Sound Blaster Extigy Vs. Onboard Sound Card

[NomisST]

I have owned the Sound Blaster Extigy for about almost more then a year. I also have the IC7-G Mobo that has an onboard 5.1 speaker sound on it. Now I am wondering whether I wasted my money on the extigy or not. I have only used the extigy so far and I have no compalints, but since I never used my onboard sound, which I'm afraid to do so anyway ( A LOT OF WIRES) what would be better for me doing? My speakers are the Klipsch 5.1 Pro Media Non GMX series. How good is the quality of the IC7-G Mobo sound? If The difference wasn't that much I could get about 80-100 bucks by selling my extigy. So what would you do? Sell your External Sound Card and use your onboard sound or keep the External sound card? So far these are the only specs I know of on the Abit IC7-G sound:

6-Channel AC 97 CODEC on board
Professional digital audio interface supports 24-bit S/P DIF optical In/Out

Is this not comparable to the extigy or is it right in the same ball park? FYI, I don't use the sound card to do anything special like play music and all that. I just use it for the 5.1 speaker system as well as the line in feature because I got the AIW 9800 pro which let's me play my PS2 on my monitor so I need line in to hear the sound. Anyway, please help out. Thanks.

 

[Budman]

Humm... let's see.....


A big YES !!! keep the extigy it's a far far far far better sounding card than onboard AC97 crap. :evil:

 

[snidy1]

Originally posted by: Budman
Humm... let's see.....


A big YES !!! keep the extigy it's a far far far far better sounding card than onboard AC97 crap. :evil:

I agree

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: Budman
Humm... let's see.....


A big YES !!! keep the extigy it's a far far far far better sounding card than onboard AC97 crap. :evil:

 

[NomisST]

Onboard is really that bad? Like how bad is it? Does anyone have like specs or actual like sound quality tests of onboard sound vs. sound cards?

 

[keebeen]

I was using onboard sound (AC 97) with my Klipsch Promedia speakers before and every time I turned the volume up on the speakers (not even past halfway), I would hear a bunch of crosstalk garbage... fuzzy noise.

I went and bought a SB Audigy 2 ZS and the cross talk noise is gone. Don't use onboard sound. It sucks. Plus it uses some processing power... not much though, i don't think... but it still does.

 

[NomisST]

Thank you all. I was about to sell this wonderful thing. Glad I didn't. Thanks again.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

How good is the onboard sound card depends on the sound engine - mostly embedded in the motherboard chipset.
The so-called AC97 CODEC is just the interface for input and output.

AC97 is just a standard for CODEC.
SB Extigy also has CODEC (built-in), is also AC97 compliant.

 

[RandomFool]

Randomly Jumping in. Would my old SB Live 4.1 be better than my on board ac97 6.1?

 

[Regs]

Ac97 does not have the ability to channel sound plus the Extigy will likely give you better quality with good speakers.

On some of the newer boards, with SoundMax and Soundstorm CODECs for AC97 compliance, I really don't think it's worth the extra 100-200 dollars for a separate PCI card. Not unless you do experience noticeable troubles like fuzziness and other interference noise.

 

[Regs]

nm

 

[gibbsman]

My vote is AC97 isn't that bad if you are just using cheap desktop speakers and only getting windows sounds or maybe streaming audio occationally. Otherwise keep the Extigy. On high-end speakers it is very obvious that the AC97 isn't capable of keeping the same quality of sound as a good name brand card. But the AC97 wasn't really designed for that either.

 

[gibbsman]

My vote is AC97 isn't that bad if you are just using cheap desktop speakers and only getting windows sounds or maybe streaming audio occationally. Otherwise keep the Extigy. On high-end speakers it is very obvious that the AC97 isn't capable of keeping the same quality of sound as a good name brand card. But the AC97 wasn't really designed for that either.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

AC97 is not an onboard sound nor sound card.
Please don't say AC97 is bad or AC97 is as good as sound card.
You're comparing the sound card's DSP to the sound processing function embedded in the motherboard chipset.