[DeathAngelLST]

Thinkin about upgrading, but only mobos out there with off-board sound are old abit's kx7-333... maybe i'm missing something?
Don't tell me i can disable on-board sound, i know. Trying to avoid known conflicts like on-board disabled messing with sound card.

[Zim2411]

Uhhh.... ? If the onboard is disabled then you should have no problem. Also my mobo has onboard sound, but when i installed my Audigy 2 it made it the default card, and no conflicts.
Also since you should reinstall XP when switching, you have to reinstall the sound drivers too.
Heres what id doo.
1. Switch mobos and stuff
2. Reinstall WIndows
3. Let it get happy; Without your sound card in
4. Install your sound card.
5. Install sound card drivers. They should set your sound card as default.

[Damian]

Onboard sound, when disabled, isn't visible by the system. That's the whole point of disabling.

With onboard disabled I'm running my SBLive without any problems. Am I missing something here?

[madsam]

ditto, same thing here with my extigy. and if the onboard was on, and i powered on the extigy, the extigy would sorta ....take over...and become the default. the same with my game theater xp, but the only time i had a conflict, was when the game theater xp would have a fight with the extigy.

sometimes the extigy would demand focus, and sometimes it didn't. the instructions claim the extigy will take focus over other sound cards, but i think they meant to refer to other onboard sound devices.

anyways, i sold the game theater xp, and have no issues at all with the extigy, and my onboard is always disabled in the bios.

[Zim2411]

I geuss you could say that onboard sound is passive, and only steps in when needed. Or called upon.
And sound cards are active, and always step in, and sometimes conflict with each other... sorta...

Hmm... that makes me an onboard sound thing in dodge ball.....

[timmyqwest]

Originally posted by DeathAngelLST
Thinkin about upgrading, but only mobos out there with off-board sound are old abit's kx7-333... maybe i'm missing something?
Don't tell me i can disable on-board sound, i know. Trying to avoid known conflicts like on-board disabled messing with sound card.

Uhh...i dont think this is something to worry about...

[djand]

Just to add a different theme to this thread, NForce2 boards with the MCP-T southbridge have excellent sound onboard. It rivals an add in Audigy I for quality.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/game/20030405/index.html

More detailed review of the sound capabilities: http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/reviews/nForce/

Some gamers that I help with hardware have switched to NF7-S boards and all are very satisfied with the sound quality. Even over an SB Live! Gamer 5.1.

[edit to add info]
A major factor in sound quality is the AC97 chip that is between the soundstorm and audio jacks. The soundstorm calculates sound as 24bit internally and provides 20bit data. Some boards use a 16bit AC97 chip that degrades sound some. The NF7-S uses a 20bit chip and seems to sound better than those that trim 4 bits.