14 DAY TRIAL // We've seen loads of hardware parts that are meant to go inside a PC, but occasionally something will crop up that shakes things up.
ASUS' ROG Xonar U7 is one such product, as it is a sound card which, rather than a PCI Express slot, connects to motherboards via Universal Serial Bus.
Indeed, the Xonar U7 is an external sound card for PCs that just don't have the best audio but are otherwise good enough that their owners don't want an upgrade.
Owners of PCs that are sealed (and it would break the warranty to open them up) are among the prospective buyers, but customers among laptop owners will probably be more numerous.
Anyway, the Xonar U7 USB external soundcard also doubles as a headphone amplifier and, to top it all off, has volume controls and a dedicated microphone.