siber v2 external soundcard vs notebook soundcard

hello, i´m planing to buy a new headset. until now i had a sennheiser pc 160 which is slowly going to die. I heard the sennheiser hd555 should be very good but it has no mic and costs 90€ (+ mic around 100€ or more). But now i heard that there will be a new icemat siberia which has a mic + improved speakers.. so it might be a decent headset too (for just 70€). How ever , i read this here:

http://www.steelseries.com/news/press_releases/steelseries_introduces_new_siberia_v2_headset

There are two versions: One with an external usb coundcard (which is build in the headset i guess) and one without. Now the external soundcard offers virtual surround 7.1 and also it saves your sound settings all the time (so when i plug in my headset somewhere else , the settings are the same and nothing sounds weird which is rly handy for me). But is this external soundcard rly good? And better than the one in my notebook? I thought such a soundcard via usb cant be rly good?

I got a asus g50vt-a1 and i´m not sure if it supports 7.1 surround sound. I also didnt rly find smth about it on the asus page. How ever it support dolby suround. So is it worth buying the headset with the external soundcard? Or is it just worse?

Thanks

 

There are two versions of the V2, the black with the usb virtual 7.1 sound card and the white without the usb virtual 7.1 sound card (if you like the white, you can always buy the soundcard separate on their website and on newegg).
Regarding your question concerning saved settings, the short answer is No. When you use the external usb sound card, you have to download the driver/software so you can tweek the settings. The usb sound card has no onboard memory so profiles cannot be saved. So basically you need the driver/software if you plan on using it on another computer or else it will play with default settings.
External sound cards are good, but not ones that emulate 5.1 or 7.1 sound. Sure it will definitely sound better, but won't be as submersive as a true 5.1 or 7.1 sound card. But typically you find these on desktops.
If you laptop supports 7.1 surround sound, yeah you don't neet the usb virtual support as you can tweek settings with you audio mixer.

In the end, the virtual 7.1 usb card will make stereo headsets more submersive in gaming, but you will really notice a difference with a dedicated soundcard that doesn't virtualize or replicate surround sound.

Edit: Wherever you plug in your headset, you will need to plug in the usb sound card as well, the headset also does NOT have onboard memory to save settings. Also for those stereo only headsets, it will not be worth it to buy a true 5.1 or 7.1 sound card as you will need a true 5.1 headset like the Roccat Kave.