Sound Card/Mobo Slot Issue

[dopybks]

Hi guys, thought I would use this forum as this will be the next MMORPG that I will be playing but I have a small problem and I want to be ready upon its release.
I simply want to be able to use in-game speech, eg, via Teamspeak or Ventrillo. I have a P5NE_SLI Motherboard and I am using 2 8800 GTS running in SLI mode. Sound is Realtek Onboard. Those of you that ahead of the game already, (I certainly wasnt when I bought the PC), will notice that the motherboard only has 2 PCI slots that are both taken up by the graphics cards and I cant use a sound card as there is nowhere to put it.
A new Mobo is out of the question and I can see that the only other solution is to purchase an external sound card. I have been looking at the Creative Sound Blaster Surround 5.1 External USB Sound Card.
Im sure this will work but will I have any loss in performance from in-game quality? The card, as the title suggests, works through a USB port and I know that my power supply will have no problem with it. I know the external card produces at 24 bits/96 khz, will the sound be any better than what I have at the moment?
If I may add, I also bought myself a set of Medusa pro-gaming 5.1 headphones after reading many rave reviews about them. I wasnt that impressed to be honest, distinct lack of base and the other speakers are extremely tinny, I was surprised. Maybe if I get this sound card the actual sound will be better through the headphones than what it is at the moment, although I was happy with the sound through loudspeakers. Any comments would be really appreciated and I will be watching all the other Conan forums as we approach release.

[JohnnyFive]

RealTek blows. You know that already.

I've heard good, well atleast opposite of bad but not necessarily good, things about that sound card. As for helping performance, i'm going to take a wild guess and say the USB sound card will help and here's why:

The RealTek chipset basically offloads everything to the CPU. Not only that, but it's badly written. Almost anything is better than onboard RealTek (except.. maybe.. PCI RealTek? That exist?).

As for the sound, I can almost guarantee that the headphones will be much richer with a real soundcard. I use both my onboard RealTek and a SB Audigy (one for playing music and one for video games/Vent/etc) through a set of headphones and speakers. Sometimes I switch them up, and the sound out of the RealTek is always abysmal compared to the Audigy. Even with my crappy headphones I can tell.

Last piece of advice I can give you is read the reviews on USB soundcards on Newegg. It's not the most reliable source, but definitely better than nothing at all!

[dopybks]

Thanks for the reply JohnnyFive. You,ve twisted my arm already. I dont think Im getting the best of of these headphones and I think I owe it to myself to get one of these cards, Thanks again. Although I will have a look at Newegg, see what they have to say.

[JohnnyFive]

Feel free to hit me up with some rep :)

[B. de la Durantaye]

I used the Medusa 5.1's too until I broke 'em. The surround sound worked exceptionally well, but I found the same issues you mentioned here - a bit of "tinniness." I played around a *lot* with my x-fi settings and the independent volume controls of the headphones, including the vibration. I eventually got it to a respectable level, but it obviously still could not compare to the real thing.

Not a bad set of headphones all around though, if you're looking to have surround in a set of headphones.

[dopybks]

Part of the problem is the game I am playing until Conan is released. Im playing TF2, mainly 2Fort and there is so much going on it is difficult to really appreciate the surround sound effect. Go back to basics and try Doom. But still the quality is lacking I feel. The overall sound "effect" does improve if I turn up the volume but its at a level that makes listening uncomfortable. I think an external sound card will definately improve things. Im still confused as to whether or not an additional card is going to put an extra load on the CPU. With respect to JohnnyFive, I read a post on another forum and he said that a negative point about the card is it is a load on the CPU. Any sort of clarification from anyone would be most helpful.

[JohnnyFive]

I really didn't know if the USB sound card put the load on the CPU, but what I meant to convey is that RealTek not only puts the load on the CPU, but it's badly programmed so it *sucks*. Even something else that uses the CPU would be better than a RealTek chipset.

The sound, i'm sure, will be much better, but not nearly as much if you had a real sound card. I'm not sure if there are any USB sound cards that will do that trick though.

[dopybks]

I would of thought that having an external card will take the load off the CPU as obviously the sound is being produced by the exteranl card, and not from the on-board circuit that the Realtek is. The only load on the PC must be through the power supply. God, a simple solution is turning out to be a bit of a nightmare , of my own making I might add as now Im thinking of getting a 8800GTX, that will free up a slot in the Mobo in which I can slot in a shiny new sound card. It all comes down to cost really. Anyone else using an external sound card and if so, are you happy with it?

[JohnnyFive]

Funny enough, I just read an article last night about external USB sound cards, and it says that USB cards take about 10% of your cpu, up to 20%, and normal cards barely take anything. Just so you can see what kind of performance hit you are taking :)

[dopybks]

Thought Id update you on this on-going issue. I bought the card and guess what? I cant open the creative software that goes with it! Also, the microphone doesnt work!! which is why I bought it in the first place Oh yes, there are lots of people with Vista and the microphone problem, but no fixes. And the software problem? All the usual re installs and clean boots etc etc that Creative suggest after I e-mailed them and it still dont work, looks like £50 down the drain, thanks creative, you made my day.

[rynfarrell]

You said that your two video cards take up your pci slots? Now don't quote me, but I am pretty sure that video cards use pci express slots on your motherboard were sound cards use regular pci slots. These are two different slots. At least that is the way its been on all the rigs Iv'e built/seen built. You might want to look a little harder into this. I also was using realtek onboard sound and decided to buy a good sound card instead. It is amazing how much better it sounds!