Weekly Buyer's Guide: Overclocking System - April 2004

Sound Card

Recommendation: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (6.1) OEM
Price: $70 shipped

If you're a big gamer, love watching movies, or are just someone who wants quality sound, the Audigy 2 is one of the best add-in sound cards on the market to fit those needs. This version of the Audigy 2 supports 6 channels of sound and will deliver a great listening experience in any game, and especially ones that support the Audigy 2's special features like EAX. Simply pair the Audigy 2 with the right set of speakers and you'll have the necessary tools for an exceptional listening experience. Other special Audigy 2 features include 24/96 analog playback and recording and "add-ons" like FireWire.

As we've said before, there are inevitably going to be people who don't need this kind of audio processing power. So as our alternative, we suggest those users simply use their motherboard's onboard sound controller, in this case from either the ABIT NF7-S Rev.2 or ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe. Some overclockers could care less about their system's sound as long as there isn't any interference or crackling, even if they're gamers. If that fits your audio needs to a "T", then use the onboard sound controller. However, with the right surround sound speaker system and an Audigy 2 like the one recommended above, you should know that you're missing out on an immersive and enjoyable experience, at least in our opinion.

Speakers

Recommendation: Logitech Z-640 5.1 speakers
Price: $55 shipped

It's hard not to recommend such an incredibly great set of 5.1 speakers like the Z-640 series from Logitech. Whether you talk about the 45.5W satellite output/25.7W subwoofer output or the very effective magnetic shielding that protects your speakers from interference from other devices, you can't help but love these speakers. They have a great reputation for reliability and longevity in general, and our extensive personal use of these speakers only backs up that claim. If you want surround sound on the cheap, it's hard to beat the Z-640. If you're big into gaming, we suggest an add-in sound card like the Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 that we recommended before, or better yet, the Audigy for positional audio, if you can afford to spend the money. Personally, we find the immersive gaming experience of the Z-640s and an Audigy to be truly great, but others may not be so impressed and will opt for the cheaper variant.

Alternative: Logitech Z-5300 THX Certified 5.1 speaker
Price: $147 shipped

The Z-5300 is, more or less, the more powerful version of Logitech's more successful brother, the Z-640. Besides obviously supporting 5.1 channels of sound, the Z-5300 is able to boost such features as a 100W subwoofer and a greater than 85 dB signal to noise ratio. The surround sound gaming and movie experience is tremendous, paired with a good Audigy 2 sound card; these speakers can get impressively loud and best of all, we didn't encounter any sort of crackling or distortion as volume was turned up to excruciating levels. For the price, these speakers are almost as unbeatable as the Z-640's, though not quite considering there still is about an $80 price delta in favor of the Z-640.

If, for whatever reason, you're not interested in high-end sound and will be gaming or watching movies mostly with your headphones on, obviously an expensive surround sound system will be pretty useless. If that's the case, you may just want to opt for 2.0 or 2.1 speakers, such as the ones recommended in our Budget Guide. However, if you have to choose between a good sound card and a good speaker system, we suggest that you go with the speaker system.

If you cannot find the lowest prices on the products that we've recommended on this page, it's because we don't list some of them in our RealTime pricing engine. Until we do, we suggest that you do an independent search online at the various vendors' web sites. Just pick and choose where you want to buy your products by looking for a vendor located under the "Vendor" heading.