05-16-2013, 11:55 PM
(05-16-2013, 08:34 PM)Variable link Wrote: Thanks doveman! I think I'll go with the Razer Carcharias Gaming Headset you recommended on!
What sound card would you recommend to make the most of it and still not overshoot my needs (which are only gaming)?
Cool. Looks like a good headset and I might have bought one myself rather than the SR850 if I'd seen it, if only to avoid the hassle of having to hook up a separate mic
For the soundcard, the Xonar DG may well be sufficient for your needs at $30 but it's a PCI card so make sure that's what you want http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-XONAR-Headpho...s+xonar+dx
http://uk.asus.com/Multimedia/Audio_Card.../#overview
If you need a PCI-E card the Xonar DGX is $40 http://www.amazon.com/Xonar-DGX-PCI-E-GX...+xonar+dgx
http://uk.asus.com/Multimedia/Audio_Cards/Xonar_DGX/
Those should be sufficient if you're just gaming with headphones or PC speakers.
If you want something that will really shine with an AV receiver and high quality speakers there's the more expensive Asus Xonar DX for $85 http://www.amazon.com/PCI-Express-Channe...s+xonar+dx
http://uk.asus.com/Multimedia/Audio_Card...ifications
The DX uses higher quality capacitors, which will better withstand heat and thus could make the card last longer but if your PC case is properly cooled it probably isn't worth worrying about and you have to consider you could buy three DG's for the price of one DX.
One advantage the Xonar cards have over the Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro (and other Creative cards) is that they have a Front Panel header, so providing you have headphone and mic sockets on the front of your PC case, you can connect the cable from them to the soundcard and voila, you have front sockets without needing to spend more on a connector box. They also use better components and thus have higher quality audio.
It seems that just like Creative, ASUS drivers have some bugs as well so if you do get one, you might want to use the open-source Unified drivers instead of the official ones http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/