Which is better ? How ? Why ?
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The reason I was using Audigy Zs because of 1394 and I was told it takes loads off CPU and have a better seperation for Audio channel.
If you need IEEE-1394 (Firewire) then use the Audigy.
CPU utilization is a non-issue these days with the amount of performance CPUs have, unless you were still stuck with a single core processor.
With the current onboard HD audio I don't think channel separation is an issue either.
About the only "issues" that onboard audio have are:
- Sometimes it is faulty in some manner. This can affect normal sound cards like the Audigy as well. For instance, my current onboard audio's microphone input doesn't work right, plus it keeps thinking I unplugged/replugged the speakers (the control panel applet pops up asking what I plugged in). This is just a case of it being faulty on my particular motherboard, just as if it were a PCI sound card that did the same thing. With a PCI sound card, you can get another one. With onboard sound, you can disable it and plug in a PCI sound card.
- Some systems pick up "sounds" (usually buzzing/static, can increase when HDD seeks or moving mouse around). This can be bad circuit layout on the motherboard, or it could be something totally unrelated. For instance, I know of one occasion where a SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium had this buzzing sound. Turned out that the front panel audio ports wiring was picking up the system sounds due to being routed underneath the motherboard. While the Titanium has front panel audio outputs, most PCI/PCIe sound cards do not, and I think many people attribute that kind of "crappy" sound to onboard audio when sometimes it isn't the fault of the audio solution being onboard.
- Some people like the way recent SoundBlaster cards sound. This is purely personal choice. For instance, I like very neutral sound in car stereos, but many people like to crank up the bass
AND the treble, because the brighter sound sounds better to their ears. I don't know how much this has to do with actual Creative Labs hardware, because there are motherboards that have typical onboard audio, but have "Creative Labs X-Fi" sound processing done in software. One example is my latest DFI Lanparty MI motherboard. Onboard audio is a typical Realtek HD audio, but it has an X-Fi badge on it.
Firewire port aside (if you need it) for people who don't already have a sound card and are asking if they should buy one, I always tell them to try the onboard sound first. It is essentially free, and if it sounds good to you then no need to buy something else.
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