Gaming in with Surround Sound...

[bullzeye81]

I am not new to gaming however I have not had a nice sound card or set of speakers, nor do I have much experience with either. So the question is... what is a good sound card/surround sound speaker combo that will not cost more than $200 for the both of them. thanks:D

[PDXracer]

Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer ($100)
Logitech Z-540 5 Piece Speaker w/ Sub ($80)

I have both, and am COMPLETELY satisfied with the performance.

When buying the Audigy card, get the "gamer" version, the "MP3" version has things you dont really need, that you already get in the Gamer package.

[$1500-P4 gamer]

Gamer, MP3+ are all the same. They all use the programible emu10k1 procesor.;)

[bullzeye81]

awesome, does anyone else have any other suggestions?

[gibsinep]

Turtle beach santa cruz sound card( very nice imo)

Logitech 540's


They sound much much better than AC97 onboard sound which I had before.


Only cost a total of around $130 with shipping from newegg.com

[$1500-P4 gamer]

"Turtle beach santa cruz sound card"

Ya, I heard good things about that card. For the price it is good, and the sound is good too I hear. I was told very stable drivers too. Do you agree with that gibsinep? (the drivers I mean)

[Qvark]

I have a SB Live 5.1 + Creative Labs inspire 5300 5.1 and are more than satisfied. Throw in a couple of extra dollars and buy the Audigy though.

[gibsinep]

$1500-P4 gamer- I think the card is great, the drivers are stable once you get the things installed.

Only took my 4 days to get them working and one re-install of Xp to do it. :D lol


( but that was becuase I didnt read the instructions, the drivers needed to be installed differently for windows XP than a normal hardware driver)

However I would defintly buy another for a different system and would reccomend it highly.

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by PDXracer
Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer ($100)
Logitech Z-540 5 Piece Speaker w/ Sub ($80)

I have both, and am COMPLETELY satisfied with the performance.

When buying the Audigy card, get the "gamer" version, the "MP3" version has things you dont really need, that you already get in the Gamer package.

I have the Z-560 + Audigy Gamer setup

very sastified :D

[bullzeye81]

awesome guys, thanks a lot for tha help, i will most likely be getting tha xgamer and z540's.
thanks again:t

[gibsinep]

Np :t

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by bullzeye81
awesome guys, thanks a lot for tha help, i will most likely be getting tha xgamer and z540's.
thanks again:t

Try to get the Z-560 instead of the Z-540

:t

[skupko9680]

tough one for me, not a creative fan, but I own an audigy and it's not bad,.....er ok. Keep doing you're home work though. The turtle beach cards are seemingly a much better buy and they don't mislead you as to what to expect. Creative, well.. bugy drivers and they make you read between the lines. I'm not bashing creative, like I said I own an audigy. would I buy it again, no. It was a very nice present though:) To be honest I liked my SB live that came with my puter more. Go figure. I had alot less problems with it. I'm using a m-audio audiophile 24/96 now. Not a gamers card, but stunning audio for the price!

[skupko9680]

Sorry I forgot to add that as far as weighting you're purchase, sound card verses speakers, just remember that your sound card will NEVER sound better than you're speakers. If you can listen to as many speaker as you can and then fit you're sound card within you're budjet AFTER you've decided on you're speakers you'll always be the happiest.

[gjimene2]

ok, here is the bummer part. mainly because I am late.

but here's what I did :)

I got me some Cyber Acoustics $50 sorround sound speakers. Two front channel, two rear channel, and a woofer.

Then I set the front speakers for the speaker output for the soundcard, and the rear speakers for the LineIN for the sound cards, and there you go. 4channel sorround sound :)

btw, also enable any sorround sound your os has.

IE. Win98 would be Sorround Sound Speaker,s
win2k would be 5.1 sorround sound
XP wold be 7.1 sorround sound :)

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by gjimene2
Then I set the front speakers for the speaker output for the soundcard, and the rear speakers for the LineIN for the sound cards, and there you go. 4channel sorround sound :)

Dude.... what are you smoking?!?! :confused:

HOw can LINE-IN be used for LINE-OUT?!?! :confused:

[$1500-P4 gamer]

Originally posted by AllGamer


Dude.... what are you smoking?!?! :confused:

HOw can LINE-IN be used for LINE-OUT?!?! :confused:
Hehe, some of them are that way. I had a aopen sb card that you had the choice under sound options. Either line-in was line-in or switched to rear output. Why they didnt just use another DIN I have no idea but thats the way it is.

[AllGamer]

Very interesting, i never seen that before :t

[gibsinep]

Are you smoking my avator again?:confused: ;) :eek:

[TaXi]

hehehehehe whoaaaaaaaaaa

My fingers can touch everything but themselves

[gibsinep]

lol Taxi.:eek:

[Giblet Plus!]

