mf_makka

Here is the best comparison chart for all of ASUS's sound products: http://event.asus.com/multimedia/xonar/find.htm

Thanks for the response. So I would be running at 1600 and 9-10-9-28 timing? Pardon my ignorance, but does that justify the extra 4 gb? I've read that RAM frequency makes very little difference at the end of the day, so is the extra capacity worth it?

So I'm building my second machine and here are the details: CPU AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor[4] Motherboard Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard[5] Memory G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory[6] Video Card Asus Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card Everything else will be taken from my old system. I build a system in 2010 with a Silver rated XFX 750w PSU and I would also like to use my old RAM to get a final total of 12 gb. My old ram is G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL , which is surprisingly still in stock. My new ram doesn't have the same timing and isn't the same model, my fault since I bought the newegg deal a day before the same style RAMs went on sale. My old ram is DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800), Timing 9-9-9-24-2N, Cas Latency 9, Voltage 1.5V , and my new ram is DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900), Timing 9-10-9-28, Cas Latency 9, Voltage 1.5V. I know that the RAM performance will be reduced to the lowest performing stat, so I was wondering if it is worth using this RAM in my system to get a slighly slower performance at 12 Gb or should I just run the 8Gb setup? Cheers.

Thank you all for the response. Since it seems that the onboard sound can do a decent job of handeling things, I'm going to hold off on the sound card until I find something on sale.

Thanks for the reply. Which card do you think qualified as an expensive enough card to make a worthwhile differece?

I have bought a PC 360 (will most likely be exchanged for HD 598s) for my gaming use and I was wondering if it would benefit from buying a mid-range ($60-100) sound card. My onboard chip is Realtek ALC889. I have a logitech 5.1 sound system for general use but I use headphones for most of my listening. I also own a pair of Shure IEMs, Etymotic research IEMs, and another pair of cheap sennheiser HD 419s. So would I benefit from a sound card in this price-range? is an external amplifier a better option? Please let me know what you think. cheers. Edit: Also, what would be the difference between a PCI-e card to a PCI card?