Buying a soundcard/soundcard confusion

[WillSK]

Hi guys. I've decided to buy a soundcard for my gigabyte z68xp-ud3p board.

Firstly I don't have a huge amount of spare cash so would love to know what you would recommend with regards to what card to buy.

Secondly I have a few questions regarding soundcards as i've never used one before...

Do you plug your front panel connectors into it or would i need to plug the headset in the back?

Which slot is best to install it in?

Would it make my regular speakers sound any better?

thanks in advance guys

WillSK

 

[jamesriley94]

The card normally has connectors for you to plug in the front panel headers, so yeah, they should work fine.

Slot wise...depends on the card? Depends what else you have installed?
PCIE can be installed in any PCIE slot, whether 1x, 8x or 16x... it really doesn't make a difference. But obviously if you have a graphics card installed, you wouldn't want to put it somewhere where it may block the fan - but other than that, it doesn't really matter.

3rd questions... depends on the card? depends on the speakers?

More information needed I think

 

[SavageCupcake]

I got an asus dgx as a birthday present and i love it. Massive improvement over onboard. Its designed for headphones so i don't think speakers will sound alot better but i only ever use headphones. it has a port for hd audio or ac 97 on it (can be a pain to cable manage it :/ )

for 20 odd quid id say get a dgx and see if it works for your needs.

 

[WillSK]

I got an asus dgx as a birthday present and i love it. Massive improvement over onboard. Its designed for headphones so i don't think speakers will sound alot better but i only ever use headphones. it has a port for hd audio or ac 97 on it (can be a pain to cable manage it :/ )

for 20 odd quid id say get a dgx and see if it works for your needs.

I think this may be the best option since it's 20 quid or so. Will take a look at scan/aria etc.

 

[SavageCupcake]

Aria only have the pci version, not sure about scan. I got mine off amazon where it was a tad cheaper

 

[WillSK]

Aria only have the pci version, not sure about scan. I got mine off amazon where it was a tad cheaper

My board has the express x1 slots in weird places so gone for the pci version.

One more question though does the headphone amp also apply when plugging in from the front panel?

 

[SavageCupcake]

Fair enough then, i didn't fancy pci as its starting to disappear of mobos now :/. I've no idea for that one though mate. I would assume so but not 100%.

 

[jamesriley94]

My board has the express x1 slots in weird places so gone for the pci version.

One more question though does the headphone amp also apply when plugging in from the front panel?

I wouldn't have thought so because amping speakers can blow them. It'd be a bit dangerous to amp a single port for headphones and speakers.

I may be wrong however.
If you still want to know tomorrow, I'll test it when I'm with mine.