Yeah, onboard sound is good enough for me these days. I haven't installed a sound card since the days a motherboard didn't come with it built in. I have nothing against somebody wanting better sound, and adding a good quality card, I just don't see the need myself. My motherboards are long in the tooth these days and missing a lot of the current features. Makes it tricky some times to keep up with what's going on.
You always want to use the PCIE 16 slot for a high end card like yours. Otherwise your significantly reducing the performance that you paid a lot of money for. Most MB's that I've seen only have one of those, so it's important to measure how much room you have before you buy a particular brand. They're not all the same size.
Like most of the above I've not used and 3rd party sound card in many years. The internal works just fine for me. The speakers and/or headset is much more important these days.
In any case, I'm glad you got your problem sorted. :)
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