Question regarding sound cards

[MushroomSuprise]

After what feels like an endless search, I still have yet to pick a sound card. I'm not looking for any studio grade super card or anything overly fancy. I just need something that does 5.1 channel audio and has a front port connector. I just need one that wont have poor drivers/support and won't have the issue my onboard sound has. The onboard audio my motherboard has is the Realtek ALC892 Codec, while it sounds fine to me, its picking up some crazy interference from my GPU (Sapphire HD 6870). The noise is only apparent when the GPU is under any load like a game or such, and ironically its the same noise that Linus showed us in his coil whine video, even the pitch change when you rotate the camera is there, except it plays through my speakers/headphones/whatever is plugged in. I'm looking at the Asus Xonar cards or the array of Creative cards, but as long as it works and is reasonable, brand doesn't matter. I'm hoping to find something that's $80 or less (preferably less). Any and all help will be appreciated, thanks!

[ionbasa]

I can recommend the Asus Xonar DSX

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=74469&vpn=XONAR%20DSX&manufacture=ASUS

Although if you are hearing the electromagnetic interference though your audio setup, I would start by checking the power supply first. Mainly because the electromagnetic interference is causing noise on the entire power output.

The best way to check is with an extra power supply.

[Metallurgico]

For little more you can purchase the Xonar DX. If you cannot the DSX is great.

[Money]

Definitely go with a Xonar. No question. No matter which one you buy you're not going to be disappointed.

[Guest]

Definitely go with a Xonar. No question. No matter which one you buy you're not going to be disappointed.

Could be - does he have Beats?

[Money]

Could be - does he have Beats?

Good Lord I sure hope not. XD

[Metallurgico]

Definitely go with a Xonar. No question. No matter which one you buy you're not going to be disappointed.

Could be - does he have Beats?

Some newer HP ultrabooks or HTC smartphones have Beats audio if you want such experience

[Cheesebaron]

Why not go with something entirely external? Such as Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD? It sounds decent, it has both 5.1 and has front panel connectors. Even better, you can use it with a laptop if you wanted to. It also has pretty decent drivers.

[MushroomSuprise]

Oh no no no I can assure you I don't (and never will) have beats. my speakers are Logitech x-540's (not the best but i like em and got a good deal) and my headphones are a set of Turtle Beach x-12's (once again not the greatest but they sound alright to me after some tweaking). I can assure you its not the power supply since this noise was there when i had my first power supply that started to have bad voltage drops under load. I can stress any other one part of the system like the CPU, RAM, HDD, and the noise isn't there. Only when I put some sort of load on the GPU is when the noise is heard.

Anyways how much of a difference will the DSX be to the DX, was eyeing them both myself.

Also from what I've seen the external solution you mentioned wouldn't work since my setup has only analog connections, thanks for the help anyway!

[ionbasa]

I din't mean to say its the power supplies fault, I wanted to point out that the GPU is causing line noise http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_(electronics)

So every time you stress the GPU that electrical noise is going to be transmitted throughout the power output in your system.

SO even if you do change the sound card, the noise will probably still be there.

look it up if you want, Google for "coil whine sound card".

[MushroomSuprise]

Please elaborate on what you mean about it being carried through the system. From my earliest searches on the noise itself (though it was from a variety of gpu's) and people were stating their problem disappeared. Also I was stating the noise was there with another power supply (previous cheaper model) since you said to try with another unit.

[ionbasa]

The GPU is producing coil noise, this causes 'noise' on the entire rail on your power supply regardless if you PSU is single rail or multi-rail.

Here is what the noise looks like :

The GPU has a power delivery system involving chokes, when power passes though these chokes they may vibrate producing physical sound/noise, but when these vibrate they also add interference in the electricity using electromagnetic induction, which produces the noise in electricity. your sound card will produce such noise due to interference in the power.

[MushroomSuprise]

Thanks, makes much more sense now. In the mean time I had manage to find my old rig and removed the ancient Audigy SE it had to test it. After waiting ages for drivers (thanks to creatives lovely servers) I had booted up a game and the sound is gone! Nice and quiet as it should be, however I don't want to use this aging card since it has no front header port on it and I do not like the control panel it was what so ever. Anyhow thanks Ionbasa for the help! Now the question is would the Xonar DX be worth it over the DSX?