Sound Card (HT Omega Striker?)

[`CaSs!~]

I'm looking to buy a sound card for ~$100. I am almost constantly listening to music (mp3's) while on my computer, and play a few hours of games per week (mainly Halo 1 PC and Team Fortress 2). The sound will be coming out of my Logitech G51 5.1 Speaker set 99% of the time, although I'm somewhat interested in getting a nice pair of headphones as well.

The card I've been looking at for the past few months (sadly) is the HT Omega Striker (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271001&cm_re=ht_omega-_-29-271-001-_-Product). Does anyone here have any experience with this card? Would anyone recommend anything different for < $100?

The only downside I've heard about it so far is that it lacks Creative's EAX effects, but I'm not sure if I would even need those.

I currently dual boot between Windows 7 RC x64 and XP Pro x32 (rarely use anymore).

My Specs are:


Q6600 Core2Quad @ 2.40 GHz
2 GB DDR2 Ram (also needs to be upgraded)
Nvidia 8800GT
Onboard Realtek HD Audio
BFG 650 Watt PSU
GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L


Thank you for your time and responses, if you have any further questions please don't hesitate to ask.

[Ganon]

sound cards wont improve your music, that all depends on your speakers/headset. From what i've heard the creative cards are pretty nice (fatal1ty's only good product). But honestly unless u are playing a game with a shitload of things going on (battlefield 2142 or something), soundcards are pointless. If you want to hear your games better, with more pinpoint 3d audio positioning, get a headset.

[flibitijibibo]

Given your price range, that may be the card to pick. If you have a free PCI-e x1 slot, try this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102024

Ganon's right for the most part, but if you happen to have pretty lossy stuff, the X-Fi crystallizer does a pretty nice job cleaning things up.

There are a couple (http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=209&subcategory=669&product=15855&listby=) of other (http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=209&subcategory=669&product=15853&listby=) X-Fi's under $100 for PCI, but they have none of the ports other than 3.5mm analog.

[`CaSs!~]

Given your price range, that may be the card to pick. If you have a free PCI-e x1 slot, try this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102024

Ganon's right for the most part, but if you happen to have pretty lossy stuff, the X-Fi crystallizer does a pretty nice job cleaning things up.

There are a couple (http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=209&subcategory=669&product=15855&listby=) of other (http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=209&subcategory=669&product=15853&listby=) X-Fi's under $100 for PCI, but they have none of the ports other than 3.5mm analog.

Eh that first card you mentioned looks pretty good. I do have a free PCI-e 1x slot. Most of my music is around 192 kb/s. Some of the stuff I got a few years ago is all 128, but the more recent albums is either 192, 320, or some variable bit rate. I've never been satisfied with my onboard audio, it's been giving me problems since the day I got it.

I'll have to look into it more I guess..thanks for the reply.

[Horns]

The thing about sound cards is that to really actually get better sound from them, you're going to need to buy $500 speakers for that $100 sound card. The card can't make great sound with crappy speakers. So you're really not gonna get anything good out of buying a $100 sound card. I'd just buy new good speakers and use the integrated sound.

[flibitijibibo]

The G51's are pretty good, given their price. If he was getting, say, an X-Fi Elite Pro, I might tell him to get some nice Z-5500's. XP

[Timo]

I'd be wary of Creative - my sound card (Audigy 2 ZS) from them hasn't had an official working driver for Vista or 7 yet. After a while for me all sound starts to crackle like i'd just blown my speakers, and didn't stop till I restarted. There are some 3rd party ones out that work great though, on both Vista 32-bit and 7 64-bit.

[`CaSs!~]

Well I feel like my current speaker system is being suppressed by my sound card, to an extent. G51's ain't cheap boy.

[flibitijibibo]

Seconding Timo's post. Audigy sucks.

[`CaSs!~]

After a while for me all sound starts to crackle like i'd just blown my speakers, and didn't stop till I restarted.

This happens to me right now with my current setup, it fucking sucks.

[Warsaw]

I'm looking to buy a sound card for ~$100. I am almost constantly listening to music (mp3's) while on my computer, and play a few hours of games per week (mainly Halo 1 PC and Team Fortress 2). The sound will be coming out of my Logitech G51 5.1 Speaker set 99% of the time, although I'm somewhat interested in getting a nice pair of headphones as well.

The card I've been looking at for the past few months (sadly) is the HT Omega Striker (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271001&cm_re=ht_omega-_-29-271-001-_-Product). Does anyone here have any experience with this card? Would anyone recommend anything different for < $100?

The only downside I've heard about it so far is that it lacks Creative's EAX effects, but I'm not sure if I would even need those.

I currently dual boot between Windows 7 RC x64 and XP Pro x32 (rarely use anymore).

My Specs are:


Q6600 Core2Quad @ 2.40 GHz
2 GB DDR2 Ram (also needs to be upgraded)
Nvidia 8800GT
Onboard Realtek HD Audio
BFG 650 Watt PSU
GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L


Thank you for your time and responses, if you have any further questions please don't hesitate to ask.

I had an HT Omega Striker, actually. It had fantastic sound; the drivers it came with were a little glitchy, but downloading the latest ones from their website wasn't too big of a deal. The only problem was I got a lemon and it fried about 3 months after I got it...could be due to me putting OSX on or just bad card itself. Whatever the case, it isn't the norm; only reason I haven't bought another one yet is because I'm saving the money for a laptop.

[`CaSs!~]

I had an HT Omega Striker, actually. It had fantastic sound; the drivers it came with were a little glitchy, but downloading the latest ones from their website wasn't too big of a deal. The only problem was I got a lemon and it fried about 3 months after I got it...could be due to me putting OSX on or just bad card itself. Whatever the case, it isn't the norm; only reason I haven't bought another one yet is because I'm saving the money for a laptop.

So no real problems with it other than the fact that yours died (which I haven't heard of much, after reading reviews on it)? Excellent quality and the such?

Thanks

[Warsaw]

Pretty much. The only crackling in my speakers was due to loose connection, and had nothing to do with the rendering quality. Even though the sound on the HT is still technically software, it's better than anything I've heard from CreAtive.