[slydacious]

Well, thanks to you guys, I bought a pair of Shure E3s and realized the signal from the AC97 headphone out of my SoundStorm is freakin' noisy. So, I'm looking to upgrade to something with significantly less noise that's good at games and music. Any recommendations?

 

[CamelBackCinema]

Soundcards don't make a lot of noise unless it is static that you are hearing. Im guessing what you're hearing the majority of the time is the fans and hard drives and CPU and stuff. Computers are noisy sir!

 

[Stephonovich]

Not true. The SNR varies widely, just as it does with CDPs and the like. Crappy soundcards (*cough*Live*cough*) will have quite a bit of background noise, as you found out.

Anyway, slydacious, I (and likely many others) would recommend the Chaintech AV-710. $24 from newegg, and well worth it. Check out my review (shamless plug).

(-:Stephonovich