Advice on new speakers and sound card

[zunachy2]

After reading the threads below and figured you guys might provide me with some usefull advice.

I just had a new comp build via a combination of friend builder and New Egg.

Currently missing a new sound card and speakers. The motherboard is p4p800-vm.

Certain questions that come to mind

Is a new sound card neccessery or will the one on the board work?

What are the features that which are important in speakers? I am mostly interested in music and games. Do brands matter?

7.1 vrs 5.1- do games have now , or will they in the future use 7.1?


thanks in advance

 

[olefarte]

Zunachy2, welcome to TechSpot. I'm no expert on motherboards, by any means, but since nobody else has answered you I'll take a stab.

I think that the only motherboards that currently will get 5.1 from games are from nVidia, and you would have to use an AMD cpu. And the only game I know of right now, that has 5.1, is Ureal II, but more are sure to come, and there may be more now, I'm not sure. I would imagine the future for 5.1 in games is bright, but 7.1/6.1 is a ways off.

As far as playing music, your motherboard will probably do ok on this. But, a good soundcard would give you a lot more flexability in hooking up your speakers, and also would have a lot more features, and more than likely would have better quality sound, after all, that's why they sell audio cards.

All the above is for sure subject to debate, as I said I'm no expert, but maybe someone else will jump in if I'm wrong.

As far as speakers are concerned, you want to look for clarity in the highs and midrange and deep, solid, punchy bass. When I play games, I want to be able to turn the volume up, and here the explosions of MOHAA shake the room. When I listen to music, I want deep, solid bass, with no boom to it, and to here the finest details of the music.

What this all boils down to, is how much you want to spend on the speakers. If you look at the threads you were referring to, or do a search, you will see a lot of choices listed in many price ranges. The best advice I can give on speakers is, determine your budget and then go look and listen, pick out the one's you like best.

And as far as 5.1 or 7.1/6.1, again my opinion is it's a matter of how much you want to spend, and the room you have to put them in. At the present time there are very few DVD's that use the center channel in back, which is what the 7/6 channel is, but probably more to come. I have a very large stereo system, and I don't get a lot of benefit from the center back speakers, but everybody has a different opinion.

I hope this helps at least a little, I know it's gotten a little long.