sound card or onboard sound?

witch is better the onboard sound on my KT4 Ultra.... or a SB Live.

Just currious because the onboard sound is as good as the SB Live..... so witch is better. At first I thought that the SD Live would be bettter but after listening to them both I see that the onboard sound is just as good.... at least sounds like it too me.

thanks
rcillig

they are practically the same, your onboard and a Sb live!

but i like having an actual card and having the onboard as back up

I would use the card because the onboard sound requires processing help from the CPU. But really you wouldn't notice much of a difference, if at all. Just depends on what you feel like doing.

KaHNZa said:

I would use the card because the onboard sound requires processing help from the CPU. But really you wouldn't notice much of a difference, if at all. Just depends on what you feel like doing.

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Well not only this, but if you plan to overclock. There are some issues when overclocking with onboard sound. It would be justifiable to get a Soundcard as opposed to onboard sound.

mtnbikerjerry said:

Well not only this, but if you plan to overclock. There are some issues when overclocking with onboard sound. It would be justifiable to get a Soundcard as opposed to onboard sound.

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Interesting, you mean there is a relation between the FSB and the onboard sounds clock? I rather believe that it has a seperate clock instead a divider. I have the KT4 ultra and I didn't noticed any sound problems when I overclock. Actually my old Soundblaster live digital somehow fried during my first overclocking attempts but the onboard is just doing fine now.
The major problem with the onboard is that it has not a dedicated voice processor, means it will steal power from your CPU, especially when using effects.

Janissary said:

Interesting, you mean there is a relation between the FSB and the onboard sounds clock? I rather believe that it has a seperate clock instead a divider. I have the KT4 ultra and I didn't noticed any sound problems when I overclock. Actually my old Soundblaster live digital somehow fried during my first overclocking attempts but the onboard is just doing fine now.
The major problem with the onboard is that it has not a dedicated voice processor, means it will steal power from your CPU, especially when using effects.

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you bring a very good point to this thread. in the recent past there was an issue with overclocking the pci bus while using a sound blaster live. the cards will fry at around 40-42 mhz pci bus. although, a few folks have reported high bus speeds with no ill effects, while others have fried their S.B. live card at as low as 38mhz pci bus.

having said that, i would either stick with the onboard, or get a better sound card than a "live".

i personally bought an extigy a while back because it's on the usb port, and doesn't get affected by the pci bus. those with an nf2 chipset won't have this issue with the frying S.B. live card, as they have a pci lock to help them.

This is true too. But I have seen people have the same problems just with onboard sound just as those that have sound cards. I did have issues a sounblaster live, but when I switched to an Audigy with higher FSB frequencies, I had no problems. 40FSB I had problems with my SB Live, at 40FSB, I had no problems with my Audigy. Currently I have a motherboard that allows locking of the PCI and AGP, and I have overclocked with onboard sounds, and I had glitches when I approached higher frequencies even when my PCI/AGP was locked down. It could be my board who knows. I hit up other forums besides this place to find answers.

Get a sound card....the onboard sound on most boards is horriable compared to say a nice Audigy 2. they are only $73 bucks on the egg and it is the one of the best out.

I'd use a sound card just in case something happens to the integrated.

card man. The onny is so...sl...o...w. The card prob has mo features ajustability etc.