Sound Blaster Live or Realtek ALC1200?

[alizee]

So, I have a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 just sitting around, and I was wondering if it would be better to use that or the onboard audio on my motherboard. This would be for my media center, which currently is only running 2 speakers. My main issue has been cracks and pops in audio, which a discreet card would get rid of, but would my trade-off be poor sound quality from a 5 year old card? The speakers are decent, not top of the line, but noticeable enough that when moving from a semi-discreet solution on my old Asus 650i motherboard (a SupremeFX card that came with the mobo) to the built-in on my 750a motherboard I heard a difference (for the worse).

I don't want to spend money right now, though the plan is to get a Xonar at some point, or whatever comes down the pipeline, so that's not the solution I'm looking for at the moment.

Also, I am wondering about the state of Creative's drivers. I had quite a pain with them and my parents' Audigy on Vista 32-bit (right after the vista launch in 2007), and I'm running 64-bit. Are there still issues?

Thanks

 

[mpilchfamily]

I'm afraid your stuck with onboard till you can spend the money on a new card. Reason being that a 5 year old sound card is not going to work on a Vista system. In fact any hardware made 6 months or more before the release of Vista will not have Vista drivers thus making it worthless to you. But as long as its a current card then creatives drivers are fine with vista. But the itruduction of vista changed the whole driver structure in windows forcing hardware makes to develope new drivers for there products. Needless to say they don't want to spend the time and money to develope all new drivers for old and outdated hardware.

 

[tcsenter]

Chuck the SB Live! 5.1. If it were Audigy 2 or better, that would be different. Are you using the latest drivers from Realtek or the ones from the mobo manufacturer?

http://www.realtek.com.tw/down...TypeID=3&GetDown=false

 

[alizee]

It's a drag about the drivers. I didn't even think about whether it would be supported or not. Thanks for the heads up.

Originally posted by: tcsenter
Chuck the SB Live! 5.1. If it were Audigy 2 or better, that would be different. Are you using the latest drivers from Realtek or the ones from the mobo manufacturer?

http://www.realtek.com.tw/down...TypeID=3&GetDown=false

Good call on that, I think I'm using the ones from Asus' web site, I'll download the new ones. Hopefully they will fix the popping issues.

 

[corkyg]

Unless you have really good quality speakers and amp, take the path of least expense. Your ears will never know the difference.

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: alizee
So, I have a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 just sitting around, and I was wondering if it would be better to use that or the onboard audio on my motherboard. This would be for my media center, which currently is only running 2 speakers. My main issue has been cracks and pops in audio, which a discreet card would get rid of, but would my trade-off be poor sound quality from a 5 year old card? The speakers are decent, not top of the line, but noticeable enough that when moving from a semi-discreet solution on my old Asus 650i motherboard (a SupremeFX card that came with the mobo) to the built-in on my 750a motherboard I heard a difference (for the worse).

I don't want to spend money right now, though the plan is to get a Xonar at some point, or whatever comes down the pipeline, so that's not the solution I'm looking for at the moment.

Also, I am wondering about the state of Creative's drivers. I had quite a pain with them and my parents' Audigy on Vista 32-bit (right after the vista launch in 2007), and I'm running 64-bit. Are there still issues?

Thanks

there are some Windows 7/ Vista beta style drivers for the SBLive! 5.1 on Creative's forums.

In fact I am using my SBLive! 5.1 card on my Win 7 RC1 HTPC right now.

link to driver thread

 

[mpilchfamily]

If you can spare about $20 you can go with a basic USB sound dongle. Heck you can spend the $20 on a Plantronics headset and it will come with one. It will be as good if not better then the onboard sound. You sure won't have the poping problem.

 

[alizee]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Unless you have really good quality speakers and amp, take the path of least expense. Your ears will never know the difference.

I wish the path of least expense meant no cracks a pops in the audio... But I know what you mean, lowest commen denominator is probably my speakers atm.

Originally posted by: Iron Woode

there are some Windows 7/ Vista beta style drivers for the SBLive! 5.1 on Creative's forums.

In fact I am using my SBLive! 5.1 card on my Win 7 RC1 HTPC right now.

link to driver thread

Good find! I think I may give these a try, hopefully this will be sufficient for the time being.

Thanks all.

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: alizee

Originally posted by: corkyg
Unless you have really good quality speakers and amp, take the path of least expense. Your ears will never know the difference.

I wish the path of least expense meant no cracks a pops in the audio... But I know what you mean, lowest commen denominator is probably my speakers atm.

Originally posted by: Iron Woode

there are some Windows 7/ Vista beta style drivers for the SBLive! 5.1 on Creative's forums.

In fact I am using my SBLive! 5.1 card on my Win 7 RC1 HTPC right now.

link to driver thread

Good find! I think I may give these a try, hopefully this will be sufficient for the time being.

Thanks all.

keep in mind his disclaimer about max system ram: 2 gigs or less.

So far the drivers are working great.

takes about 5 min to install all the components.