Soundcard worth it? & Need new headset (60 euros max if possible)

galaxy366 · 08-11-2012, 06:09 PM

To make a big story short I had noise when I watched my fraps vid of me doing a commentary and others also said I have been having that for a long time on skype.

So I tried to rebuild my PC and clean stuff up, re installed windows 7 and without the drivers the headset mic did work but I think I did something but suddenly it just died. It doesn't work on my Laptop anymore and on my PC.

Thats means I need a new one, so I would need some recommend. Not above 60 euros if possible.

About the soundcard. Are they worth it? Like a X-Fi or Soundblast? I want crystal clear voice without the annoying background noise that ♥♥♥♥s my videos up

- Robert

WO Saotome A. · 08-11-2012, 06:18 PM

Background noise is mostly the blame on the mic, the crappier the mic, less accurate he is, most professional commentators either get a table mic or an extremely good headset, and they dont usually record the gameplay and commentary at the same time, they do at the same time, but get the video done in one program and the audio on another, so that helps too.

galaxy366 · 08-11-2012, 06:21 PM

I had a Plantronic 367 which was pretty good, but I got my eye on the: Tt eSPORTS Shock

http://www.alternate.nl/html/product.../?tk=7&lk=4243
Dutch PC store, yes this is where I order stuff.

B33 ENN · 08-11-2012, 06:22 PM

Just so you know for the future, this thread shoulda been posted here:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...splay.php?f=39

Quote:

Originally Posted by galaxy366

...About the soundcard. Are they worth it? Like a X-Fi or Soundblast? I want crystal clear voice without the annoying background noise that ♥♥♥♥s my videos up

Well, dunno much about the best headsets, but as for soundcards. Well, I kinda gave up on the separate bells & whistles ones (like pricey Creative Labs stuff) some time ago as integrated ones are pretty good nowadays, and support most popular standards.

So unless you are looking for amateur music studio type perfromance, you should get a clean sound and recording from most quality motherboard ones (like top Realtek chips), or at least I've not had any complaints from what I've used. (Their drivers can sometimes be a bit iffy though in some circumstances.)

My recommendation would be, get the headset, do some tests and then think about upgrading the default sound in the PC... What mobo have you got anyway?

galaxy366 · 08-11-2012, 06:27 PM

My full specs

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9900A LED
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 12GB
GPU: CrossFireX Sapphire HD6870
MotherBoard: Asus P8P67 REV 3.1
Power Supply: XFX 750w Black Edition
Main HDD: Samsung HD103SJ 1TB
Secondary HDD: Samsung HD321KJ 320GB
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
Mouse: Trust Predator / GM-4600
Keyboard: Logitech G110 Gaming Keyboard
Case: Skarkoon ''Scorpio 1000''
Gamepad: Xbox360 controller for Windows (black )
Display: Samsung Syncmaster 2333T
Speakers: Logitech Z323 Speaker System
Headset: Plantronics GameCom 367 (Mic dead)

aivazeppelin · 08-11-2012, 06:38 PM

Creative soundcards have buggy, bloated drivers. Asus Xonar soundcards are much better in both hardware and software quality.

Yes it's worth it, you can hear all the little details in the games if set up correctly, for example I was blown away by the sound of raindrops in Left 4 Dead.

About the crystal clear voice, you need a good quality headset. Background noise depends mostly on quality of the mic, not the soundcard. I would recommend Sennheiser PC 350, because I own them myself(there is a newer PC 360 model, but can't speak about them from experience). 2 years of service and hold on the head is good, my ears are comfortable after long gaming marathons and the mic quality is superb. Sound is very "clean" but lacks of bass, so these are not for dubstep fans.

galaxy366 · 08-11-2012, 06:43 PM

Issue I do have with a soundcard.. I have 2 HD6870 and well I can't place a big ♥♥♥ soundcard in it

, There is not much space.

I can use the last PCIe slot but close to that is the plug in for my front jacked and down there ( 2cm ) sits my power supply. I can post a image tomorrow if you people would like to see?

B33 ENN · 08-11-2012, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by galaxy366

CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9900A LED

Nice, got a couple of these bad boys myself, both in black, one with NVidia Green LED and one with MAX Blu.

Quote:

MotherBoard: Asus P8P67 REV 3.1

Good manufacturer, always get their mobos myself, and yeah they use Realtek, but to be fair most others do too.