You people crazy! :)


I'd get the z-560s instead of the z-540s. I have a set, and they're VERY nice. I got them for $130 shipped using pricegrabber.

You can get an OEM audigy sound card for about $60. I have one also, and it's very nice. (except for drivers problems that got fixed) :t

I think I have nearly the same setup as allgamer:
xp2000
audigy
z-560s

Only main difference is video (ti4200) and motherboard (msi kt3 ultra) :eek:

[fluffycow]

hey giblet, we iz gonna have similar setups! Ive got an msi kt3 ultra2 and an athlon 1600+ im gonna o'c to 2000+ speeds. I plan to get an audigy and a good set of speakers when I can afford them.

Im getting a geforce 4200 too :)

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by wallijonn
$100 headphones or Altec Lansing $200 4.1 speaker setup.

which model of Altec Lansing?

[NJEnviroguy]

Is there the ability to jack a center speaker into the setup even though you would start with say the 4.1 z-560's? How does the typical setup work? Do you jack out from the line-out of the soundcard to the speaker's control box? I hate the fact that Klipsch is the only one selling a true 5.1 and that is over $300!! Crackerjacks.

[AllGamer]

yes you can Rigg a Center speaker up by using Left front and Right Front together to a center speaker

but True 5.1 will have a uni center output

still You very very rarely will hear anything at all from the Center speaker in real 5.1 sounds :t

[AllGamer]

The 4 speakers on the 641LA sounds nicer (better)

the .1 Sub of the 560Z is deeper (better)

if we can just combine the 2 then it'll be perfect

:D

[NJEnviroguy]

Are the crossovers for those speaker sets on the woofer?

[AllGamer]

huh?~?~:confused:

[NJEnviroguy]

Looking at the logitech, all the satellite speaker wires are attached to the woofer. If this is wrong, then let me know. I was just curious if the crossover resided in the woofer or was in the little control box the set comes with. I'm assuming its not an adjustable crossover though.

[extreme_gamer]

yup sound blaster audigy. even though i dont have it, i know it's a great card. dont have a clue about what kinda speakers you might wanna get....... try this web site for speakers.

http://listings.ebay.com/pool1/plistings/list/all/category3702/index.html?from=R0

[Giblet Plus!]

Originally posted by fluffycow
hey giblet, we iz gonna have similar setups! Ive got an msi kt3 ultra2 and an athlon 1600+ im gonna o'c to 2000+ speeds. I plan to get an audigy and a good set of speakers when I can afford them.

Im getting a geforce 4200 too :)

Great minds think alike!

Except I'm already OCing the xp2000 to 2200 speeds, and I'll go farther once I unlock it. Some devices on my sys don't like high fsb speeds. I might feed it a little more voltage, too. I'm at 1.775 right now. :)

[Giblet Plus!]

Originally posted by NJEnviroguy
Are the crossovers for those speaker sets on the woofer?

Yes - you mean the z-560s, right?

[NJEnviroguy]

Yeah, thanks!

[optic_pro1430]

Would you need more memory and processor speed to get optimal performance with Surround Sound?

[extreme_gamer]

yes and no....

you're probably better off with the better stuff, but it's not too imporant

just as long as the CPU can handle the Mhz it recommends, you should be fine.

besides i think that the other cards that you put in have their own processor, right?:rolleyes: :confused:

[Giblet Plus!]

Yeup, although the still use some cpu power, just not as much.

[gibsinep]

My surround sound setup doesn't seem to take any extra CPU power.

[InnovaZero]

Accually by all accounts, the Altec Lansing 641's sub hits lower (Shown to hit as low as 25hz and even 20hz in a few cases depending upon the sound source) then the Z-560, it's also much more accurate with a tighter kick. The Z-560 is more of an all out boom, so I guess you could say it hits a little harder.

As for crossovers, the AL641's is set at 100hz which is awesome for a computer system and almost does what a real sub should do, that is not play sounds above the 80-90hz level. The Z-560 is a tad higher, but **** good itself, with a crossover of 120hz.

The AL641's Speakers are more detailed as well and pick up just about any sound you throw at it, the Z-560 might purhaps have slightly better midrange, but the overall fidelity of the AL641 is higher, and at times are compared to budget Hi-Fi systems. But of course a speaker system is only as good as to a listeners ear, and we all differ for the most part. You really can't go wrong with either system though, and both are pretty much in the same price range. ($110-150)

If of course these are out of your league, then look at the Z-540, Altec Lansing 4100, or even the Inspire 5300. These are all under $100 and provide **** fine sound for the prices.