How good are the mobos with onboard sound and vid

[rorpan]

I'm thinking of putting together a computer using onboard video and sound. How good are the mobos out there? What sould I be looking for ie chipset. Is this an economical way to build a powerful gaming machine?
Thanks

 

[RedGuard]

Onboard sound is not too bad if either a) you don't care/need top quality sound, or b) can't afford it.

Be very careful of onboard video. Some boards do not permit a secondary video add on like AGP or PCI Card. If at some point in the future you want/need to upgrade the video you may been in for a disapointment.

 

[Keldar]

I've got a board with 6 channel onboard sound and it works great, but i wouldnt' get anything with onboard video. most of the time, it shares the ram, etc... It's better to know what you're looking for in terms of performance (for now and the near future) and get a good video card instead

 

[WhiteWizard]

Yes and No. If you consider an older board solution, based on VIA chipsets, like BIOSTAR M7VKL,the sound is no good, the video SAVAGE 4 3D is no good either, you can play some games at 800x600, but Serious Sam would go at minimum resolution (640x480) and minimum quality with a DURON 800 and 196Mb of RAM.
But a modern board, based on VIA nForce chipsets, with exelent on-board sound, and a Gforce 2 mx, coupled with DDR RAM would do just fine!, I can't mention a non working game in that platform.

 

[AZGamer]

<< based on VIA nForce chipsets, with exelent on-board sound, and a Gforce 2 mx, coupled with DDR RAM would do just fine!, I can't mention a non working game in that platform. >>



It's not a VIA nForce, it's Nvidia nForce.

 

[DaveSimmons]

<< Is this an economical way to build a powerful gaming machine? >>

No, not using anything except the nVidia nForce mobos -- other onboard video for both AMD and intel ranges from fair to horrible for 3D gaming (but fine for 2D work like web surfing). Even with the nForce you're only getting the 3D speed of a $40 Geforce2mx, paying a premium for the mobo, and losing 32-64 MB of system memory to the onboard video in the process.