sound card vs on-board sound??

[Skinner2]

Is there much of a difference in sound quality if I upgraded my onboard sound to something like the SoundBlaster Live! Value Edition? I have a 3 piece Altec Lansing speaker set. Thanks for your help guys!

Edit: I mainly play games (Unreal Tournament) and MP3's...

 

[Hender]

Onboard sound cards aren't as good as the high-end add-in cards like the SoundBlaster Live! and Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, but if you're just doing basic stuff and no real sound things, ie, heavy music playing, movies, games, then onboard will serve you well.

An add-in card will give you things like EAX, A3D, and other perks, like better sound quality. The onboard sound is usually about the equivalent of a $20 PCI sound card, if that.

 

[MrHelpful]

Actually it'd be well to invest in a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. The sound quality is amazing, and it's especially evident if you switch to nice speakers like the Boston Acoustics BA4800.

 

[MrHelpful]

3D sound on that card is great too.

 

[tornadobox]

I have both onboard sound and an SBLive value card, which I ended up taking out of my system because I couldn't tell the difference between my onboard sound and the Live card. This might be due to my speakers, or the fact that I only have a 2 speaker setup, but in any case, I just stick to my onboard sound now.

 

[GregMal]

My advice is to install the On-board sound. If it's satisfactory to
you, use it. If not, upgrade and get a card.....
Greg

 

[Skinner2]

Thanks for the helpful information all! I think I will stick with the onboard sound for now, it's all I really need. Anything more and my girlfriend will go crazy listening to all the fraggin'! LOL

 

[InFecTed]

You must know there's hardware onboard audio, like creative's CT5880 that only lacks stuff like EAX, A3D, but supports 4 speakers. On the other end there's software audio codecs like AC97 that takes some more cpu power to work. For gaming, I'll choose harware onboard audio😉

 

[Noriaki]

I went from an SBLive! Value PCI card to the AC97 integrated Audio and I can't tell the difference in sound quality.

This is on an RCA shelf system for speakers.

Granted, the SBLive! has crappy analog output compared to cards like the Santa Cruz (never personally heard this card) and Accoustic Edge ( I can vouch for that one). But my onboard audio does the trick for me.

 

[Shudder]

I posted in the other thread too (cross posting.. shame shame)

I dropped my SBLive and used onboard for 2 weeks to get rid of lockups.. I couldn't tell the difference in sound. Not at all. I like my TBSC better, but it was 70 bucks and I'm a loser. I could have still kept my onboard and been fine.

 

[Smapty]

sound quality is pretty damn poor,... take it from a victim.

 

[Smapty]

on board sound, that is

 

[Skinner2]

Sorry about the cross post but I thought this thread was dead...until Hender brought it to life! You can slap me and call me silly :Q , but I believe I have that VIA PCI onboard audio, so would that be hardware or software onboard audio?

 

[Salvador]

How would an older ISA (SB AWE64) compare to onboard pci audio.

Sal