SOund Card and sound decissions for the layman

[shivadee]

Well, as most of you know I have, in a way, jumped back onto the PC game bandwagon after being in the console arena for such a long time. I still play console games, peunging this Kingdom Hearts 2 thingy now.....but PC is my main platform, especially since i got my ninja PC (ninja-ish PC)

Anyway. I'm using on board sound at the moment mostly beecause of my situation. My appartment here in Florida has pretty much paper thin walls so when i try to "rock the casbah" my little 100 Watt Altec Lancings for my PS2/XBOX system on the TV the neighbours complain.

So its not like i need a 400W sound system for my PC, which was why i was staying with headphones. got a good deal on a nice headset on newegg, im very pleased with it and highly recommend it to anyone

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836504001

SO in the soundcard section, what would you recomend? A good soundcard that I wont be using to its full potential for about another year and a half or a cheap soundcard. Then we're talking speakers. I see some 7.1 and 5.1 sound systems selling in the 60US range, im even thinking 2.1 since i wont be really playing audio that loud to use 5.1 to full potential. Not powerful, but then i dont need that since i cant bangout. Would these requirements fit my needs? I just need something to listen to at a respectable volume, regular tv level dB we talking.

Or should i just stay with on board audio (Asus A8N SLi) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131524
Im worried about it bogging down my system, i dont know the details. WIll a 2.1 or 5.1 low power system affect hardware performance from on board audio?

heh, i was even looking at this, but watching it alone giving me neck cramps

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16873999504

[Beomagi]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102188
base audigy.

Some games use the positional effects and make use of the xfi, such as battlefield 2.

It REALLY depends on the games and how much you value sound. onboard uses your cpu processing, and is limited in filters, but today, it's clean enough that you'd have a hard time distinguishing it from anything less than the above.