onboard sound vs add on card Why?

[cigma77]

ok I have been running onboard sound for years. Is it really that much better to have a addon card for sound. I am a gamer and listen to a ton of music on my pc.

What I do is use the line out an old hometheater reciever and itis powering 2 bookshelf speaker's(30 watts apeice.

I sit right next to a guy with a addon card and surrond speaker system for his computer and i think the games sound the same and music sound better from mine.

sorry rambeling. Is there a reason to buy a addon soundcard that i am missing.

[Deadphishy]

one reason i would guess would be overclocking. sometimes when you overclock really high it's your onboard hardware that freezes your computer. so turning off all the onboard features can help. and small things like digital outs, slightly better sound quality if you have the better speakers.

[cigma77]

good point. the digital out i hadn't crossed my mine

just trying to justify buying a soundcard

[skid]

As far as suround 3D sound goes, just like how a VPU releaves the graphics load off the CPU, a hardware audio processor should lighten the CPU's load in processing 3D sound, right boys?

I magine your best hardware sound accelerators come from "add-in" cards like the Audigy, Fortissmo, and them Turtle Beach PCI cards.

[Samoyed]

I had a SB Live X gamer that eventually broke so I was forced to decide whether to use the onboard sound or get another sound card. When I saw the SB Live 5.1 for only 35 at pricewatch I just got it.

I suspect that a 100 dollar soundcard would only be noticed by people with top of the line speakers. I cant really tell the difference myself. I also hear that the on board sound uses some of the CPU cycles.

[Deathknight]

Usually the weakest link in most peoples stereos as well as their computer sound systems is speakers. If you don't have nice speakers it probably doesn't make any difference sound quality wise how good your sound card is.

[Dark Disciple]

Like DeathKnight said, you need BOTH, a good sound card, and good speakers.

[oops]

It's true, but.....a $35 sound card isn't that "good" at all.


Get an Audigy or Audigy 2.
OEM Audigy is available for $60 Here (http://shop.store.yahoo.com/newegg/29-102-148.html)

[rizge]

Originally posted by oops
It's true, but.....a $35 sound card isn't that "good" at all.


Get an Audigy or Audigy 2.
OEM Audigy is available for $60 Here (http://shop.store.yahoo.com/newegg/29-102-148.html)

OF COURSE NOT
I got Soundsurround Hercules Fortissimo II at ~39$ and i am VERY happy with it
i've tried many sound cards and i can clearly said it is the best one in the low-budget level and it is very far from being a BAD at all

[oops]

Originally posted by rizge


OF COURSE NOT
I got Soundsurround Hercules Fortissimo II at ~39$ and i am VERY happy with it
i've tried many sound cards and i can clearly said it is the best one in the low-budget level and it is very far from being a BAD at all


So you've tried many sound cards. Have you tried an Audigy? I have one now, it was a retail one costed $86. With Logitech z560 4.1 surrounding system, it's great. Much better than the cards I used before.

[Arkaine23]

I bought a card because I experienced an FSB limitation from the onboard chip on my first OC mothebroard. The sound was the first thing to go...

I've also had crackling on several friends' machines using AC97 with a Via chipset. Constantly re-installing new 4-in-1's or audio drivers was not something I wanted to deal with on my own rigs.

[rizge]

yeah
i tried audigy and am gonna try audigy 2 soon(Hoping to :) )
They sound good but they lose in the price/perf. ratio
as i mentioned before there are better choices if you are low on budget so consider the audigy only if u r that richie guy ;)
PS:
There also some very high quality sound cards beside the audigy like Hercules's own THEATER XP

[cigma77]

Thanks for all the info guys. I decieded to get a sound card. I don't plan on doing surrond from the card because i like the volum i get from the speakers i have(they are a $200.00 set of jbl bookshelf's).

What I want is a card that can give me 2 channel line out to hook up to the reciever i use( don't want to have to use a spliter on the line out.

[SickBoy]

I have the Creative 5300 speakers (Dolby 5.1) and right now they're hooked to the AC97 onboard audio on my MSI. I just got these speakers a few weeks ago and when I switched over from my old Cambridge Soundworks 3-pc speakers I really noticed how truly horrible the onboard sound is. It really distorts a lot at higher volume and there's a lot of tearing when the bass is turned up. I have been planning on getting an Audigy for a long time and I think I'll finally get around to it after another few paychecks roll in. So yes, some onboard audio sounds perfectly fine depending on your speaker setup but once you move up in the world you'll notice differences in quality.

[oops]

Originally posted by SickBoy
I have the Creative 5300 speakers (Dolby 5.1) and right now they're hooked to the AC97 onboard audio on my MSI. I just got these speakers a few weeks ago and when I switched over from my old Cambridge Soundworks 3-pc speakers I really noticed how truly horrible the onboard sound is. It really distorts a lot at higher volume and there's a lot of tearing when the bass is turned up. I have been planning on getting an Audigy for a long time and I think I'll finally get around to it after another few paychecks roll in. So yes, some onboard audio sounds perfectly fine depending on your speaker setup but once you move up in the world you'll notice differences in quality.

It's normal when you combine using two different levels of hardwares. When I got my Audigy gamer, my Logitech Z560 4.1 hadn't arrived yet, so I used my old 2 piece speakers. wow...it was horrible! Way much much worse than I use that old speaker on one old $25 sound card. It hurted my ears :)