Hi!

Again in audio business. I am looking reasonable priced Audio card for my game rig. Reasonable I mean 120 / 100€ mark.

I've been looking:
Asus Xonar XD PCI-E and Club 3D Theatron Agrippa 7.1
Club 3D is rebranded Auzentech X-plosion 7.1 PCI.

and perhas budget card:
Sound blaster Audigy SE 7.1

I kinda like PCI versions as I can use them in bottom of my case and have more space. Asus Xona XD seems to be very good card but needs PCI-E 1x place ( which I have one free above VGA card ) but also requires a floppy connector for extra power.

Both (Club 3D / Auzentech and Asus) cards are around 70-90€ mark in Finland. I've also looked budget version of Sounblaster Audigy SE 7.1 which is nearly half of the price either card.

I just want better audio than onboard audio card is, with clear soud. I don't have many speakers, simple 2.1 Logitech Z3's. Sometimes on board audio really screw ups like in Oblivion sound gets distorted and effects get really out of balance. For exapmle when I kicked dagger on paved road in a cavern, it sounded first like a church bell would have ranged by my ears, next was like tiny bell in 2 meters and then a gain church bell when that dagger moved.

I just don't want to buy garbage but I also don't want to buy overpriced overfeatured card and spend a lot more if I can get all I need cheaper.

The only way your current audio problems can happen is if you've somehow told the game to use 3D audio or the card to somehow emulate it.

I need to check that but overall the Integrated Audio's are not that good for gaming.

Any of the cards you mention would be an improvement over on-board sound. I have only ever fitted Creative Soundblasters, and even the budget models have sounded fine.

I have had both PCI and PCI-Express sound cards, and I don't think it makes any difference what fitting they come in.

If you pay more you will get features like optical-out which may or may not be of any use. So just buy the cheapest card which has the features you need.

Thanks. I'll probably go for Sound Blaster Audigy SE bulk as its 25,90€'s and has EAX 3.0 support, while Agrippa is 71€'s and has EAX 2.0 Support and Xonar has some EAX technology and so forth but I am not sure up to what they support it.

All so called gamers card's that has EAX 5.0 are well over 100€ marks are currently unavailable. So I think I might aswell spend 25,90€ in el-cheapo Audigy SE and later upgrade to Xonar series card if I need to. And I really do not need Optical or S/PDIF's etc.

You don't need EAX, you have a simple stereo setup.

Indeed, for now. but when I buy a sound card now, at least I can make sure that it has some upgradability incase I get 5.1. system later on.

+1 for Matija's first post. Mess with your settings first and see if it meets your needs. Or try diff/newer drivers. I haven't had any issues with mobo based sound for games.

Just think it's overkill to go with a separate audio card unless you are aiming for a high quality music solution. But games? meh.

I was very happy to run away from soundblaster drivers given all the heartache they caused in (now retired and recycled) systems.

Getting a creative card is a good way to enter driver/compatability hell, and the sound quality isnt that much better than onboard these days, most probably not even noticeable when used on a normal pc speaker setup, like you have.

From how you describe the problems, I'd say you need new drivers and disabling hardware 3D sound. As for performance, you wont notice the difference with onboard vs. dedicated soundcard, those days are long gone.

Look for a Soundblaster XtremeMusic