Should I buy - Creative Gigaworks T3 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System

socrates

Creative Gigaworks T3 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System - read the reviews they score very highly - are they worth £160? I really need them for playing music (like my bass) and watching movies on my PC. Would appreciate some input before I take the plunge Thanks in advance!

Strider590

£160 appears to be about the correct price....

Seem's a lot for a 2.1 system though in my book, I'd not even consider buying 2.1 these days.

However I have a Creative Gigaworks 5.1 surround system, which I brought in 2004 (for a lot of money) and I can tell you that Creative make exceptionally good PC speakers.

Choice is yours!

socrates

Another question - is it pointless buying decent speakers if my sound card is average?

How do I find out which sound card I have without opening up the PC?

Psychofly

It's totally pointless splashing out on good speakers without a good sound card. The sound card is basically your amplifier and if it only generates mediocre sound then all your expensive speakers will do is play the mediocre sound in glorious mediocrity.
You can check what sound card you have in Device Manager. Right click on My Computer and choose Properties. Click Hardware then Device Manager. Look under 'Sound, video and game controllers'. Chances are you'll have a Soundblaster, Intel Integrated Audio or a SoundMax integrated. There are plenty of other options but they're most common as standard. The integrated audio (on the motherboard as opposed to stand alone cards) are generally quite good these days but not always so don't just assume if it's integrated it's going to be crap.

socrates

Realtek High Definition Audio - I have no idea if that is good or bad to be honest!

Ximian

Creative X-Fi have come down in price since the range was first launched, and are pretty good sound cards IMO: http://uk.store.creative.com/products/welcome.aspx?catid=1

Realtek are average and from what I've seen, predominantly provide the sound chips on mobos

SatanicHare

Save some cash and buy these
http://www.acoustic-energy.co.uk/Product_range/Aego_series/Aego_M.asp

Very highly rated speakers and can be got for around £100

edit
Seems they've gone up in price now around £120, my son got them for abot £70 a couple of years ago before they were so well reviewed

googler

Speakers used with a PC follow the same rule as with a HiFi system - garbage in, garbage out.

If the front-end is lacking, the speakers can't improve it. No matter how much you spend on the speakers, whatever goes before the speakers will determine the end result.

If you think your sound card is lacking, improve that first. Once the sound card is upgraded, feed the line out from the sound card to a PROPER HiFI Amp and Speakers, rather than something that's just intended to be tacked onto a PC.

Strider590

If you have a decent motherboard, it probably has decent on board sound.... If it's some cheapo high street store job (by cheap I mean quality), then expect mediocre on board sound at best.

It's hard to know if your sound card is up to the job without having a reference, if good speakers sound crappy, then you'll know what needs to be changed.

socrates

Strider590 wrote: »

If you have a decent motherboard, it probably has decent on board sound.... If it's some cheapo high street store job (by cheap I mean quality), then expect mediocre on board sound at best.

It's hard to know if your sound card is up to the job without having a reference, if good speakers sound crappy, then you'll know what needs to be changed.

OK - following on from this - I have been recommended to purchase a Low Profile Sound Card or an external sound card - I am even more confused than when I started.

So here are the two questions -

Should I buy an internal low profile card - if so which one - XFI Xtreme Audio has been mentioned - but any suggestions welcome

or

Should I buy an external USB Sound Card - if so which one?

I do have a proper Denon hi-fi - but I do not want to connect that to my PC - I want to look at a separate set up just for my PC - with a top quality sound card and top quality speakers

Thanks in advance

Strider590

You need to figure out whether you have spare PCI slots inside your PC, a PCI sound (recommend Creative soundblaster £25+) card will always out perform a USB.

Don't consider USB unless you have no space for an internal card.