Xonar DG Vs Onboard Sound

[Cichlidash]

Hi I am after a bit of reassurance more than anything but I am thinking of buying the Xonar DG today (want to make an order upto £20 for free shipping from Scan) but I am unsure of how much of a difference the sound card makes against modern onboard sound that my Motherboard has. The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P and uses Realtek ALC888 codec.
I want it mainly for playing games and use Finality head set. Just wanted peoples opinions and too make sure I am not just wasting £20

[GoNz0]

probably a waste of money, onboard vs cheap is just about the same.

if you are going to buy an addon soundcard buy a good one

[MSIC]

I can't speak from personal experience, however google'd the following:
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-...-717199/review

The Xonar DG an appreciable upgrade from on-board sound for less than ￡30, and the dedicated headphone amp drives a lot of extra power into your cans without destroying fidelity. It's a simple and cheap way to make games a little more enjoyable

Bit-tech comes to a similar conclusion.
I've also just checked that your motherboard has the required PCI slot.
I personally use a Creative XFi USB device to process my sound output, instead of onboard sound.

[Uriel]

It's a difficult one to call. I'm a big fan of soundcards but your onboard is pretty capable features wise. It has Dolby Hometheatre, which includes Dolby Headphone so it immediately matches one of the Xonar DG's main selling points.

At a guess, I'd say that the Xonar will be an improvement in terms of pure sound quality but you might not notice this unless you have some pretty good hi-fi speakers.

For headphone use, the DG would be more of an improvement as it has a dedicated headphone amp built in.

It will also offer improved EAX game compatibility over the onboard Realtek chip but Asus' drivers aren't quite as foolproof as I would like them to be in this regard. You have to turn on a setting called DS3D-GX to get this to work but it can cause issues - I've even heard reports of BSODs.

DS3D-GX also offers restored sound hardware support for older (pre-vista games are often restricted to stereo without it) games but again, your onboard matches it in this regard, as long as you install and use Realtek's 3dSoundBack software.

[this_is_gav]

To be honest, unless you've already got some excellent headphones or speakers, you'll notice little to no difference at all.

If you're after a pure improvement in quality, you'd be better saving up a bit more and buying some decent speakers. A good soundcard with poor speakers will still be poor.

[Cichlidash]

Thanks guys I went for more fans too make up the difference in price. Taking into account that their would be a chance of little too no difference of noticable difference on the current headset I am using I decided that keeping the onboard sound for now would be enough. As was mentioned the onboard sound is pretty well featured in its own right and if I decided too upgrade the headset then I would be wanting a more expensive soundcard too justify getting a more better headset and prices start too rocket a bit too much for me just for wanting to get into the free postage range. So now its another 200mm and two 120mm fans instead just hope that the Hyper 212 will fit my case and leave enough room for the 200mm fan I certainly hope so

[Uriel]

Sorry this will be too late. I just tried out Dolby Headphone on my gigabyte motherboard that has Dolby Home Theatre and an ALC892 codec. It was dull and lifeless compared to DH on the Xonar D2 I had. Reviewers have said that the DG isn't that inferior sounding to the D2 so it should be quite an upgrade to onboard.

[this_is_gav]

But what headphones have you got?

I maintain with cheap headphones or speakers, you'd be better investing in replacements before you replaced the onboard sound.

[Uriel]

He said which headphones he was using in the first post.

I have a collection. Senn Hd600, Beyerdynamic DT770, Goldring DR150 and NS1000s. Many others have been and gone. Happy to advise on headphone upgrades.

[Pob255]

A bit late but here's a few nice small items for bulk up a scan order.

Silverstone 120mm fan filter £1.69 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silve...and-filter-kit
Akasa 120mm fan grill £2.36 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm...rome-fan-guard (very handy if you poke around inside a pc while it's on to save your fingers from getting cut up by fans)
Sharkoon anti-vibration Kit £8.99 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/shark...pc-components)

[this_is_gav]

He said which headphones he was using in the first post.

I have a collection. Senn Hd600, Beyerdynamic DT770, Goldring DR150 and NS1000s. Many others have been and gone. Happy to advise on headphone upgrades.

I did mean you.

And while I've never used the Fatal1ty head phones, they'll be a fair way behind your selection... of which I'm envious.

[Biscuit]

I can't speak from personal experience, however google'd the following:
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-...-717199/review

Bit-tech comes to a similar conclusion.
I've also just checked that your motherboard has the required PCI slot.
I personally use a Creative XFi USB device to process my sound output, instead of onboard sound.

I have been thinking about a USB soundcard as im planning a mITX/uATX build next time round, which one do you have and how do you rate it?
I tend to avoid creative if possible but there doesnt seem to be much competition against them for gaming/hifi soundcards in the external world.

A bit late but here's a few nice small items for bulk up a scan order.

Silverstone 120mm fan filter £1.69 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silve...and-filter-kit
Akasa 120mm fan grill £2.36 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm...rome-fan-guard (very handy if you poke around inside a pc while it's on to save your fingers from getting cut up by fans)
Sharkoon anti-vibration Kit £8.99 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/shark...pc-components)

I dont know why but that post made me giggle

I sometimes buy some of these if i need to bulk it up
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silve...-nickel-coated

He said which headphones he was using in the first post.

I have a collection. Senn Hd600, Beyerdynamic DT770, Goldring DR150 and NS1000s. Many others have been and gone. Happy to advise on headphone upgrades.

I have some DT 770s and i love them, looking for some which are a bit more open and a little different now though, any suggestions?

[MSIC]

I have been thinking about a USB soundcard as im planning a mITX/uATX build next time round, which one do you have and how do you rate it?

I have this:
Creative Sound Blaster XFi XMod.
I have to say that I quite like it - i originally bought it for hooking up to a laptop which I was going to use at a wedding (wanted better quality audio to pipe in to big floor-standing speakers via an amp), and found that the 'crystaliser' setting did make a difference particularly in the high end for alot of my mp3s.
I just leave it permanently on now.

I dont think that Creative make that model any more, although a brief look around their website suggests that they are keen to promote some sort of wireless version. Not seen any reviews though.

[Georgy291]

oh oh oh, i want to buy one of those to, over my onboard sound (ga-p55a-ud3( but i want to buy it for another reason.

I got a home cinema 5.1 surround, its currently connected to my onboard optical out. And i cant get the full surround sound (full 5.1) unless im using a dolby sound source. I can only get 2.1 over optical with general windows, unless im using vlc media player to watch something that encoded in dolby / dts

tl:dr would i be able to game in 5.1 over optical using that sound card?

ps my home cinema is XV-DV88

[Cichlidash]

Great set of headphones you have their but I could not ever really see myself spending that sort of money on heaphones especially for a £20 sound card

[Biscuit]

oh oh oh, i want to buy one of those to, over my onboard sound (ga-p55a-ud3( but i want to buy it for another reason.

I got a home cinema 5.1 surround, its currently connected to my onboard optical out. And i cant get the full surround sound (full 5.1) unless im using a dolby sound source. I can only get 2.1 over optical with general windows, unless im using vlc media player to watch something that encoded in dolby / dts

tl:dr would i be able to game in 5.1 over optical using that sound card?

ps my home cinema is XV-DV88

I used to have that problem and i fixed it by getting a soundcard which has dolby digital live/DTS Connect.
The card i bought was an Auzentech Xplosion.

I dont know if anything has changed recently but to my knowledge thats how to sort it

Thanks MISC, i have been looking at some of their newer USB things as (along with the affor mentioned reasons) i would quite like to have a separate headphone and speaker outputs. Just creative though *shudders*