[CoolcatTC]

My Asus Xonar Essence STX just came in today and to my dissapointment I can only fit it in my case by putting it right under my graphics card which causes it to overheat when I play any video games that are GPU intensive. I've been able to listen to it while not playing any games and I love the sound a superb step up from my onboard audio, a shame I'm going to have to return the thing...
Now I'm looking for a replacement external DAC. I would like it to be similiar to the STX's sound and quality. I already have a Fiio e11 amp so I should be fine in that department. Also if i could be able to use the DAC with my Samsung Galaxy S3 that would be stellar as its my main listening device. I've heard the Odac works with the galaxy S3 and ive been eyeing it. Any professional opinions would be appreciated as I am very much a novice in the audio world.
 
Headphones: Sennheiser HD 598's
Speakers: Klipsch promedia 2.1's (only use these when gaming or watching movies.)
 
Their may be a slim chance I can fit the Pci version of the ASUS card in my computer without overheating it but with the price increase on that one and the restocking fee i have to pay newegg now for the mess up with the STX and the shipping to send it back i've already wasted quite a bit of money to test out the pci version and find out it doesnt work....

 

[proton007]

It would help if you can tell what chasis you're using.
 
Sometimes cooling issues can be solved by using an extra intake fan.
 
You can shift the graphics card to a different slot if your motherboard has additional PCIe slots.

 

[stv014]

If you do not mind the inconvenience of using the E11, you may also consider trying the Xonar D1, which you could install in a PCI slot, preferably as far away from the GPU as possible. It is much cheaper than the Essence ST, but - barring EMI issues - would work just as well as a DAC (it has no headphone amplifier, though).

 

[CoolcatTC]

I have listened to the D1 before and I was now where as impressed as I was with the STX, but yes you are correct i really dont wanna dish out the money for a ST and I'm having trouble finding a legitament site that sells them cheaper than 200$. Honestly its my crossfire set-up thats making this difficult not my chasis, if i only had one GPU it would be a incredibly easy fit, The size of my HD 6950's heatsinks is ridiculous though...
 
So far i have found these sites selling them cheap, but i'm pretty positive they are a scam at the prices they are selling them at....
http://www.cedarpc.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=41188
http://www.costcaptain.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=C&Product_Code=DX_XONARESSESCEST&gclid=COSbl5qjwLMCFfBcMgodoFIA9g
 
If anyone could verify these sites being legitament that would be swell!

 

[stv014]

Quote:

I have listened to the D1 before and I was now where as impressed as I was with the STX

 
Did you use it as a DAC only, or to drive headphones directly (only the STX has a headphone amplifier) ? Did you compare the line outputs of the cards at matched levels ? I doubt you would be able to tell them apart without knowing which one is which.

 

[CoolcatTC]

i dont think i used my headphone amp which may have been the issue.
although i think im going to try and snag that ST from cedarpc.com as i have looked up reviews online and they seem to be reliable, crossing my fingers...
 
 
Edit: On second examination cedarpc's rep is pretty shaky... looks like i'll have to wait for a price drop.... hopefully when the new creative z cards come out the price will drop.

 

[proton007]

@CoolcatTC
While I agree with stv, I think you should seriously take a look at your PC's cooling. A graphics card should not overheat in this manner.

 

[CoolcatTC]

Quote:

@CoolcatTC
While I agree with stv, I think you should seriously take a look at your PC's cooling. A graphics card should not overheat in this manner.

Honestly it's probably not my GPU's, chassis, or sound cards fault, but i live in Texas so during the summer it gets to around 100F everyday, my room is in the upperstory of my house and the 2nd story has sub-par airconditioning so on those summer days it would be about 80F with cooling upstairs and i always have my door closed as I'm a teenager and my parents don't want to hear some of the unsavory things i say, and the biggest problem most likely is i cant name one thing in my computer thats not overclocked so that probably generates substantially more heat, as i like to have the gaming power to play games like crysis 2 and bf3 on max settings.
 
