Sound Blaster Live!, Audigy 2, or Realtek ALC850 on Asus K8N-e?

[JackHawksmoor]

Okay, now that I've got the rest of my system picked out, what would the recommendation be for audio? I've got two Sound Blaster Live!s sitting around that I could use, or I could buy an Audigy 2, or I could just use the ALC850 that comes on the board.

My understanding is Realtek's stuff has horrible CPU use, maybe sounds tinny, and has bad "signal to noise ratio" or whatever. The Audigy 2 has the lowest CPU use, but I'd have to buy another one.

Any thoughts?

 

[jpeyton]

Games? Music? Analog or digital speakers? Headphones? Whaaaaa!?!?!

 

[JackHawksmoor]

Oh, sorry. Duh. I get annoyed when people don't list that kind of thing, but of course everyone knows what I want to do with it

Mostly concerned about games, and I also don't want any kind of audible hiss, especially for music.

I've got a set of 5.1 Cambridge Soundworks speakers that only support stereo through their digital input, and won't work in 5.1 mode with the Audigy 2 (they did with the Live!). Stereo is actually just fine with me, but supposedly the Audigy 2 offloads more Direct Sound stuff to itself, and I know it and the Live! don't have any hiss that I used to hear with onboard sound.

I don't even use EAX, because I've heard it wastes tons of CPU time versus selecting "Hardware Accelorated Direct Sound 3D" or whatever the setting is, and I've never noticed much of a difference in games.

 

[jpeyton]

Games? Get the ZS. Unbeatable for games.

 

[JackHawksmoor]

Out of curiousity, which would be better between the onboard Realtek ALC850 and a Sound Blaster Live! in terms of CPU usage and signal to noise ratio?

 

[txxxx]

Live! would come out better in terms of CPU usage.

 

[JackHawksmoor]

Thanks guys. I may just use that. Haven't decided yet.

 

[jmke]

this link might be useful http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/asus-p4p800e_5.html

average onboard soundchip quality wise it seems

 

[Corey0808]

I have an Audigy 2 ZS and its great. Great features great sound quality plus the added ability of DVD-Audio. I think you should go that way especially since it's < $100