First of all any sound card will have improvement from the on-board. This is no horse run.
I have 3 systems/PC set-up for family. All using the sounds cards listed below.
- Sound Blaster Z (SB-Z)
- X-Fi Titanium HD and
- X-Fi XtremeGamer
IMO from the three above, the X-Fi Titanium HD gives an overall natural and balanced sound compared to the rest of the sound cards. Be it playing gmaes, watching movies and listening to music.
SB-Z has clarity but for me it feels and sounds like it's trying to hard to be different or better than X-Fi.
XtremeGamer is just too much boom/bass. Not balance at all.
With the sound cards, use the Speakers/Headphones listed below;
- Klipsch 2.1 (Old model with detachable speaker cables)
- Creative Gigworks T20 and
- Grado SR325is (Headphones)
If you want your windows to shutter, the rest of your family to started banging on your door shouting, turn it down then get a decent 2.1 speaker system. Example: Klipsch 2.1. If not your current one will do fine.
T20 speakers works fine. Although the sound of bullet drop onto a tile floor or gun fire is not as good as a Klipsch 2.1, it's still decent for a desktop speaker.
Summery:
Look for a balanced sound card that produce natural sound. Not too much bass/low or too high treble or muffed mid sounds. Balanced is the key.
For that I'd recommend X-Fi Titanium HD.
Bought it from Amazon.
Amazon.com : Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD Internal Sound Card with THX SB1270 : Computer Internal Sound Cards : Electronics
For Speakers, I would suggest keep your current one and try it with the new sound card that your gonna get. You will hear the difference. See if you like it and go from there.
For up-grading any sound system from a current system, the key is to go/up-grade one component at a time, listen to it, ask yourself how is it compared to previous and go from there.
