After having issues with a Asus Xonar 5.1 card (the installer kept asking for me to insert the Xonar DG device) I have swapped it for a Creative Sound Blaster Z PCIe and in my opinion its a lot better than the on board sound, With the Realtek I was getting crackles every time I used the scroll wheel on the mouse, and the sound wasnt that clear when playing games. Now its very good and should add a lot to flying and it works well with the Buttkicker