Mobo on-board audio vs. Sound Blaster Audigy SE

[ascendant]

Ok, so I just got a new Gigabyte mobo for my comp:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128627

I also have a very old Sound Blaster Audigy SE sound card. I am wondering if I would be better off with the on-board audio from the Gigabyte, or if I should use the SB card? Does it make any difference as far as system resources? What about sound quality?

My issue at this point is that with how old the SB card is, the drivers for it aren't supported. As such, I have no equalizer and none of the other audio effects work either. I tried the Daniel_K support pack, but none of those functions work on there either. I am also on a very tight budget right now, so I won't be able to get another sound card for at least a month.

 

[UsandThem]

Ok, so I just got a new Gigabyte mobo for my comp:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128627

I also have a very old Sound Blaster Audigy SE sound card. I am wondering if I would be better off with the on-board audio from the Gigabyte, or if I should use the SB card? Does it make any difference as far as system resources? What about sound quality?

My issue at this point is that with how old the SB card is, the drivers for it aren't supported. As such, I have no equalizer and none of the other audio effects work either. I tried the Daniel_K support pack, but none of those functions work on there either. I am also on a very tight budget right now, so I won't be able to get another sound card for at least a month.

Try out the onboard sound and see if you like it. Your board has the VIA VT2021 codec on it, and I have no experience with it. I'd imagine the onboard audio would be better than your old sound card, but only your ears can make that decision.

However, my Gigabyte board has the Realtek ALC1150 on it, and it's actually pretty good. Prior to upgrading my system, I had some Creative card (can't remember the model off-hand) in my Windows 7 system. Once I upgraded it to Windows 10, I had to remove it because of driver issues.

You'll still have a system with decent-to-good sound, and you can always buy a add-in sound card when your budget allows if you decide the on-board audio isn't good enough.

 

[ascendant]

Try out the onboard sound and see if you like it. Your board has the VIA VT2021 codec on it, and I have no experience with it. I'd imagine the onboard audio would be better than your old sound card, but only your ears can make that decision.

However, my Gigabyte board has the Realtek ALC1150 on it, and it's actually pretty good. Prior to upgrading my system, I had some Creative card (can't remember the model off-hand) in my Windows 7 system. Once I upgraded it to Windows 10, I had to remove it because of driver issues.

You'll still have a system with decent-to-good sound, and you can always buy a add-in sound card when your budget allows if you decide the on-board audio isn't good enough.

Thanks for the information. So as far as system resources, will it not make much of any difference which one I use either?

 

[UsandThem]

Thanks for the information. So as far as system resources, will it not make much of any difference which one I use either?

As long as you aren't rocking an AMD K6-300 Mhz cpu and 8 MB of ram, you won't notice it at all.

Modern processors are fast and can handle a lot. It's been a while since I messed around with an AMD motherboard, but the audio should be handled by the south-bridge chip on the motherboard.

Just do what you do with your computer as far as the sound is concerned (gaming, music, movies) and if the audio quality is good enough for your ears, you are all set. If not, pick up a sound card when your budget allows.

 

[ascendant]

As long as you aren't rocking an AMD K6-300 Mhz cpu and 8 MB of ram, you won't notice it at all.

Modern processors are fast and can handle a lot. It's been a while since I messed around with an AMD motherboard, but the audio should be handled by the south-bridge chip on the motherboard.

Just do what you do with your computer as far as the sound is concerned (gaming, music, movies) and if the audio quality is good enough for your ears, you are all set. If not, pick up a sound card when your budget allows.

Sounds good to me. Thanks again for the help. :thumbsup:

 

[UsandThem]

Sounds good to me. Thanks again for the help. :thumbsup:

No problem. Enjoy the new board!

 

[repoman0]

May not be relevant but I have had a Modi 2 DAC for a while now and was considering selling it to go back to onboard sound. I can easily do a quick A/B test by hooking up both the DAC and onboard to my stereo amp and switching back and forth both in Windows sound card manager and the front amplifier buttons. I didn't really expect there to be a difference, but it is night and day ... my particular onboard audio is terrible in comparison. Not really noisy that I can hear, but tinny and weak, no bass response at all.

Granted this is a $100 DAC against the onboard sound of an ALC887 low end Z68 board that probably cost less than $100. I am upgrading to Skylake with an ALC1150 chip and was intending to sell the dac as part of the upgrade, but will be doing my A/B comparison first.

 

[nerp]

Definitely test for comparison purposes.

 

[LTC8K6]

Without proper drivers, I wouldn't bother with the old card.

 

[FlippedBit]

I have an Audigy X-Fi card laying around and was also concerned about finding stable Win10 drivers when I decided not to use it. As it turns out the on-board audio on my motherboard is nice and has noise shielding, too.

Ultimately, I realized that the weakest link in my setup is my speakers. I don't use headphones really. Just a set of Logitech analog 2.1 speakers that I've had for years (I love them). The chances of me hearing any appreciable difference though them is slim, anyway.

