Sound Card for new build - Yes or No?

[Caveman]

Targeting an Ivy Bridge buy in about 5-6 months...

Primary use for the PC will be heavy duty flight simulation and some HTPC activities.

Sound quality is VERY important to me. And... So is offloading the CPU as much as possible

I've always used a soundcard for my main rigs but over the passed 5 years since I built my last one, there seems to be a shift away from using soundcards...

So...

Is it still worthwhile to puchase a soundcard or just use onboard sound? What do people think, and why?

Five years ago, Creative made some good sound solutions. These days that doesn't seem to be the case. Who DOES make a good sound card then?

 

[lehtv]

Absolutely buy a sound card if

Sound quality is VERY important to me.

Onboard sound is still inferior to dedicated. And a sound card can give you useful stuff like equalizer profiles, post-processing, virtual 5.1 dolby etc. The Asus Xonar range is very good

 

[General Kenobi]

Buy a sound card, integrated audio isn't up to par with anything lossless. I've got a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer (7.1 ch w/ X-Fi Mode Changer), and it's still going strong. The Creative X-Fi Titanium series has both budget and high-end models - you might want to read some reviews about Titanium HD.

I can't comment on the Asus Xonar series, because I'm not familiar with their products. Same goes for Auzentech.

 

[stahlhart]

Five years ago, Creative made some good sound solutions. These days that doesn't seem to be the case.

That hasn't been my experience at all -- I've been extremely happy with the X-Fi Titanium HD.

Still miss Aureal, though. 🙁

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Five years ago, Creative made some good sound solutions. These days that doesn't seem to be the case.

Whaaa? That's not the case? Who misled you???
Just do a search right here, on AT, on Creative and Xonar, and you'll see plenty of advocates for both solutions. Personally, I couldn't imagine my HTPC (brand new i2500K build) running without my trusty X-Fi Platinum.

 

[piasabird]

Helps to install the motherboard chipset drivers if you are using integrated HD Audio. Also helps to have some decent speakers. I never play sound that loud on my PC so I dont bother with a soundcard. I spend a lot of time outputting HDMI to my TV so I just turn up the TV. Always sounds better on the TV.

 

[Slugbait]

I have an ES receiver pushing DefTech BPs, a Klipsch KV-2, Klipsch SW12 II, and Boston CR-6. Sound quality is pretty important to me, too.

My HTPC's Bad Axe II mobo has SigmaTel. Offhand, I can't remember if the cable is COAX or Toslink...but audio sounds great. My X-Fi is sitting in a drawer somewhere.

 

[JeffMD]

X-fi is still a fine audio card series, and you don't need to go with the fancier setups. Not only do you get a big boost from onboard audio in quality, but onboard sound has no acceleration. X-fi and similar high end audio solutions have a dsp to render 3d sound channels.

 

[MrCrispy]

For digital audio sources (DD 5.1, DTS), using SPDIF means pass-trhu, so a sound card gets bypassed and is of no help.

 

[Slugbait]

For digital audio sources (DD 5.1, DTS), using SPDIF means pass-trhu, so a sound card gets bypassed and is of no help.

Exactly. I suppose I failed in describing that my sound quality comes from my gear, not my computer.

Also OP, if you're going 7.1 or greater, I believe you need to go with HDMI instead of SPDIF. But either way, there's no need for a dedicated sound card.

Unless you plan on going analog...in which case, yeah, you might want a decent sound card.

 

[mfenn]

I have an ES receiver pushing DefTech BPs, a Klipsch KV-2, Klipsch SW12 II, and Boston CR-6. Sound quality is pretty important to me, too.

My HTPC's Bad Axe II mobo has SigmaTel. Offhand, I can't remember if the cable is COAX or Toslink...but audio sounds great. My X-Fi is sitting in a drawer somewhere.

This. OP, if you really care about sound quality, you won't go anywhere near an analog output from your PC.

 

[MrCrispy]

I'm not sure how the quality compares to a dedicated card, but you can set ffdshow to covert analog to digital out. I've done this and the results were quite good.