[Sound N00b]

So I have an akg k712. I was running it with a sound blaster z card but that has since died and I have a really good excuse to upgrade now. I do about 60% gaming and 40% music listening. How does the sound quality of a setup like a jds atom+modi 3 compare to an equally expensive sound card such as something like a asus essence stx II. Is there any benefits other than the surround sound processing to a sound card? Why don't audiophiles typically go for sound cards even when some of them look like they have nice components in them? What route would you recommend?

 

[PurpleAngel]

Unless you need the features of a sound card and your willing to budget for an external DAC/amp, go external DAC/amp.
Computer's sometime can have electrical noise generated inside the computer case, which the sound card might pick up (analog part), which gives you noise in the audio.
Using external DAC/amp, the audio stays digital and only get changed to analog, outside the computer case.

I've never really had much noise issues, with using internal sound card,
but with external DAC/amps, you get a very black (quiet) background (no noise).

With external DAC/amps, they are easy to switch to other computers, PC, MACs, Linux, etx.