on-board 5.1 6 channel audio. Good enough?

[Nestle]

Some of the new motherboards come with 6 channel audio on-board.
If used with relativly good speakers (like Logitech 560) how does this on-board audio compares with sound blaster Audigy?
I am mainly interested for Music (MP3s, CDs) and maybe for some DVDs. I don't care much about games.

Will I see (hear) any difference if I pay $65 more for an Audigy? Also, does the motherboard has all the needed connections so i can connect any kind of speaker set on it?

(I am not talking about nForce motherboards)

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I'm no audiophile, and evidently neither are you I have 560's as well and they are certainly not high-end. Furthermore I use them with my P4S333's built in audio solution and I find the sound is very good, good enough in fact to stay with the present solution instead of feeling as if I need to upgrade.

 

[jhites]

The on board c-media on my dragon+ is quite good. Comes with all connectors that you need for hook up

Many other features also: 10/100 , front usb, raid, smart card reader, etc, etc, etc.

I hear that some of the other on-board sound chips are not quite as good as the c-media chips but I do not have any personal experience with the others.

 

[rainypickles]

i also find that my dragon+ onboard is good enough for me. ive heard that the hardware cmedia sound solution is good for most people unless you are REALLY picky or have good sound hardware.

i have no personal experience, but i have read that onboard sound that uses the AC97 codec or something sucks. its found on cheaper boards. so make sure its cmedia or similar. (btw, onboard Realtek LAN is supposed to suck too, but i dont have experience with that either =p )

 

[Nestle]

it seems that Dragon also has the Realtek LAN ... is it indeed not good?

 

[rainypickles]

the soyo dragon+ has "On board 10/100 Mbps Ethernet function by ICS PHY controller" which works fine for me. ive never heard anything good nor bad about ICS PHY whatever they are. device manager shows it as a "Via VT6102 Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter"

however, the newer dragon ultra does indeed have "On board 10/100 Mbps Ethernet function by Realtek 8100B controller"

soyousa

 

[Nestle]

I was thinking about Gigabyte GA-7VRXP. It is about $35 less than the dragon and it has Creative CT5880 onboard which should be ok.

The other option is to just get the Gigabyte GA-7VRX which is cheaper but just AC97 audio and use an old SB Live with it.

 

[tigerbait]

I have not used the Audigy, but I current have the Z560 hooked up to Cmedia onboard my p4s333. I think it sounds quite good, better than the SB Live and Vortex 2 cards I have used.

 

[Bingo13]

The new Realtek ALC650 audio chipset sounds very good and offers full EAX 2.0 capability. This chipset is starting to arrive on the newer motherboards from Abit and MSI. The drivers have been very good also.

 

[Nestle]

What do they mean by onboard "smart card reader" ?

 

[WhiteMouse]

<< What do they mean by onboard "smart card reader" ? >>

Just did a "research" minutes ago, here's what I found.

Smart Card is like credit card, but it uses IC chips (memory and CPU!) to store information instead of the mag. strip on our regular card.

Now we need a reader to read/write that knid of card. Some mobos offer a smart card reader connector to let you hook up a reader, which I have not found any place that sells it. Many banks that use smart card offer free card reader, but they use USB or serial port, so the onboard connector is still useless.

I saw a Soyo board has acc. fit in 3" bay, it has two USB ports and a card reader. But it is not "onboard".