Quote Originally Posted by heybtbm View Post
Sound cards are a waste of money these days. Especially if you have a high-end motherboard. This has been the case for the last 6-8 years.

Off all the people I know who actively build computers (professionally and personally) NONE use separate sound cards in their rigs (unless requested). I had the same questions as you a few years ago and it was unanimous. It's costs practically nothing for motherboard manufacturers to add high-end audio (5.1 or 7.1) to their boards. Thanks to competitive pressures, they all do it now.
Umm, that makes no sense. If none of the people you know who build PC's have used dedicated sound cards, how do you know that onboard sound is actually as good? I mean, there's so much more to sound processing than the number of channels that are supported. I've seen some of my online friends get budget sound cards (Asus Xonar DG, which costs about $30 USD) and then tell me that it makes a world of difference over their onboard sound. It's the same as that person who refuses to build a computer and tells everyone that the $800 HP with a low-end GPU is "good enough" for them.

The problem with dedicated audio isn't that some don't support 5.1 or 7.1. It's crosstalk, and lack of other features. I'd never own a gaming PC without a dedicated sound card.