Noob by name, noob by nature, do you even know what HD Audio is?, I have read various schematics on it, all freely available on the Realtekpage, do you know about beam forming, 2 way Audio, DDL, every wired a front panel header, do you ever know that it's wires differently from AC-97, I uhave listened to variosu HD-Audio Codecs, from Realtek, Sigmatel, Adi/Soundmax eg.. ALC-888, 662, 662D, do you know what the D stands for?, if not then best putting some tape over your mouth... while they provide basic audio which most users are happy with, they are still pretty basic when compared to soundblasters/M-audio cards, bad for gaming, no hardware acceleration, poor DAC's. for stereo their fine but for multichannel audio you really want to invest in a soundblaster, try listening to a MLP/TrueHD soundtrack and you wouldn't go back to on board audio..
As for the OP, I switched from an Audigy 2 ZS to X-Fi, didn't notice much difference, the crystalizer is pants, only thing you gain which is an advantage is the CMMS Stereo Surround mode in vista, which last time I checked was not available on the ZS, only in XP...
Stick with the ZS...
Also get a Scythe Ninja Heatsink, don't be a cheapo, will be better at cooling that quad core.. I have the Asus P5KC board soI know it fits... only 1 hard drive?...
Have a look at my build here...
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