Soundblaster Live or Onboard sound?

I just got a new setup, MSI K8T800 motherboard, and I was wondering if I should use the onboard sound, or use my Soundblaster Live 5.1 Xgamer? I'm not really familiar with soundcards and such, so I figured I'd ask here. Which one's better?

They should be equal in sound quality so it depends if you like the software and controls over one or the other. I would stick with the onboard 6 channel from the mobo just for simplicity's sake.

But its your call.

if you have it why not, its better quality, to some extent. Also I am pretty sure you get better performance from it.

Acutally, most onboard audio sounds better than an SB Live for a number of reasons includuing crappy hardware resampling and poor quality DACs.

Well, looks like I'll be sticking with my Onboard until i get an audigy then. Thanks guys.

Hmmm, I've personally had better experiences with my SB Live! 5.1 than with the onboard sound on my AI7. Much less (actually none, as opposed to a noticeable amount) audio lagging and/or crackling when in the middle of a game, etc.

As for sound quality, I haven't noticed a big difference between the two (SB Live! may have been a bit better). It may make a difference that I'm using 6-year-old Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers, but that's always been plenty for my needs. Of course, your mileage may and probably will vary, but from the perspective of games running smoothly, I'd say go with a sound card.

(OTOH, I've heard that installing a SB heatsink can sometimes help with onboard sound issues. Not sure if that applies to lagging sound or not.) -- Paul

I dont agree that most onboard sound is better than a SBL 5.1 card. There are way too many C-media and AC 97 sound codec chips out there that are just plain lame and sound horrible. Many have clicking issues and sound cutouts in games and audio playback because the chip filters can not properly reproduce the dynamic range of the audio they are attempting to playback, the technical term is "clipping".
I would say the only onboard sound that is better than an SBL 5.1 card is nVidias Sound Storm, but only if its the full Sound Storm setup with the proper hardware and not some hacked together junk pretending to be Sound Storm but realy using AC97 chips...

I'd be using the SBL 5.1 over the onboard sound, without question its better than 95% of the onboard junk out there. Plus the SBL 5.1 has a lower CPU use than onboard sound which usualy does its DSPing in software using your CPU.

Of coures nothing is stopping you from just trying them both .......

Maybe I'll try the SB live too then. I'll post back with the results 2morrow.

Go with the SB Live. Less crackling and it'll save you a couple of CPU cycles. But don't take my word for it, definitely try it out and see what you like better.

Either way, you'll be glad when you do get your Audigy.

Yes, as Amourek said it's best tp see which is better, but from my experience a 5.1 live! can't even hold a candle to a Live! setup. Let's leave alone the less CPU cycles and PCI bandwidth it eats up! I would still opt for better sounding either way, which the SB live! should really take, but you never know until you try.....The Audigy should take both....but always try. Also with mp3, I can't notice a difference between a AC97 and a Audigy (cuz of the mp3......This is on a Klipsch 4.1 setup) so I stick with AC97 or TBSC for mp3, but if you play games, go Audigy+.

I stopped paying video games so....long live ye ol TBSC (turtle beach santa cruz....check em out!)

I would use the SB live I have one and love it, I get 11FPS better then with the AC97, also I caint play some games with the AC97 it makes them crash.