BBigJ
10-23-05, 08:57 PM
I'm in the process of upgrading the two home machines from socket A to s939. Both machines are currently equipped with SoundBlaster Live 5.1 soundcards, and I'm trying to decide whether to keep the same soundcard or to go with the onboard sound of the Abit AN8 motherboards in the new machines. Here are the considerations I've thought of:
Channels--The onboard sound can supposedly handle 7.1 channels. I barely have that many speakers on both computers put together, so this isn't an issue.
Quality--This probably isn't an issue on my machine because I'm using a basic/decent 4.1 speaker system from altec lansing. However, it does matter for my wife who has a set of Klipsch Promedia 2.1s. That being said, I have no idea which sound solution would have better quality. Has the quality of onboard sound caught up to the state-of-the-art in soundcards four years ago?
CPU utilization--I'd imagine that the SBL wins here, but then again I've heard good things about nvidia's sound solutions. Does the nf4 have a sound processing chip? Which sound system will use less cpu, and is it by enough that it matters?
Anything else I'm forgetting about?
Actually this is probably only an issue for my wife's machine. The radiator on my machine blocks the slot for the riser card. Although if it was a big deal I could move the radiator or figure out a workaround.
Channels--The onboard sound can supposedly handle 7.1 channels. I barely have that many speakers on both computers put together, so this isn't an issue.
Quality--This probably isn't an issue on my machine because I'm using a basic/decent 4.1 speaker system from altec lansing. However, it does matter for my wife who has a set of Klipsch Promedia 2.1s. That being said, I have no idea which sound solution would have better quality. Has the quality of onboard sound caught up to the state-of-the-art in soundcards four years ago?
CPU utilization--I'd imagine that the SBL wins here, but then again I've heard good things about nvidia's sound solutions. Does the nf4 have a sound processing chip? Which sound system will use less cpu, and is it by enough that it matters?
Anything else I'm forgetting about?
Actually this is probably only an issue for my wife's machine. The radiator on my machine blocks the slot for the riser card. Although if it was a big deal I could move the radiator or figure out a workaround.