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Info: How to buy soundcards

post #1 of 4
Thread Starter 
This should help anyone who want to know/buy a soundcard for the extra boost in fps and sound quality.


Most PCs have built in surround sound on the motherboard. Some support six channel that's 5.1, others support 8 channel that's 7.1 and the sound quality is fine for most people.

If you want a dedicated soundcard for playing and making Cd's and mp3s, DVDs and games, most will fit the bill.

Entry-level soundcards support 16bit-quality sound recorded or played back at 44.1KHz, which is CD quality.

The next step is 24bit sound at sampling rates of 48KHz or 96KHz, recommended for those creating music or playing DVD movies with THX surround or Dolby Digital ex 6.1 or 7.1 sound formats.
More cards now also support 24bit 192KHz playback, required for the DVD-Audio music format.

The signal to noise (SNR) ratio, is measured in decibels dB, is the amount of sound (signal) verses that which you don't (noise). Decibel ratings range from 60dB to over 100dB and the higher the dB rating, the better.

Most cards share many similar options, such as microphone-in, line-in/line-out, line out, midi/joystick port, CD-in/AUX-in and headphone connectors.
Newer cards also have high-speed firewire ports. Audio enthusiasts should look for S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) -in and -out, to connect via a single optical or coaxial cable and get higher quality digital sound.

Nearly all new soundcards will have a soundprocessor, which will help boost the fps in games while the environment is exploding around you, with the environment making all sorts of different sounds the cpu wont need to worry about rendering the sounds when the soundcard can do it.
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My System
(16 items)
 
  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
939 4200+ x2 MSI K8N SLI MSI HD7750 2gb 2x 1gb G-Skill HZ 4000 
Hard DriveOptical DriveCoolingOS
WD Caviar sataII Lite on DVD Spire starcore Vista x86 
MonitorMonitorKeyboardPower
19" Belinea 1925S1W 37" Toshiba regza HP OEM CIT 700w  
CaseMouseMouse PadAudio
Thermaltake Soprano Dell ball mouse cheap Logitech z-5 usb 
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post #2 of 4
First reply!
An excellent introductory guide to something I've been curious about. Rep+
post #3 of 4
Ive been duying to know why i need a new soundcard thanx rep4u
    
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CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Core2Duo E6300 Gigabyte p965 Nvidia Geforce 7800GT 1gb Ocz S.O.E. 800mhz ram 
Hard DriveOptical DriveOSMonitor
seagate 250gb +160gb WD DVD rom ide drive Win Xp sp2 Zeos CRT (owned 10 yrs) 
KeyboardPowerCaseMouse
Logitech cordless 500W NZXT NZXT Lexa Logitech cordless optical 
Mouse Pad
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS! 
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post #4 of 4
nice one mate
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Chris-PC
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Intel Core i7-920 Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R HIS HD6790 IceQX 6GB DDR3 SuperTalent 
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