As far as system resources... I haven't noticed anything whatsoever. When playing music the CPU usage meter barely budges at all. It's probably a little more impactful in games, but with a Skylake i7 there's a ridiculous amount of headroom.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Try out the onboard sound and see if you like it.

What, you mean you can actually try out something you got for free?

The onboard sound vs everything threads cracks me up so much, people who ask this sort of questions never even bother to test their own onboard audio and they are already thinking of spending money to upgrade.

 

[UsandThem]

What, you mean you can actually try out something you got for free?

The onboard sound vs everything threads cracks me up so much, people who ask this sort of questions never even bother to test their own onboard audio and they are already thinking of spending money to upgrade.

Yeah, I think with computers people overthink the solution sometimes. However, there are so many posts by users around the internet that spread a lot of misinformation, and I can see someone who doesn't really understand how computers work could not know what is true and what isn't. There are a ton of posts out there with people proclaiming all onboard audio is bad. The BS overload runs deep.

Heck, I came across one here spreading misinformation about a brand of motherboard having defective audio all because they don't want to trouble-shoot. They'll install it, take it out, and ship it back, and repeat the same process again, but they don't have time to try a different power supply.

 

[MongGrel]

What, you mean you can actually try out something you got for free?

The onboard sound vs everything threads cracks me up so much, people who ask this sort of questions never even bother to test their own onboard audio and they are already thinking of spending money to upgrade.

It is just a running subject around here for a long time now.

I still prefer my Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 for sound over my old Mobo on board, but it's an older P6T7 7.1 using a X5680 on the main.

I imagine on board sound on most newer Mobo's is more than adequate these days for digital transfer.

 

[UsandThem]

It is just a running subject around here for a long time now.

I still prefer my Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 for sound over my old Mobo on board, but it's an older P6T7 7.1 using a X5680 on the main.

I imagine on board sound on most newer Mobo's is more than adequate these days for digital transfer.

It all comes down to how the board manufacturer implements it. I personally find the Realtek ALC892 and up codec sounding pretty good. However, I listened to some music on a HP Envy desktop that used that chip, but HP tuned it with Bang & Olufsen software, and I thought it sounded horrible.....almost sounded like straight treble.

I will say if a person uses $1000 Sennheiser HD800 headphones on their PC, has some high-end speakers that can show a difference in the clarity, or it goes to their home theater, they would benefit from a separate sound card.

However, most of us have average headphones, and speakers from companies like Klipsch, Logitech, Bose, Creative, etc. that wouldn't really benefit from a separate sound card. But it should always come down to what a person wants. It's their money and and their choice. I just go with what sounds good to me when listening to my music, and what has stable drivers.

Plus, I learned a long time ago to NEVER argue with an audiophile.

 

[StrangerGuy]

It all comes down to how the board manufacturer implements it. I personally find the Realtek ALC892 and up codec sounding pretty good. However, I listened to some music on a HP Envy desktop that used that chip, but HP tuned it with Bang & Olufsen software, and I thought it sounded horrible.....almost sounded like straight treble.

I will say if a person uses $1000 Sennheiser HD800 headphones on their PC, has some high-end speakers that can show a difference in the clarity, or it goes to their home theater, they would benefit from a separate sound card.

However, most of us have average headphones, and speakers from companies like Klipsch, Logitech, Bose, Creative, etc. that wouldn't really benefit from a separate sound card. But it should always come down to what a person wants. It's their money and and their choice. I just go with what sounds good to me when listening to my music, and what has stable drivers.

Plus, I learned a long time ago to NEVER argue with an audiophile.

The DAC chip paper specs never matters because the limiting factor always boils down to the implementation on the mobo. Sure, a few mobo models may have bad audio for some reason or another but most of time they are more than adequate. Didn't Tomshardware blind tested Realtek onboard vs some audiophile DAC and nobody could reliably tell the difference with headphones?

 

[UsandThem]

The DAC chip paper specs never matters because the limiting factor always boils down to the implementation on the mobo. Sure, a few mobo models may have bad audio for some reason or another but most of time they are more than adequate. Didn't Tomshardware blind tested Realtek onboard vs some audiophile DAC and nobody could reliably tell the difference with headphones?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733.html

I never saw that article before. That's pretty funny stuff. I bet after reading that, the users at Head-Fi probably went berserk.

15-20 years ago, onboard sound was all pretty basic. Outside of some premium boards, they just used a basic codec that was 'good enough'. In those days, it was easy to hear the difference between onboard and a Creative card. Manufacturers in the last 5-10 years, to help differentiate themselves from their remaining competition, design their boards to have premium-sounding audio capabilities.

For my use, my Gigabyte ALC1150 sound is really good. It's isolated from components to prevent EMI, and has a 115 dB SNR and rear amplifier. Zero complaints and I doubt I would personally be able to hear any difference if I added a card like the Asus Strix Soar.