Sound Cards!? Creative Or Asus !? Differences!? #Opinions

[Jaymee-Nausica]

Hey Alll ! :walkman:

Im purchasing my new i5-3570 Desktop PC very soon, and its uses will be Music Production (Using multiple VST instruments at once and using Software programs to produce), along with Gaming aswell from time to time.

I will be using a Logitech 2.1 Speaker system. (2 Speakers & 1 Sub Woofer)

Lets cut to the chase! Which Sound Card is Better? Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Audio OR Asus Xonar DG & DGX

#Opinions ? #Differences? #If You Own/Use either of these please leave valuable feedback! :smartass:

Much appreciated :1eye:

 

[Corfate]

I can't compare them for you, as i haven't owned the Creative Soundblaster, but i do have a Asus Xonar DGX. It is so much better than using the onboard audio if you ask me. You do have to get some good headphones to make it worthwhile, or you won't hear the quality difference. I can fully recommend the DGX

 

[Jaymee-Nausica]

Hey, thanks for that feedback, I am generally hearing similar opinions as yours from online Forums that the Asus Sonar DG/X is better than Creative's Soundblaster X-Fi. Not sure why this is so, but a re-occurring thing I keep reading in forums is Driver issues with Creatives X-Fi Sound Card, yet I haven't heard any faults or problems with Asus DG/X. Yeh I hear its good for Headphones when gaming to get that surround feeling, but i'll mainly be using my speakers I think much more, so will it still be an improvement to on-board audio on my 2.1 speaker system...? Hmm, regardless, the negative stuff about Creative X-Fi drivers issue just sounded annoying to me, I don't want no glitches or buzzing or crashes. #Mite just go for the Asus DGX then!

 

[Corfate]

Hey, thanks for that feedback, I am generally hearing similar opinions as yours from online Forums that the Asus Sonar DG/X is better than Creative's Soundblaster X-Fi. Not sure why this is so, but a re-occurring thing I keep reading in forums is Driver issues with Creatives X-Fi Sound Card, yet I haven't heard any faults or problems with Asus DG/X. Yeh I hear its good for Headphones when gaming to get that surround feeling, but i'll mainly be using my speakers I think much more, so will it still be an improvement to on-board audio on my 2.1 speaker system...? Hmm, regardless, the negative stuff about Creative X-Fi drivers issue just sounded annoying to me, I don't want no glitches or buzzing or crashes. #Mite just go for the Asus DGX then!

I've had no problems with drivers or anything really (apart from i skipped over a small microphone option & thought the card was broke, but Jack from PCS sorted me out).

Honestly, for 2 speakers and a Sub, i doubt you'll hear that much of a difference.. I can only really hear the difference when i have my 5.1's on

EDIT: thankyou for the rep

 

[vanthus]

I have the Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium,and to be honest,although it does the job,I do have problems with it now and again.

 

[Jaymee-Nausica]

I was curious and wondering that say for example, I bought a new 5.1 Speaker System, (update from my 2.1) for while im doing Music Production or even just Gaming, will the Asus Xonar DG or DGX support that Speaker System Setup...? & will I noticeably hear a difference in quality with a Sound Card like that instead of just using default on-board audio on the Ivy i5-3570 CPU....???? #Im now thinking, is a Sound Card Even needed. lol Which sounds silly given the intended use of this build.

 

[vanthus]

For recording/music production,onboard just isn't good enough.

 

[tom_gr7]

what sound system did you buy? Is it digital? ie Dolby digital 5.1 compatible? IF so i'd go for the ASUS dx then you get DD in games and stuff its ace.

if your sound system is analogue, I'd go for the ASUS DXG, but make sure you get a PCI-E card, (in short the pci-e card would be placed above the gpu, so it wouldn't impede airflow to the card)

I have th ASUS DX and its flippin fantastic and I honestly cant fault it. i did have a creative titanium but it was awful, no driver support, and creative discontinued support for it a while back.

If you need more info on soundcards, speakers, sound card settings, etc etc feel free to pop me a pm,

 

[Jaymee-Nausica]

It will be strictly Music Production on the PC, no recording with Mics or Live Instruments etc. I mean, myself and a few of my friends have always used 2.1 and 5.1 Speaker Systems with just default on-board audio for ages and we've never had any problems at all. As long as we had a lot of RAM everything was cool. But regardless, I am going to definitely have a Sound Card in this build #PS. When a Sound Card is installed does it work simultaneously with On-Board Audio... or just use 1 or the other...?

 

[vanthus]

It will be strictly Music Production on the PC, no recording with Mics or Live Instruments etc. I mean, myself and a few of my friends have always used 2.1 and 5.1 Speaker Systems with just default on-board audio for ages and we've never had any problems at all. As long as we had a lot of RAM everything was cool. But regardless, I am going to definitely have a Sound Card in this build #PS. When a Sound Card is installed does it work simultaneously with On-Board Audio... or just use 1 or the other...?

One or the other at a time.

 

[tom_gr7]

you just use the soundcard, when you setup it up, we can talk you through disabling the onboard audio, as you wont be using it at all.

I'd have a look and see what you can get from ASUS for music, as the dxg, dx, dg are mainly for gaming as are the newer creative cards. -

http://www.asus.com/Multimedia/#Audio_Cards

they do a few different models, have a look, im not sure what would be good for music.

 

[vanthus]

You don't need to disable onboard,you can just set the one you want as default in the sound panel,I don't have my onboard disabled,but it's easy to do in device manager.

 

[Jaymee-Nausica]

@Tom, thanks, i'll have a look on the Asus site and see what they have. @vanthus, yeh that does sound right to me, maybe Tom meant that too #If I really cant end up picking 1 elsewhere, I will end up just choosing the Asus Xonar DGX so its less hassle and just comes with my build lol And then maybe i'll consider looking to purchase an expensive Sound Card in the future for my build.