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Do I NEED A Dedicated Sound Card?? and comments on my build

BoostedLSJ20
Level 7
I am a total noob at this!!! This is my first ever build i want to know if this i did a good job or not choosing my parts for my first ever gaming pc also I'm not a huge audiophile at all but I game A LOT now that I have built my computer. My question is with my current build would I need a dedicated sound card knowing that I have some sort of sound upgrade on my MoBo.
My build:
Maximus Hero Board
I5 4670K OC'd to 4.0 (can't get it any higher for some odd reason)
Cooler Master Edison 120 w/ 1 Corsair sp120 HP fan in push configuration
8Gig G skill Ripjaws X
XFX R9 280X
Kingston 128 GB SSD (boot drive)
WD 1TB BLUE
Asus DVD burner
Corsair CX750M PSU

I would like to know if I should upgrade anything anytime soon I'm totally happy with the performance of my machine so far but I've noticed my PC is a money pit. Gaming is my only hobby and well I kinda like having top notch stuff. In the near future I would like to build a custom water loop maybe withing the next 6-8 months but at the moment I'm looking into a sound card. What are your opinions on my build and opinions on purchasing a sound card.... worth it or not worth it?
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6 REPLIES 6

EnthusiastBuild
Level 12
Hey, nice build you got there mate!

Are you running your RAM in XMP profile setting? If not, try it and see if you can OC your cpu higher.

I personally wouldn't upgrade anything soon! And for the soundcard, you always get better sound with a soundcard, if you wan't better sound quality i would go for one like the ASUS Xonar Phoebus.

Cheers mate!
CORSAIR 900D
ASUS MAXIMUS VI FORMULA
INTEL I7 4770K @ 4.5 GHZ
CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM 16GB @ 2400MHZ
SLI EVGA GTX 780 SC ACX
SSD SYSTEM: CORSAIR FORCE GT 120GB
SSD APPS: CORSAIR FORCE GT 240 GB
HDD STORAGE: WD BLACK 2TB
CORSAIR AX860I PSU
CORSAIR H100I 4 x SP120 HP

differential
Level 7
Hey man, I Assume The hero has supremeFX if so i went from my Rampage IV Formula supremeFX to An asus Essence STX and the surround is un-comparable, i play alot of battlefield and when i first built my rig i would hear choppers above me but couldnt find them because the sound was so far off, i would recommend a card but i don't think you need to go all out on an expensive one, but yeah im noob too 😄

Also EnthusiastBuild i am using the XMP profile and still i only got 4.0 GHz out of this thing... my guess i got a bad OC chip im not too mad about it since it satisfies my needs.

BoostedLSJ20
Level 7
Hey thanks guys i will definitely look into buying either one of those two cards, i was actually shopping around and i found this guy
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102049&Tpk=sound%20blaster%20zx what do you think? Im currently using Steel Series Siberia V2 headsets they are pretty good in my opinion but again im new to this pc thing and im not a huge audiophile by any means. One other thing, i do a lot of gaming with a Razer Sabertooth controller and it needs that little bunny ear adaptor to use the Mic on the headset apparently so i was going to look into buying the Astro Mixamp witch is a soundcard but its obviously external what are your takes on this thing? should i buy both the card and the mix amp or one or the other?

Missing_Link
Level 7
All my pc builds i always used a dedicated sound card i have never been to keen using onboard sound, i looked at your link with the creative sound blaster Zx. Creative sound cards are my prefered card, I'm using the ZxR model in my Rampage IV Extreme and it sounds great with the logitech Z5500 speakers so the Zx should have a decent quality sound. But it's a personal choice on what card to buy as some people like Asus and some like Creative and many people do prefer onboard sound...Anyways good luck with your decision.
Motherboard, Asus Rampage IV Extreme.
Case, Coolermaster Cosmos II Ultra Tower.
CPU, Intel i7 3930k.
GPU, Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX 780.
OS HDD, SSD Intel 520s 240gig.
Memory/Ram, Corsair 16gig (4X4) Dominator GT 2133mhz.
Sound Card, Creative Sound Blaster ZxR.
PSU, Corsair AX-1200i.
Watercooling, Corsair H100i.

BoostedLSJ20
Level 7
thank you everyone for such quick responses!! i will do a bit more research and take all of you opinions into consideration.