I go along with the above poster about the Creative stuff using bloated software suite. I had forgotten as I haven't used their stuff in a while, but that's one thing that really took the shine off their products.

I still say you should get a good quality headset sorted first and give the mobo sound a chance. After that, if you're not happy and sure it's the onboard sound that's not good enough, then research an addon soundcard.

Quote:

Main HDD: Samsung HD103SJ 1TB

Very good HDD series. Had a bunch of HD103UJ for years and never had problems, not even in RAID6 setup.

Quote:

Gamepad: Xbox360 controller for Windows (black)

Reminds me, I need to get one of those reciever dongles so I can use my XBOX cordless on the PC.

galaxy366 · 08-11-2012, 06:50 PM

You ok if I post imaged tomorrow of my PC case and the space I have? I do want to go to bed now, so if you want say so Ill make some

only takes 2min.

B33 ENN · 08-11-2012, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by galaxy366

You ok if I post imaged tomorrow of my PC case and the space I have? I do want to go to bed now, so if you want say so Ill make some

only takes 2min.

Cool, I'm sure no one here would mind some hardware closeups

fezlopez · 08-12-2012, 03:29 AM

http://www.amazon.com/Plantronics-Ga....1+plantronics

YahooElite · 08-12-2012, 06:01 AM

As far as background noise goes, make sure theres no noise in the background before you start recording.

Secondly, be sure to setup the mic settings within Windows to help with that as well.

i see no reason as to why youd need a dedicated soundcard just to cancel out background noise.

Hell, i use a $7-10 Logitech mic from walmart and have no problem in that area because i have the mic setup correctly and i use the integrated Realtek on my ASUS Z68 board.

Appl250 · 08-12-2012, 07:21 AM

ASUS Xonar is a good card on a budget.
Quite frankly I think Creative have done their dash with sound cards, their gimmicks may entice some people, but someone who has had experience with creative cards will know their drivers do not play well.

As for low noise, you can't get better than a pro-audio sound card but this is going into home recording rather than just games which I assume you are targeting.

As for headset, I can not help as I use a proper vocal mic.

mmstick · 08-12-2012, 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Appl250

ASUS Xonar is a good card on a budget.
Quite frankly I think Creative have done their dash with sound cards, their gimmicks may entice some people, but someone who has had experience with creative cards will know their drivers do not play well.

As for low noise, you can't get better than a pro-audio sound card but this is going into home recording rather than just games which I assume you are targeting.

As for headset, I can not help as I use a proper vocal mic.

Creative's new Recon3D sound cards have zero driver problems, maybe their older generation of hardware had problems, but the newer ones don't. The 600 ohm headphone amp and the new settings already produce greater sound that last gen Creative sets, especially in gaming surround sound.

galaxy366 · 08-12-2012, 11:30 AM

Evening

So I had 1 old picture on my phone from way back when I was building my PC.

The first picture will only who the motherboard inside the case.
http://i.imgur.com/2uiqW.jpg

The second one will show my PC at the very moment. Pardon for the dark image but I think it's just enough to see the PCIe slots

http://i.imgur.com/QzZL4.jpg?1?3633

Doesn't seem like enough space

?

08-11-2012, 06:09 PM	#1
galaxy366 Join Date: Jan 2011 Reputation: 6 Posts: 168	Soundcard worth it? & Need new headset (60 euros max if possible) To make a big story short I had noise when I watched my fraps vid of me doing a commentary and others also said I have been having that for a long time on skype. So I tried to rebuild my PC and clean stuff up, re installed windows 7 and without the drivers the headset mic did work but I think I did something but suddenly it just died. It doesn't work on my Laptop anymore and on my PC. Thats means I need a new one, so I would need some recommend. Not above 60 euros if possible. About the soundcard. Are they worth it? Like a X-Fi or Soundblast? I want crystal clear voice without the annoying background noise that ♥♥♥♥s my videos up - Robert

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08-11-2012, 06:18 PM	#2
WO Saotome A. Join Date: May 2011 Reputation: 269 Posts: 1,073	Background noise is mostly the blame on the mic, the crappier the mic, less accurate he is, most professional commentators either get a table mic or an extremely good headset, and they dont usually record the gameplay and commentary at the same time, they do at the same time, but get the video done in one program and the audio on another, so that helps too.

