honestly if I catch a good sale on the SB ZXR in the same range, I'd get it. It has replaceable op amps, and has pretty impressive specs. I read you can not plug a Molex power connector into the AE-5 and it disables the RGB lights. If I catch it on sale, I could even pull the trigger on that as well.

//EDIT//

Amazon currently has the Asus Essence STX II on sale for $199, plus a $30 MIR. According to Camel 3x, this is the lowest price ever there.

It is a nicely built card with great specs. The downside that turned me away from considering it was Asus' driver support. The only driver released for Windows 10 was dated 9-9-2015, which is pretty bad for their top-of-the-line card.

Anyways, I figured I'd share it for anyone who is ok with the driver situation:

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Sound-E...qid=1498708159&sr=8-1&keywords=Essence+STX+II
Click to expand...


Thanks. Would love the Essence STX II (my brother has that with his Paradigm Signature bookshelves) but that card can't take the 3x 3.5mm from my Z5500s. I ended up getting the Strix RAID DLX since it's around the same price range and I don't need to wait a month for the AE-5 to launch.
 
Arvindkumarlekhala

Arvindkumarlekhala

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