^^ Overkill much? the essence STX is more of a professional level audio card. The Xonar DX basically gives you everything you need (including good quality DACs), at a very low price. Only notch in the Xonar DX is that it doesn't (by default) support Dolby DTS. I'm working on a *cough* ahem... "remedy" for that little problem though. *whistles innocently*