Worth the upgrade to Audigy2 ZS?

[McTimson]

Right now, I'm using an Epox 8RDA+ with the nForce 2 chipset. I have the Zalman '5.1 Surround sound headphones' (Are these really 5.1, or do they just create the effect of 5.1?), and I was wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade to the Audigy2 ZS? I do a lot of gaming, listen to a lot of music, and the occasional DVD on the computer, would I really notice a difference? I don't know much about sound quality in computers...so any info would be appreciated...thanks!

[PatrickBateman]

onboard sound will usually consume CPU cycles. I just saw a test that showed the framerate to be about 10% lower with onboard sound (on the particular motherboard being tested). A card like the Audigy does this processing itself.

Also, the audigy2 ZS is likely to have suberb sound quality compared to onboard.

I think nForce 2 sound is good compared to most onboard output, but the Audigy 2 ZS will surely be better: more crisp and dynamic.

Then again, onboard sound does work. The Zalman headphones are spacially snazzy, but they aren't the most accurate headphones made (that'd cost $13,000) so maybe you're doing fine as is and aren't taking a severe hit in framerate.

I have also found onboard sound to have higher incidence of background artifacts from network traffic, mouse movement, and so forth. So there's that to consider.

[Maxvla]

any (recent) sound card is better than onboard. to date i've never heard onboard sound that didn't have a whine from the hard drive or fuzz from moving the mouse among many other things. don't even try to use a mic with onboard sound.. its not pretty.

and yes that includes the almighty GOD :rolleyes: of onboard sound the soundstorm in the NF2 setup.

[McTimson]

Oh, yea, I almost forgot about that annoying whine...yea, I think I will get it then, just to get rid of that noise...and so I can have a microphone installed too, these headphones take up all 3 of the ports the nForce2 has...so yea, I guess it should be good. Thanks for the info!

[Matt761]

Have had onboard sound on my is7 for qute a whlile and i have never heard any noise from the output. Only when i use the mic their is a lot of noise.