nForce 2 or Sound Cards

[Nuge]

Right now I have an A7N8X-E Deluxe motherboard and I am using the nForce 2 MCP-T onboard sound. I also recently picked up a set of Bose TriPort headphones. My Regular speakers are some old Labtec 2.1 speakers. Reading some stuff I have heard some mixed views with soundstorm and it gotten me to start thinking about sound devices. I think I am picking up a bit of crackling and I already have 2 VGA memory heatsinks on the southbridge. I also run about 40C chip and 30C MB. I have been considering picking up a new sound card and looking towards a Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS. Just wondering if it is worth the money to get a new sound card and will I notice a difference (gaming preformance and sound quality)? If so what model of Audigy2 should I get and what is the difference amoung the different models?

[Tebore]

Did you get the latest drivers?

Strange how I always hear about sound problems but I never get them...

[glock19owner]

Just wondering if it is worth the money to get a new sound card and will I notice a difference (gaming preformance and sound quality)? If so what model of Audigy2 should I get and what is the difference amoung the different models?

Yes you will...I could never get the "cracking" sound out of the OBS on my older A7N8X Deluxe...finally went and bought a SB live 5.1...if you are a bencher...then you will also see a slight increase when disabling the sound in the BIOS...

[TUK101]

I myself am running the Nforce onboard sound. I ran it with my A7N8X and am now running it with my NF7. I used to have an Audigy, but once I tried the onboard sound I sold my Audigy and never looked back. I cant hear any difference in the sound quality but I am far from a professional on the subject. HL2 is the only game that has ever given me sound issues with onboard sound, but I read a lot of posts where everybody was having issues with sound and that was people with spendy sound cards as well. If you have money burning to be spent then I say try the Audigy 2 and see for yourself, but if you dont have a lot of money then I say try some different drivers and tweaking to see if you cant work out any problems that you are experiencing now.

[Nuge]

I updated to the newest drivers. Could only remember the spot in one song where there was cracking and the new drivers didn't help. However, it could be a flaw in the recording and I need to listen to more music to if it still around. It seems to only happen a small range of certain tones. They are difficult to pick up at times. The crackling is extremely difficult to find with my regular computer speakers, but they seem to be there. So, my earphones aren't making them by themselves. Game wise, I haven't had an issue with onboard for conflicts, even with HL2. The crackling is the only issue present.

Still open to suggestions.

[Nuge]

Just to make sure. I get crackling in various mp3s and original cds. The crackling only happens in certain songs, not all. The list of songs isn't huge, but enough to get annoying. The crackling will happen in the same spots in the songs. I notice that I don't get crackling when I run the CDs through my CD player with the same earphones. Like I said, the computer speakers and earphones pick up this crackling. This annoying noise problem is to do with the onboard sound right? Want to make sure before I look at getting new card.

I have been looking at other sound cards and the M-Audio Rev 7.1 seems to be another option. Just wonder, is it better to buy a card with extra features if you plan to hook a reciever up?