Looking for sound card with a dedicated headphone jack

[Cloud121]

I'm doing a new build this fall, and I'm probably going to get a new sound card as well, as I'm tired of not being able to have my headphones plugged directly into my Sound Blaster X-Fi due to my speakers taking the spot, and it doesn't have a front panel connector.

Basically, I want a sound card that I can still plug in all my 5.1 speakers, plus my headset directly into the sound card. The new Sound Blaster Recon3D has this feature, but I'm on a bit of a budget this time around. I've been looking at some ASUS sound cards (PCI-E), and the picture are too blurry to make out if there is a dedicated port or not. Some of them say "Dedicated Headphone Amp", but I have no clue if that means a dedicated jack, or just something that helps the audio when it detects a headset is plugged in.


Yes, I remember the big debate we had last year about on board audio vs dedicated audio. Please don't bring that up again.

[Hwj_Chim]

The only cards i see with a headphone jack in your price range would be the USB sound cards.

[GizzyGames]

Pretty much any high end motherboard that has built in sound these days is about as good as any addon card you can get.