What sound card do you use?

[singhcr]

Originally Posted by pentatonic

Agreed and for many, headphones is the only way to get real hi-fi at low prices, but you need good DACs and amp for that, onboard just usually doesn't cut it (though they have improved a lot)

Yep, the onboards have been getting a lot better over the years in terms of both sound performance and CPU utilization %, but they pale in comparison to a good dedicated sound card. The Xonar ST is $200. It's expensive, but well worth it in my opinion.