08-11-2012, 06:21 PM	#3
galaxy366 Join Date: Jan 2011 Reputation: 6 Posts: 168	I had a Plantronic 367 which was pretty good, but I got my eye on the: Tt eSPORTS Shock http://www.alternate.nl/html/product.../?tk=7&lk=4243 Dutch PC store, yes this is where I order stuff.

08-11-2012, 06:27 PM	#5
galaxy366 Join Date: Jan 2011 Reputation: 6 Posts: 168	My full specs CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9900A LED Memory: Corsair Vengeance 12GB GPU: CrossFireX Sapphire HD6870 MotherBoard: Asus P8P67 REV 3.1 Power Supply: XFX 750w Black Edition Main HDD: Samsung HD103SJ 1TB Secondary HDD: Samsung HD321KJ 320GB OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit Mouse: Trust Predator / GM-4600 Keyboard: Logitech G110 Gaming Keyboard Case: Skarkoon ''Scorpio 1000'' Gamepad: Xbox360 controller for Windows (black ) Display: Samsung Syncmaster 2333T Speakers: Logitech Z323 Speaker System Headset: Plantronics GameCom 367 (Mic dead)

08-11-2012, 06:38 PM	#6
aivazeppelin Join Date: Jul 2012 Reputation: 142 Posts: 67	Creative soundcards have buggy, bloated drivers. Asus Xonar soundcards are much better in both hardware and software quality. Yes it's worth it, you can hear all the little details in the games if set up correctly, for example I was blown away by the sound of raindrops in Left 4 Dead. About the crystal clear voice, you need a good quality headset. Background noise depends mostly on quality of the mic, not the soundcard. I would recommend Sennheiser PC 350, because I own them myself(there is a newer PC 360 model, but can't speak about them from experience). 2 years of service and hold on the head is good, my ears are comfortable after long gaming marathons and the mic quality is superb. Sound is very "clean" but lacks of bass, so these are not for dubstep fans.

08-11-2012, 06:43 PM	#7
galaxy366 Join Date: Jan 2011 Reputation: 6 Posts: 168	Issue I do have with a soundcard.. I have 2 HD6870 and well I can't place a big ♥♥♥ soundcard in it , There is not much space. I can use the last PCIe slot but close to that is the plug in for my front jacked and down there ( 2cm ) sits my power supply. I can post a image tomorrow if you people would like to see?

08-11-2012, 06:50 PM	#9
galaxy366 Join Date: Jan 2011 Reputation: 6 Posts: 168	You ok if I post imaged tomorrow of my PC case and the space I have? I do want to go to bed now, so if you want say so Ill make some only takes 2min.

08-12-2012, 03:29 AM	#11
fezlopez Join Date: Jan 2012 Reputation: 0 Posts: 14	http://www.amazon.com/Plantronics-Ga....1+plantronics

08-12-2012, 06:01 AM	#12
YahooElite Join Date: Nov 2008 Reputation: 782 Posts: 6,954	As far as background noise goes, make sure theres no noise in the background before you start recording. Secondly, be sure to setup the mic settings within Windows to help with that as well. i see no reason as to why youd need a dedicated soundcard just to cancel out background noise. Hell, i use a $7-10 Logitech mic from walmart and have no problem in that area because i have the mic setup correctly and i use the integrated Realtek on my ASUS Z68 board.

08-12-2012, 07:21 AM	#13
Appl250 Join Date: Dec 2011 Reputation: 96 Posts: 761	ASUS Xonar is a good card on a budget. Quite frankly I think Creative have done their dash with sound cards, their gimmicks may entice some people, but someone who has had experience with creative cards will know their drivers do not play well. As for low noise, you can't get better than a pro-audio sound card but this is going into home recording rather than just games which I assume you are targeting. As for headset, I can not help as I use a proper vocal mic.

08-12-2012, 11:30 AM	#15
galaxy366 Join Date: Jan 2011 Reputation: 6 Posts: 168	Evening So I had 1 old picture on my phone from way back when I was building my PC. The first picture will only who the motherboard inside the case. http://i.imgur.com/2uiqW.jpg The second one will show my PC at the very moment. Pardon for the dark image but I think it's just enough to see the PCIe slots http://i.imgur.com/QzZL4.jpg?1?3633 Doesn't seem like enough space ?