Seems like another askubuntu thread agrees with you.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/8121/are-there-any-good-usb-5-1-or-7-1-channel-sound-cards-that-work-in-linux?rq=1

Random question - audiophiles make it seem like you need to buy the $100,000 setup or you may as well be listening to everything through a plastic cup.

At what price range does spending money on a dedicated sound system make sense? Whatever the most basic and affordable "this is good coming from onboard and cheap speakers" is honestly. I'd take a youtube video guide on it too. :P

I just need clear audio coming out of my speakers, something my onboard sound couldn't even get the job done!

I was asking for me, not for you. It's a hijack question. :P

Nowadays, it usually doesn't. Unless you're doing audio production, the built-in ones are good enough, and if you are, "gamer" cards are a waste of money (you'll want some professional product, say from M-Audio, and neutral studio monitors, not gamer/multimedia 5.1/7.1 speaker sets).

Focusing a bit on the Asus Xonars...

http://techreport.com/review/23358/asus-budget-xonar-dgx-and-dsx-sound-cards-reviewed

Apparently, the DGX and DSX are PCI-express versions of the DG and DS. Haha. Sure makes the choice easier!

Just make sure you use the Monster cables with the arrows on them so that the electrons know which way to flow. :-P

Anyways, most of what audiophiles say is complete bunk. These days a lot of the onboard sound cards are quite good and certainly good enough unless you're going to be investing in top quality speakers.

I suppose some of the discrete sound cards have accelerator chips in them that can reduce the stuttering during intense game play, but other than that, I haven't been tempted to upgrade the onboard sound in years.

I see. I know they're *enough*. I'm just a mid-range person personally and wanted to know what options were out there. My $30 speakers and Realtek audio work fine. If the only upgrade would be at $300+ then it's not really worth it for sure.

Yeah, and that's pretty much what you're looking at, and you most likely won't notice much of a difference anyway (unless you're an audio professional with specific requirements for low latency and as little distortion as possible). Games and media players most likely won't use the low-latency audio APIs even if the audio chip has the option, their use is mostly focused on high-end production applications.

I haven't bought sound cards since Soundblaster 16, onboard sound chips have been good enough since they became commonplace. I thought people still buy sound cards mainly for more versatile audio output ports or something, not because of better audio quality? What is the difference in audio quality?

I'm mostly using laptops nowadays anyway, so... In a way I still have bough an external "sound card" for my laptops though, as to my understanding my Logitech V20 USB speakers have a soundchip of their own (ie. they don't utilize my computer's onboard sound chips or other sound cards at all, but produce the audio all on their own).

Same goes to my Jabra UC VOICE 750a USB headphones, I guess.

Wow! That's much more advanced than my sound card. I had to put it in the PC first. :-P

EDIT: Oh, and congrats on the new PC. :-)

Thanks! :D We'll see how this one shapes up!