SOLVED sound card versus on-board (and a GPU slot question too!)

[squirrels]

Hey all! Regardless of your replies, thank you for your time/thoughts!

I have this motherboard (or at least a close approximation): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

Context of use: I'm an avid gamer and I play with a pair of Sennheiser 555 headphones. Open to considering another pair but happy with them.

My sound card questions:
1. Is it worth getting a dedicated sound card? Or, perhaps a better question, how much would it cost to get a sound card that exceeds on-board sound?
2. Any links to reliable articles that discuss why/when a sound card helps game performance?
3. If you feel a card is worthwhile, any suggestions for a gaming ring sound card?

My random question:
I have a GTX 570 and three PCI express slots to put it in. Does it need to go in the first slot? I ask because the first PCI express slot puts the GPU snug up against the PCI slot. Any sound card I stick there (such as my current four-year-old Creative X-Fi card) would block the fans at least and would be practically rubbing up against the GPU.

I think I can solve this in three ways: (a) move the GPU to the second or third PCI express slot, (b) purchase a sound card that fits PCI express instead of the standard PCI, or (c) just use on-board sound.

Thoughts?

*** EDIT ***
The correct mobo link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131346

For convenience, here's a picture of the layout to clarify my n00b rambling:

 

[Siorus]

That link takes me to a CPU,not a mobo. But, broadly speaking, it shouldn't matter which x16 slot it's in. It can on some boards but in general, it won't.

As far as the sound card question goes, the question that needs answering is what you'd want out of the card.

If you're looking for higher FPS, there are probably better ways to spend the money.

If you want better sound quality, though, you can easily do a lot better than the onboard audio, especially since you're driving a fairly high-ohm load with those Sennheisers.

If you were running your average set of computer speakers (even higher end ones), it might not be worth it, but the Sennheisers are (on paper, at least-I haven't heard them in person) very respectable headphones that are undoubtedly capable of a lot more than what your onboard audio can give them. But then, you also mentioned gaming, not listening to music.

A good sound card would get you noticeable sound quality improvements in both, but you'd probably notice it more in listening to music than with gaming, so...

 

[bloodsside14]

The link you provide is going to prosi not a mobo. How we can check if you need to spend of money to buy a sound card and suggest something you will like.

 

[squirrels]

Ah! Sorry, I inserted the correct link above. That's what I get for posting quick links late at night.

As a follow-up, I'm leaning more towards either on-board or getting a PCI express that will fit in the PCI express x1 slot above the first PCI express x16 slot. That solution should keep a future SLI option open.

 

[Siorus]

So, the question still remains: Are you looking at adding a sound card for performance reasons, or for sound quality reasons? If you're after better sound quality, this is a decent starting point: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271001

I can't quite make out what opamps they're using but they're something from national semiconductor. They're probably the same chips that some of my Auzentech cards came with from the factory that I can't remember the part number for right now, in which case they're decent chips. You can still do better, but you'd be looking at a card with socketed opamps and having to order opamps for it and upgrade them yourself, which is going to cost you at least twice what that card will.

You can also look for an M-Audio Revolution on ebay. They've got JRC5532s, which aren't exactly high end chips, but they're a lot nicer than what's on Creative cards (for instance). Again, you could do better, but it'd still be a massive improvement over the onboard audio and they're not very expensive.

 

[squirrels]

@Siorus:
Both. I would dig a sound card both for performance improvement (if soundcards actually do help with performance still) AND for quality audio.

But I should clarify the sound quality qualities I'm interested in:
- don't do much music
- do lots of gaming and REALLY value directional sound (e.g., for CS:S or BF3) and clear, warm "immersive" sound (e.g., for Skyrim)

 

[Siorus]

Mmm. As far as directional sound is concerned, I think that any modern surround-sound capable card must be capable of doing 3D positional audio. I'm not completely sure, but I think you'd need that capability not just for headphones but to have functional surround sound at all.

I do know that certain chipsets (the Via Envy24, the Creative Audigy and X-Fi, possibly others) have hardware acceleration for 3D positional audio, but I'm not sure how much the actual quality of the effect varies from card-to-card. It's a feature that Creative really likes to harp on iirc, but that doesn't necessarily mean much, and Creative's cards have never prioritized actual sound quality.

As far as the quality of the sound that you're looking for goes, the cliff's notes version is that your best options without dropping a lot of cash are probably either the HT | OMEGA STRIKER, or a used/NOS M-Audio Revolution 5.1 or 7.1 that I mentioned in my last post. Either should offer a noticeable improvement (depending on how good your hearing is, of course-but the difference here is probably big enough that it'll to smack you in the face the instant you fire up a game ) in sound quality over the onboard audio.

And the M-Audio card has the Envy24 chip so it does hardware-accelerated 3d positional audio anyhow. The HT | OMEGA might edge it out in terms of the actual quality of the sound it puts out, but I've only heard the M-Audio, so that's just speculation.

Those are both regular PCI cards, though; there aren't many good pci-e sound cards out and none of them are cheap… This ASUS Xonar card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132010 is the cheapest PCI-E card Newegg carries that I can say for sure has comparable-or-better sound quality to the HT | OMEGA and the M-Audio cards...

So yeah. I'd just move the video card. Both the blue and the white slots are full x16 slots, so you can just put it in the white one with no problem at all.

And note that just finding another card with the same chipset as the M-Audio or HT | Omega card won't get you the same results; it's the supporting hardware on those boards that set them apart.

The detailed answer about why I recommended those specific cards and what impacts how a certain card sounds is, well, long. If you're curious, I'll post up an explanation, but I don't want to put anyone to sleep.

 

[squirrels]

@Siorus:
The suggestions and discussion are much appreciated - thank you!

Whenever I post here, I try to keep reading elsewhere too - so that I'm not just leaving other folks to remedy my confusion. My reading around lead me to a similar set of suggestions as you make: the Xonar and the Omega in particular.

I ended up going with the Xonar, actually the same model you linked to. Too many positive reviews touting the qualities I was looking for: stability, good virtual 3d audio, good gaming support, and apparently sweet head phone support in general.

That said, I'd be very interested in your explanation for your suggestions - or links to more reading, if that's easier for you. I'm always interested in learning more.

Future cards will be purchased and I'd like to understand them better when I get there!