The Wondrous World of Soundcards!
September 28, 2007 11:10 pm Media, Impressions, TechnologyFor my brand new gaming system I decided against purchasing a sound card, instead opting to try out Realtek’s onboard ‘HD Audio’ solution. This was a fairly decent experience, offering sound quality mostly on-par with my former Audigy 2 sound card… until recently that is. As of late I had been experiencing a lot of crackling sound, particularly in games like Settlers VI and World in Conflict. So, in a desperate attempt to get rid of the annoying pops and creaks - I went on a leap and bought a fairly inexpensive - 69 euro - Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer card, which arrived today.
Heading into this expecting merely to solve my crackling problem and otherwise offer up largely similar audio, even though reviews indicated otherwise… I was very ill-prepared indeed for what this upgrade would truly mean to my PC. Installing was easy enough - a monkey could do it… no really! - and after altering some driver and application settings everything was working properly. Then I fired up my first video and was welcomed by an explosion of aural goodness: this went way beyond fixing some pops and creaks, or slightly improving my sound experience. It’s completely revolutionized my PC gaming/media experience and instantly became the most impressive feature on my brand new rig (including a Geforce 8800 GTX video card).
Read on for an epic tale of genuine aural bliss!
Ok… so epic tale might be overstating things, but aural bliss certainly isn’t! Imagine cinema-quality surround sound audio in the comfort of your home, and you’ve got my sound experience with this new sound card and my cheap 6.1 surround system (and quite expensive 8-channel surround headset).
The crackles and pops I experienced in the Settlers VI demo - amongst others - are completely gone. My sound is now completely pop-free, crystal clear and just plain awesome! It’s truly like having your own little private cinema and something that’s certain to amaze your friends when they’re over… and get them to buy some decent sound cards too!If you’re still kidding yourself holding onto the belief that onboard audio is ‘good enough’ like I did… forget about it: you are missing out! The latest line of X-Fi cards from Creative are truly something else and you’ll be wishing you got it right away when you purchased your pc, like I am. Aside from being a great addition to your PC merely for turning your PC into a home-cinema set… it’s also a great tool to improve your gaming experience - and performance.
Joining a couple of Unreal Tournament 2004 servers with full hardware-accelerated 3D sound support resulted in an incredible gaming experience. Not only did the in-game sounds improve, making the game a lot more immersive, but it also helped my play. Being able to hear exactly where your enemy is coming from is an edge you’ll need as a competitive player - and a new sound card will help you do just that. It really may not seem like that big of a deal, but you can bet your ass that many of the top players have sound cards like these - and can follow your movements around maps without ever actually seeing you!
Of course some amongst you might not be quite convinced of the necessity of this kind of purchase. After all, an onboard sound system provides surround audio just as well - and doesn’t even necessarily crackle and pop like mine did. Why even bother spending money on something you’ve never known you’ve missed?
The answer is simple: eventually you’ll run into this kind of sound setup - and when you do… you will bash your head in for not spending a little bit of money on a sound card like this earlier. That’s not to say you have to get a Creative sound card, there are other brands and other models, but at least look into it and consider spending some money to improve the aural aspect of your gaming/media experience - you won’t regret it.
But don’t take my word for it… here are some reviews:
Note: I decided on the gamer instead of the music model, because I don’t require any of the special external additions and I’ve already got too much of a mess of audio-wires going on down there, in between one 6.1 surround system and another 8-channel headset and all the splitters and connectors associated with those two…
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September 30th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Another good article Droniac, thanks. I had been thinking about getting a soundcard and some nice headphones for a while, good to know that it actually makes a difference.
Do you have any tips regarding headsets?
September 30th, 2007 at 12:59 am
If you’re looking for a less expensive/stereo solution - then a Sennheiser PC150/160 headset should do just fine. Those are the most popular headsets I know - and they certainly deliver good sound. That being said - I didn’t like wearing the PC160 (or any other Sennheiser PC headset) for lengthy sessions: they make my ears hurt, because they rest on top of my ears, not over them.
Sennheiser’s HD line of headphones is another option. They’re mostly inexpensive, stereo, headsets that do rest over your ears. Unfortunately I’ve yet to see a HD model come with a microphone.
A much more expensive option would be to get a surround simulating headset, like the Razer Barracuda (which is what I’m using now). Some of the newer, and more expensive, HD models try to simulate surround sound as well. I’ve never used any of them however, so I don’t know whether they sound any good… there’s also the Speedlink brand, but you’d best avoid those at all cost.
In the end it comes down to how much you’re willing to spend. I’m satisfied spending 120 euro (yes, nearly twice as much as my sound card) for this headset, you might not be. Most gamers I know still use less expensive stereo sets like the Sennheiser PC 160 - and that works just fine.
October 6th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Hmmmm. I’m in the same boat. Though I’ll probably upgrade one first and then the other. Not wanting to spend $200 on a Headset though. Too much for me
I’ll take a look at some $100 options.