What do I buy to get 5.1 Surround Sound for my Sager 8120 Laptop???

Hello Guys.
I need some help quick lol
I just bought some Sennheisers HD595's with a clip-on Zalman Mic and want to get 5.1 simulated surround for gaming, music, and movies.
I have a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi USB External Sound Card at home hooked up to my Logitech Z-5300. It sounds great!
I guess i could take the X-Fi USB with me anywhere I go and plug in the headphones but people tell me Creative stuff is only good for music. I guess it uses to much CPU or something like that. Should I just use that External USB surround option or is there something better and more portable out there.

Ive been looking at the Asto Mixamp,Turtle Beach stuff and even the ASUS Xonar U1 (U1 Not good with WIN 7)but am unsure how to plug the stuff in.
What is everyone else using for laptop surround besisde the crappy onboard audio
Thanks

 

i myself had issues with this same problem. for awhile i used an xfi notebook (expresscard) that worked ok but only when the laptop wasnt moving around since the thing stuck out like 2 to 3 inches from the port.

i then switched to the xfi external surround card which worked great and sounded good but its not a hardware accelerated audio.

at this point i bought a pe2L and used a desktop xfi titanium card which was really fantastic but it wasnt really portable since the express port couldnt fully power the card so it needed an dc adapter.

what i ended up doing was just buying a logitech g35 headset which has simulated 7.1 audio. this headset for me works so good in games that i get accused of wall hacking since i can literally hear your direction before i can see you (left 4 dead 2)

i know you may not want to buy a new headset so maybe buy one that has a surround sound unit and just plug your headset into it? one example of this could be a plantronics 777 or something like this
NEW Siig SoundWave 7.1 Pro Surround Sound Device - eBay (item 400132300489 end time Aug-27-10 08:44:01 PDT)

honestly though i dunno if youll find anything hardware accelerated and not be ridiculously priced.

 

I don't mind using the Sennheizers for my music
Should I go out and buy the G35's
How do they sound compared to the Sennheisers, AD700 and all the other popular headsets.
I game at work and just plugging in a USB headset sounds real easy

 

hell no dont buy the g35 if you already have the sennheisers.... look at the creative x-fi go or the steelseries "7.1" usb soundcard. I have used both and neither take up much cpu (maybe 1-2% if any) The x-fi go is more portable because its a usb stick itsellf while the steelseries one plugs in to a cable and then plugs in the usb port if that makes any sense..

I like the software on the steelseries better but the x-fi go is not bad, let me know if you have any questions

 

I didn't get how the steelseries usb sound card to work

 

you already have a headset so if i was you i wouldnt buy the g35 either if you really want simulated 7.1 audio look for a usb adapter that has dolby headphone support and it should work just like the g35's do with games.

if you decide you dont need 7.1 audio then just stick to your xfi external they dont really use much cpu if you have a somewhat modern system. in my experience software vs hardware accelerated sound doesnt make much difference in game performance but it does make a difference in audio quality.