[GuitarGuy]

Trying to decide between the asus essence st and the essence stx, the st has the edge as its the slightly (and I do mean slightly), plus the H6 board is compatible, the problem is its a pci board and not pci-e, and from what I've read it looks like pci slots are being phased out? I don't want to upgrade my motherboard and find my sound card becomes suddenly redundant? Any advice?

[iAlex]

Originally Posted by esaglik

Trying to decide between the asus essence st and the essence stx, the st has the edge as its the slightly (and I do mean slightly), plus the H6 board is compatible, the problem is its a pci board and not pci-e, and from what I've read it looks like pci slots are being phased out? I don't want to upgrade my motherboard and find my sound card becomes suddenly redundant? Any advice?

So you don't have any PCI currently?I think PCI interface will still be around for at least 5 years IMO.

[GuitarGuy]

Originally Posted by iAlex

So you don't have any PCI currently?I think PCI interface will still be around for at least 5 years IMO.

No I do have a pci slot at the moment but don't want to waste money on a £140 sound card if then whenever I may upgrade my mobo to just find theres no pci slots on anything!

[jasonst888]

Well looking at the newest motherboards available they still all have at least one pcie slot, and pcie has been 'being phased out' for years, doubt that will change to much in the future, never can tell of course.

[GuitarGuy]

Pulled the trigger on the new asus ROG Phebus today can't wait! I know it's supposedly a side step from the essence st/stx, but I prefer it's IO plus the fact that it's pice 1x and has all the ports I want, it was the perfect card for me

[DJSigma]

If you don't like the Phebus, then I can highly recommend the Essence STX if you're only interested in listening to music and not recording. I bought one a couple of weeks ago. I was blown away by the quality - both the manufacturing quality and the sound quality - but unfortunately it suffers from awful latency through the line in input so I had to return it.

[GuitarGuy]

Originally Posted by DJSigma

If you don't like the Phebus, then I can highly recommend the Essence STX if you're only interested in listening to music and not recording. I bought one a couple of weeks ago. I was blown away by the quality - both the manufacturing quality and the sound quality - but unfortunately it suffers from awful latency through the line in input so I had to return it.

Payment was rejected actually so I'm going to re order on Monday. I game and watch movies on my pc as well meaning the stx will lack in some areas to the Phoebus however I am aware that the Phoebus has some issues with drivers right now. But I don't really mind not gaming for a while to be honest.

[DJSigma]

One thing I forgot to mention about the STX, which you may or may not be aware of already, is that it requires power via a 4 pin molex. It's not powered via the PCIe slot. It's worth bearing in mind to make sure you've got a spare 4 pin cable coming from your PSU that you can hook up to it, cos otherwise it won't work.

[GuitarGuy]

Originally Posted by DJSigma

One thing I forgot to mention about the STX, which you may or may not be aware of already, is that it requires power via a 4 pin molex. It's not powered via the PCIe slot. It's worth bearing in mind to make sure you've got a spare 4 pin cable coming from your PSU that you can hook up to it, cos otherwise it won't work.

Thanks for pointing that out, I knew that already though. The phoebus needs a 6 pin pice for example.