SB Live! or AC97 7.1ch?

[Fronic]

Hello. I have a SB Live laying around, it's older but supports 5.1ch (not that I care, I need 2). About sound quality, am I better off using an older (2 years, maybe even 4 not sure) SB Live! or the AC97 audio that shipped on my ASRock dualSATA?

Compared to Nforce 2 the AC97 sounds much better though...

[EvilT]

um im usin my sb live and it did sound better than the on board on my asus a8n sli board until it cr^ped on me

[grumperfish]

My SB live 5.1 card sounds better than the onboard ac'97 audio on this mobo, but it sounds muddy compared to my a2zs... I'd say try it out and if it's not better than onboard just take it out. I'm pretty sure XP has native drivers for the Live so you shouldn't have to install anything (maybe do Windows update but that'd be about it).

[Fronic]

My SB live 5.1 card sounds better than the onboard ac'97 audio on this mobo, but it sounds muddy compared to my a2zs... I'd say try it out and if it's not better than onboard just take it out. I'm pretty sure XP has native drivers for the Live so you shouldn't have to install anything (maybe do Windows update but that'd be about it).
I've been reading on the new X-FI, I think I might buy that... From what they described about it it is pure gold. I have a set of HT speakers running through a sonic T-Amp so reproduction shouldn't be a problem.

I'll stry try SB Live and report my findings :)