What sound card and Speakers?

Hi

The time has finaly come where I have decided to upgrade something other than my case. I think its time to stop relying on on-board sound and generic £12 speakers :p.

As I've never realyl looked into it at all I ahve no idea how much i should spend and what on. I play a lot of DVDS via my PC and play the odd game, so surround sound would be a vital point. Anyone give any advice on what to buy and how much to spend? I dont want to spend too much (Around the £100 mark) Can i get a decent setup for this? and if not, how much is it gonna cost?

Any Help Apreciated
Falcon

Well, for good surround sound I got a Creative Audigy 2 ZS (this is a good card for gaming and wathcing DVD's) it costs around £80 alone and simply plugs into a PCI slot. It's 7.1 and provides you with all the hardware sound acceleration you could eat. You get THX, Dolby Digital EX and 24 bit Advanced HD. Pretty much you could have your machine churning out cinema like sounds. As the Audigy 2 ZS supports 7.1 you can have all the surround sound and everything and if you fit some 6.1 or 7.1 speakers to it, you'll have a quality setup. Now on overclock.co.uk you can get the Creative 6.1 6700 speakers, in OEM form (this just means it comes in a brown box, with no software or anything, but you'd get the software with the ZS) and they only cost £60. I have both the ZS and the Creative 6.1's and they are both brilliant. The 6.1's have a very good bass output and you even get a remote control for the speakers, although it is wired, it's still very helpful. All that would cost you about £140 from overclock.co.uk and then you'd have a very nice setup indeed.
Hope that helps

Or you could spend more and get some good speakers, like the Logitech Z680s :)


Edit: Then again, the Z680s are £220, Lol, so maybe that's a bit too expensive:o

I have the Z-560's 4.1 400W version using Nvidia SoundStorm and it kicks ass btw

*wonders if anyone noticed he wants it down for around £100*

OR you could hook up your soundcard to your hi-fi (like i have) coz i have a 5 speaker hi-fi, and its sounds MUCH better than my PC speakers. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clstrphbc_donut

OR you could hook up your soundcard to your hi-fi (like i have) coz i have a 5 speaker hi-fi, and its sounds MUCH better than my PC speakers. :)

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exactly! thats why i bought a motherboard with optical in and out. Clstrphbc_donut has a good point, if you have a hifi nearby it's always an option. You could always pay out upto £100 on a good sound card and hook it upto your stereo for the time being and save up for a dedicated set of speakers later.

i actually asked if that would work.....thanks to the helpful chaps on hexus i am now blasting out my tunes that sound a lot better! :)

lol, I spend all mah money on the PC and alcohol, no sterio. lol :(

i got some Logitech X620 6.1 speakers myself, very nice indeed:)
im wondering if to get bog standard audigy 2, or get a zs?? Whatever the difference is im unsure, i have however spotted an Audigy 1 Platinum for £129 in town, only a mere £30 more than the bog standard audigy 2 i bought before with its dodgy mic input
:mad:

Ok, im gonna abandon my attempt to get what i want for £100 and spend a little more time saving, see what i can get together. It seems that I can get a decent system for around £150...

*Starts counting his pennies*

I can highly recommend the Logitech Z-640s as a 5.1 set of speakers for around £55, iirc.

Sound card...um, I've got a gainward hollywood thing, which is cheap as chips and does the job - not an audiophile tbh, but if you've pushed your budget then you could get a sweety of a sound card for £85ish..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MurphmanL

i got some Logitech X620 6.1 speakers myself, very nice indeed:)
im wondering if to get bog standard audigy 2, or get a zs?? Whatever the difference is im unsure, i have however spotted an Audigy 1 Platinum for £129 in town, only a mere £30 more than the bog standard audigy 2 i bought before with its dodgy mic input
:mad:

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In town? You shop locally? An audigy 1 platinum for £129?!?!!?

The Creative Sound Blaster Audigy ZS Platinum Pro 7.1 costs £140!

Is the audigy 1 any good, and is there much difference between 1 and 2? I had the audigy 2 standard, and it sounded lovely but had a broken mic in and line in ports :(

i bought a terratec aureon fun sound card for 30 pounds and its been really good, has optical in and out, and has support for almost every type of codec. Only problem is that its 5.1 and has no 24 bit. Still go value for money though if you dont need absolute top of the range stuff.