Vista - Sound Card Choices...??

I was hoping for some opinions on a sound card for my system. I've recently finished a new build, and I got a set of Bose Companion 3's for my setup. and I must say, they are by FAR the best PC speakers I've ever owned Hands Down.. MUCH better than the Logitech 5.1 I had. But thats why Bose is the best..

I have the eVGA 750i Mobo and it's supposed to have a pretty Decent onboard sound card.. but then again, it's onboard so how good can it really be.?? I've asked in a few other places what I should get and I was hoping for some ideas. I don't need anything amazing. I for sure don't need the best like a "Auzen X-FI Prelude 7.1" I kno they rock but I'm not about to spend $200 on a sound card. Those are for the Music Enthusiasts. I personally think that it sounds pretty amazing right now. so some might say why even get a card if "I" think they sound great. some others might not, but i think they do. but I hear it's best to upgrade for the quality will be much better. and this EAX thing with gaming and what not. I was told that makes gaming sound.
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This Much better. (Alot)

So if anyone would please let me kno what you think.. or suggest a decent that will do the job well, with a good price to performance ratio. Please do..

thanks!

BGears BEnspirer, you won't brake the bank getting this card, and it uses the CMEDIA 8788HD chip. You can get it from Newegg, ASUS Xonar DX, HT Omega Striker, Auzentech X-Plosion, or Auzentech XPCINE card.

The HT Omega Striker, and the two Auzentech cards I mention use the CMEDIA 8770 chipset.

Your on board is actually a pretty good chipset. Idealy for the best sound quality you'd want to go digital out (spdif), but I dont believe the Bose 3 supports that (just analog).

You can the get data sheet for your on board audio card here: ftp://66.104.77.130/pc/audio/ALC888S_DataSheet_1.2.pdf

Take a look at the Hardware Features page, then when you get some suggestions (I don't have any, I'm more than happy with my on boards quality) you can do a comparison and that might help with your descion.

ya the bose 3 is only analog..

and wild eagle.. as those are good sugestions.. I don't need 7.1 surround..
but mostly all sound cards support that right.. they don't have anything good that is not for 7.1 surround.. cuz I don't ever see myself getting 7.1 I don't even want 5.1 cuz thats for my living room.. 2 speakers and a sub is ALL i need for my PC.. and the Bose handle it pretty damn good..

ya Shao, I've heard that they are pretty good. some people have crackling noises with there onboard 750i. but mine seems perfect.. so I was just checkin what everyone thought.. do you have the 750i???

All the soundcards I mentioned can do 2.1.

No I don't have the 750i. I have an Asus M2A-VM HDMI, it uses a Realtek ALC883 audio chipset, yours uses an ALC888S, very similar chips. I run spdif out from mine, but previously ran 5.1 analog out to my home theatre set up and have no complaints about the sound. My only previous complaint about the Realtek was the lack of a proper equalizer in the control panel, but now that I'm using spdif it doesnt matter because the sound card just passes the digital signal without any post processing to my audio receiver.

So how much better would a sound card be, would I benifit enough to justify it.. ? or does that depend on the user and how much he can hear in the sounds and what not.

basically do i need a soundcard, or does the onboard do good enough for the average music listener, and gamer. cuz I'm not an extremist in either of those, just a daily user wanting to make sure I'm gettin some good sound...

Thanks again!

Number 1: A Soundcard doesn't use CPU cycles like onboard sound does, most of the time.
Number 2: A soundcard will have decent amplifier chips on it, where as onboard has no amplifier chips.
Number 3: Pretty much all the time a soundcard will have better quality sound over onboard, though onboard has improved massively since Intel came out with the High Definition Audio spec. Onboard still a ways to go on improving sound quality, though as I said, things got better when the HD Audio spec was released by Intel(Azalia).

I've compared onboard such as a Realtek ALC888 codec, and the IDT 9274 codec on my 975 board to my HT Omega Claro, and I can tell you my soundcard produces more clearer sound, and doesn't use a bunch of cpu cycles like the onboard does, and has decent amplifiers on it to amplify the sound, so it can be heard.

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thats very informative.. thanks for the info.. Although I'm not to worried, not at all actually about CPU cycles.. as I have enough to spare with the Quad Core.. But I do want better sound. I do have the HD Realtek codec.. I believe it's the ALC888(S) version.

Not sure what I'll do for now. but thank you anyways for the info. Maybe I'll look into some prices. I just don't wanna spend to much on sound card, (Saving for new Nvidia GTX280) lol jk but it would be nice.

mainly it sounds pretty amazing as it is, so I don't wanna spend to much, but if I'll get better results then I'll give it a try.. thats why I'm tryin to get info on it all.... make sense..

thanks again.