Questions about onboard audio vs an actual soundcard...

[Xpred]

Hey ya'll. I've been mostly building systems with onboard everything EXCEPT video (of course). This includes all the goodies like Firewire, USB, Ethernet LAN, and sound cards. But because of a problem that I have with my motherboard, I MIGHT have to get an actual sound card. But, here are just my general newbie questions about sound cards:

1. How's installation on these babies? Are all sounds cards usually PCI slots? That means, just install it on one of your PCI slots, disable onboard audio, install the drivers, and you're good to go?

2. Will buying an actual sound card improve performance? I heard of people supposedly getting better FPS in certain games or generally fasting loading in anything because of the CPU usage being taken off of when not using the onboard audio...

3. How much BETTER is an actual sound card vs onboard audio? I've never onced, after all these years, used anything other than onboard because I didn't need to. The sound I always had was pretty good with a decent pair of speakers (I mostly use 2.1's, but will eventually try a 5.1). But how MUCH better would it be? Would it be truly be clearer and crisper? I guess I have never listened to the 'truly better' side of PC audio, eh? :/

4. What's a good amount to spend on an "okay" / average sound card? I was thinking somewhere between the $50-60 something along the lines of Creative Labs...

Thanks!

[TRF-Inferno]

1. Yes
2. Supposedly it helps relieve load from the CPU by having a seperate controller for sound, but I'm not quite sure if it really is a noticeable imporvement. Most people have sound cards just because they generally produce better sound quality than onboard ones. Important for those who has $100+ 2.1/5.1 speaker setups.
3. Again, it is really noticeable with some good set of speakers. They offer a vast sound quality boost especially for surround systems.
4. You can generally spend $50-$100 for a good sound card. Creative Lab's Audigy series are usually what most people swear by, and there are a few who prefer Turtle Beach and a few less popular brands.

[R4z0r4mu5 Pr|m3]

once you've heard a good soundcard, you'll never go back to onboard sound, the only good onboard sound ever made is the soundstorm that comes with the mcp-t southbridge on the nforce2 chipset

besides the new x-fi which is excellent and pricey, creative sound cards aren't extraordinary especially for the prices but they are pretty good and excel in gaming, if you don't use surround the Chaintech AV-710 sounds incredible for $26 shipped from newegg.com, the HDA X-Mystique is an excellent card, the Turtle Beach Montego DDL uses the same chip as the HDA, and any M-Audio card is good too