Asus Xonar ST or STX

Asus Xonar ST/X

Apart from the X, what's the damn difference? Is it just that one's PCIE and the others PCI? Will there be any difference in quality between the two? I assume they're the same model just ones PCI and ones PCIE.. Just wanted to see if anyone here had some experience with either though perhaps to see if there's any difference.

I want a soundcard through and through and have basically had my eyes set on these for a while.. I just prefer these over Creative soundcards.. Dunno why . Any other recommendations? (perhaps from that site I linked, it'd be where I'd be buying it from. Price isn't too huge an issue..)

Thanks.

The ST has a higher SNR ratio.
Why? EXACTLY!
But it does. And that's good. ASUS really did a good job on this sound card though. It's really good.
Definitely one of, if not the best use of the 8788 chip on a soundcard that I know of.

As far as the card, ya the PCB has the same layout. I wonder if the SNR is related to PCIE having more 'noise' on it for some reason.. No idea.
You could probably email ASUS if you were curious enough and wait 90 days or so for a response. Card is a worthwhile purchase if sound quality matters to you. Either one. I have the noisier version.

Haha. Sounds interesting! But would you really notice either way? My current case has my front audio port grounded by default so I don't hear any noise as is.

My only issue is that putting a PCI card right in front of my tri-slot GPU cooler would affect the GPU cooling performance.. Hmm. Especially in my case lol. I'm getting the 650D next month, but doesn't change the fact that my board is mATX... I'm considering (when I get the 650D) to get a new mobo. Gigabyte Sniper comes to mind.. Perhaps XD.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17060

Searching whilst replying, wtf is this! Lol. A new 1366 board again? geez! I personally love Asus though so maybe I'll stick with them.. Hmm. .

Does a sound card need room to breath? (Cos currently it wouldn't be able to). I.e. can it ever overheat :\

If both cards use the same basic circuitry, there isn't going to be an appreciable difference in sound quality. That "SNR" figure probably isn't true SNR, anyway - it's likely pulled off the DAC's spec sheet or something. I wouldn't worry about it. Just get whichever one is more convenient.

Mjolnir said:

Haha. Sounds interesting! But would you really notice either way? My current case has my front audio port grounded by default so I don't hear any noise as is.
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No, you're hearing noise. Trust me. You'll hear noise with pretty much anything that wasn't a year's salary. Whether you can detect it or not is another story but there's noise there. Mobo audio is usually about 5% noise.