With more and more people using their PCs as Multimedia centres connected to their Home Theatre systems or state of the art gaming rigs with positional speaker setups, the quality of sound reproduction has become more paramount. Today’s onboard sound chips are capable of delivering feature rich multi-channel positional audio exceeding the demands of most users however, if you’re looking for extra features, increased connectivity and enhanced performance then a dedicated sound card is recommended.

Ultimately your choice will be determined by your speaker setup, afterall there is no point investing in superior audio reproduction only to use budget headphones! If on the other hand you want the best experience possible on your 8 channel THX enabled digital speaker system then a compatible sound card becomes a must.