So a multitude of issues compile to my heat issue other than the sound card but the sound card does make a 5C temp difference on my GPU idling and i don't really have the headroom for that.... Next summer definitely getting a single room air-conditioner all to my self though

 

[proton007]

Quote:

Honestly it's probably not my GPU's, chassis, or sound cards fault, but i live in Texas so during the summer it gets to around 100F everyday, my room is in the upperstory of my house and the 2nd story has sub-par airconditioning so on those summer days it would be about 80F with cooling upstairs and i always have my door closed as I'm a teenager and my parents don't want to hear some of the unsavory things i say, and the biggest problem most likely is i cant name one thing in my computer thats not overclocked so that probably generates substantially more heat, as i like to have the gaming power to play games like crysis 2 and bf3 on max settings.
 
So a multitude of issues compile to my heat issue other than the sound card but the sound card does make a 5C temp difference on my GPU idling and i don't really have the headroom for that.... Next summer definitely getting a single room air-conditioner all to my self though

I understand. All I'm saying is since you already bought the card, sending it back would also incur costs. If you've got room in your chasis, and depending on the chasis design, a good cooling fan (~$15-20), from the side or front can possibly do the trick. 
Also, try to remove your box from the corner, and put it somewhere more airy.
TBH 80F is not very high. Where I live its ~>80F all year round.

 

[Teflon]

Man I feel your pain, I run SLI and I can't even physically fit any PCI-e peripherals, let alone install them in such a way they don't choke my GPUs.
 
I'm pretty satisfied just running an external interface for general audio but I'm kind of screwed for gaming surround support as for some reason all the good stuff is internal. Seems to me if you're looking at $200 gaming-specific audio hardware chances are good you've got a fairly beefy gaming PC already and it's not unlikely the thing has more than a single video card. Oh well..

 

[h4mm3r 0f th0r]

well i bought the essence st rather than the stx for the exact same reason...then i found out later that the st was actually better than stx as there were some clock jitter issues with the stx version...

 

[CoolcatTC]

Quote:

I understand. All I'm saying is since you already bought the card, sending it back would also incur costs. If you've got room in your chasis, and depending on the chasis design, a good cooling fan (~$15-20), from the side or front can possibly do the trick. 
Also, try to remove your box from the corner, and put it somewhere more airy.
TBH 80F is not very high. Where I live its ~>80F all year round.

Yeah the only game I have problems running now is Battlefield 3 after about a hour and 1/2 of playing i'll get a black screen that after about 20 seconds will turn white and i'll have to restart my computer. Its not that big of a deal since its just that game so i've decided to hold on to the stx to not incur any extra costs. If it turns out to be a problem I can always sell it off on head-fi or ebay or if it's not, I'll eventually sell off my crossfire HD 6950's for some better single card when they become obsolete in the future negating the problem in the first place, but man I don't think i could go back to oboard audio after hearing the stx anyway my speakers really come to life now and i can actually us my HD 598's with my computer and not only my ipod and fio e11 combo!

 

[proton007]

Quote:

Yeah the only game I have problems running now is Battlefield 3 after about a hour and 1/2 of playing i'll get a black screen that after about 20 seconds will turn white and i'll have to restart my computer. Its not that big of a deal since its just that game so i've decided to hold on to the stx to not incur any extra costs. If it turns out to be a problem I can always sell it off on head-fi or ebay or if it's not, I'll eventually sell off my crossfire HD 6950's for some better single card when they become obsolete in the future negating the problem in the first place, but man I don't think i could go back to oboard audio after hearing the stx anyway my speakers really come to life now and i can actually us my HD 598's with my computer and not only my ipod and fio e11 combo!

Ok, now I see you're running crossfire. 
You can always run your pc open, since you have air con I don't think dust will be that big an issue, and better yet, a custom water cooling setup....nothing beats that.