Looking for advice for a 5.1 speaker system for gaming on my pc

[Ashwath Gopinath]

Ive been wanting to get a surround sound setup for a while, but it seems to be quite confusing. Im not sure if i need a sound card or not, but my mobo is a gigabyte z97x sli. Budget is around £150 for all of it, including possible sound card. Any advice would be helpful. Like i said, im going to use it for gaming, mainly bf4. Cheers

 

[PsyKhiqZero]

All PC surround sets are self amplified so you don't really need a high end sound card. Onboard sound is good enough nowadays. The thing with surround sound is you need to setup the speakers around you. Do you have a setup that allows you to do that? IMO there is only one pc surround set worth it's salt. The Logitech z906. You can find it closer to your budget if you wait for a sale.
1. It's not going to win "best sound" especially when compared to good 2.1 sets. But the sound is still amazing for the size.
2. It uses standard speakers wire. This makes it so much easier to set up versus speakers that use RCA.
3. Supports PC and console simultaneously. Just a nice touch.

 

[guanyu210379]

Yes, I agree. For surround sets you should usually never need an extra sound-card.
Either the surround set is already self-amplified or even already has it's own DAC and amplifier.
Z906 has it's own DAC, you can even connect your Z906 to the PC using optical output of your mobo.

Z906 sounds quite amazing for the price and size, it is basically the 5.1 version of Z623 with some more additional features.
If you can afford Z906, I do not see why you should pick cheaper ones.

 

[Ashwath Gopinath]

The z906 seem great, but they are a little out of my budget. Is there any other model you would recommend?

 

[PsyKhiqZero]

The only other set I've used is the much weaker Logitech z506. It's decent at low to mid volumes but the woofer can easily get overwhelmed at higher volumes. The cables are fix the the speaker and are RCA. You'll need to buy extension cables if they are not long enough.

I would really consider saving up the extra money. A good speaker set will last a long time. And usually is not something you want to ever upgrade unless it dies.

 

[guanyu210379]

How about Edifier C6XD.
This is not bad and this speaker set is about around €50-70 (£30-50) cheaper than Z906.
I would not go below C6XD since the quality is going down tremendously if you go further below e.g. Logitech Z506 or Creative T6300.

 

[Ashwath Gopinath]

Ok, ive realised that i could probably get the logitech z906, seems worth it. However, i am royally confused about how to set it up. Do all the speakers get wired up straight into my pc, or do i have to get an amplifier or some such thing? Thanks

 

[guanyu210379]

The surround or satellite speakers of the Z906 are connected to the sub-woofer not to your PC
You just have to connect the subwoofer to PC/mobo using e.g. an optical cable.
You do not need amplifier or anything else, Z906 is a all-in-one surround set. To put it using other words, Z906 has already built-in amplifier, etc.