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View Full Version : Onboard sound new MB or old sound card?

jscharpf
10-28-05, 11:22 PM
This may sound like a strange question, but I'm purchasing a new MB/CPU and related hardware. I didn't buy a sound card. I have one right now but I'm wondering which of these two setups will perform better.

1) New MB onboard sound. MSI K8N Neo4 with Realtek ALC850

or

2) Disable the sound on this new MB and install my old Creative Sound Blaster PCI 5.5.


any opinions?


I'm not a sound purist so I don't care if the sound isn't perfect. I'm more concerned how the sound hardware affects my system performance.

Is the modern onboard sound as good as the plug in card if the plug in card isn't that great to begin with?

I appreciate all your input.

Jeff
rseven
10-28-05, 11:33 PM
Neither are great, but the Soundblaster is pretty old stuff. I would go with the Realtek first. It will sound better. It will likely use a small amount more in the way of resources. If you have any problems us the other as a backup. You might want to look into a new one if the on-board sound is troublesome as it sometimes can be.
Midnight Dream
10-28-05, 11:45 PM
Onboard would be better of those two, in my opinion
Quailane
10-29-05, 02:14 PM
My DFI with ALC650 sounds like crap while my ALC850 on my ECS sounds great. Since you have the ALC850, I would stick with that.
wmiddleton
10-30-05, 01:06 PM
My vote is onboard is the lesser of two evils.
consumer9000
10-30-05, 01:49 PM
Use the onboard until you can afford an X-FI if you are serious about gaming or music, because as fancy as the onboard solutions claim to get, they still suck hard. :rolleyes:
habbajabba
10-31-05, 08:38 AM
I use alc850 v377 on my Aopen 800fsb agp mobo. It has 7.1ch digital optical outputs for a home receiver. I doubt you can get better with direct from hd to optical out to receiver to speakers. Sure if I was a musician I would need a high-end soundcard, but for just listening? come on
Blackmage
10-31-05, 09:31 AM
Use the onboard until you can afford an X-FI if you are serious about gaming or music, because as fancy as the onboard solutions claim to get, they still suck hard. :rolleyes:

couldn't agree more and take that extra stress off your cpu :)
David
11-02-05, 06:05 PM
Moved to Sound Systems.