Sound Cards

[NickR]

Ok so to start, I'm a partial audiophile. I don't spend thousands of dollars on equipment, or mod stuff to sound better. But I do enjoy sound enough to spend $200 (at the time) on some Harman/Kardon Soundsticks III, $160 on a Logitech G930 headset, Polk Audio speakers in brand new car... You get the point. I greatly enjoy good sound. Now, I have a dilemma.

Later today I will be receiving a second Radeon 5770 to put in crossfire. My motherboard is an ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3.0, it has an onboard Realtek ALC892 sound card. I'm currently using a Sound Blaster Audigy SE PCI sound card that I've had for several years and been very pleased with, considering I paid $30 for it. Now my problem is that my new video card will fit with the sound card in (it is longer than a PCI slot), however it will block about half of the fan. I don't want to suffocate the card, but I don't want up to give up sound quality. I have a PCIe 1x slot above the top card I can add on to later when I have the money to spend on it. For now, am I going to see a major difference in sound quality between the Sound blaster and the integrated chip?

Also, if I populate the 1x slot, that one runs off the southbridge correct? Not the Northbridge?

 

[mnewsham]

The $30 card is probably about as good as your on board sound anyway.

 

[Zap]

I agree with mnewsham.

Other than that, if the half fan blockage is the lower card, you should do okay as secondary cards usually run cooler than primary cards anyways.

 

[dpodblood]

I think the onboard card will be fine. Unless you are running an extremely high end card you won't notice the difference. If you're really that concerned with sound quality you can run the digital out from the onboard sound to an external receiver.

 

[Geofram]

Try the onboard sound out. Listen to it. See if you can tell a difference.

If you do, you can look into a PCI-E soundcard that can fit into the 1x slot. If you can't, you're good to go. Realistically, no one can tell if you if it will sound good to you. People all have different tastes in how it sounds, how it looks, etc.

 

[mfenn]

I think the onboard card will be fine. Unless you are running an extremely high end card you won't notice the difference. If you're really that concerned with sound quality you can run the digital out from the onboard sound to an external receiver.

:thumbsup: My thoughts exactly.

 

[SuPrEIVIE]

Yeah I was previously using an audigy 2ZS and recently got a Xfi Fatality pro, but then realized that with PCIE bandwith constraints, onboard would be the more efficient solution for headroom.

I compared the Xfi to onboard anyhow and im using budget 5.1 logitech setup and could tell a very slight different through speakers via analog and a more noticeable difference through headphones when listening to music, but Xfi sort of changes the sound through headphones to the point that some songs sound too different due to the effects and not better. For movies it was the same as music through speakers and even in headphones. Games were identical as well, did not try EAX 5 enhanced games but those rarely exist anyway. CPU load was virtually the same except in music playback, onboard use like 4% less.

After all this i was impressed that onboard did so well in comparison that I sold off both creative cards. I think if your system is meant for living room "main event" entertainment then a sound card solution should be considered. For scenarios such as in in my case that your system is in a simple room i think its unnecessary. Unless perhaps you have very highend headphones you want to use.