Is Realtek ALC889 on-board sound significantly better than ALC888?

boren

Member
Dec 13, 2009
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I'm trying to decide between two Gigabyte boards - one with ALC888, the other with ALC889. Is there anything in there to worth the bother in the differences between those two chipsets, or should I just take the cheaper board (GA-P55A-UD3)?

Thanks in advance!


Edit: I just found this comparison. It still doesn't tell me much about the real life differences, except that the ALC889A (same as ALC889?) gets better tests results.
 
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Modelworks

Lifer
Feb 22, 2007
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What are you planning to use for speakers ? If you are using spdif then it doesn't matter they are both the same.
 

boren

Member
Dec 13, 2009
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I'm using an old Yamaha RX-V992 receiver to power a couple of Tannoy MX1 speakers. I'm not very fond of the receiver built-in DAC, so I do plan to at least try analog connection. If it doesn't work better, then I'll just use the digital connection.
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
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the DAC on that V992 is probably going to be better than the onboard DAC on a mobo. Let me know how it works out, untill i shelled out the cash for a xonar STX my HK 3490 dac was better than any onboard audio i had tried up to that point, have tried both 888GR and 889A as well as older realtek onboard chips.