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Sound Chip on MOBO same as getting a sound card?

M

MixmasterC

Junior Member
hey, simple question:

i'm going to get the Gigabyte GA-7DXR mobo and it has the Creative CT-5880 sound chip onboard.

does anyone know if this is adequate for my sound needs (playing games, watching movies, etc...) or should i get a soundblaster live?

thanks!!!!
 
Here's a limited bit of insight for you. Different mobo's use different sound chips. I upgraded to an EPoX 8KTA3+ and relied on the onboard sound for a couple of days.

I don't play games but I do listen to MP3's. Everything seemed cool with the onboard sound until I tried to listen to some tunes one evening. The skipping and pausing was terrible. The next day I disabled the onboard sound and installed my old SB Live Value card.

FYI: I'm upgrading again, to an EPoX 8K7A+. I've also got a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz on order.
 
FWIW I just bought a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz to upgrade my MOBO's onboard sound. I've only had the card for a day, but the sound quality of CD's played from the CD ROM is MUCH better. MP3's are a lot better, but games (only tried Elite Force so far) sound exactly the same.
Dunno if it's worth it to you, but I'm happy with the purchase. Now I have to learn about EAX and A3D and all the stuff...
 
I had the same question: I bought an ASUS A7V133 with onboard audio(AC´97) and what about the quality of this sound???

I use to listen CDs and MP3s...It´s good for it?



 
They'll sound just fine - my MOBO had a generic 16 bit Crystal Audio chip on it, and it was fine.
The new sound card is noticeably better for music. I got it for $45 delivered, so it's worth it for me, don't know if I'd pay the $80+ retail, though.
One nice thing about a sound card is that it will take some of the load off of your CPU - I used to get little interruptions if I was listening to MP3's and doing something else fairly intensive, like dowloading something from a website.
Haven't had that problem in the whole day I've been using the new card 🙂
 
Maybe on future I´ll buy a new sound card, but for now an onboard audio is good for me...

Crank and Dan: Is Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card really a very good card??? I mean, here in Brazil the sound blaster live! cards are easily found, so is this Santa Cruz better than a sound blaster live! card???

...
 
Thanks for the info guys I was wondering the same thing if the onboard sound is good enough on my Epox 8kta3.Apparently not.I picked up one of these cheapo pci souncards by inland i will try and if not looks like Santa Cruz is the next thing to get.
 
My only experience with onboard sound was with two FIC MBs -- one a PA2130. The sound seemed OK for the usual sounds associated with opening and closing Windows etc., but was almost intolerable for wave music files. I disabled the onboard sound in both cases and installed sound cards, even though I had bought the MBs with the integrated sound for systems I was putting together for someone else. No more integrated sound for me.
 
the creative CT-5800 is adequate for onboard sound (it's much better than AC97). you do NOT need a soundblaster live. get a live or 5.1 card if you will use a multi-speaker setup OR you have $70 to burn(for a real sound card i.e. Acoustic Edge, Santa Cruz, or the mighty Hercules GTXP)
 
Gigabyte's onboard ct5880 is a pretty capable sound chip. Supports 4 channels audio, digital output. Sound quality is ok, and I do have high quality speakers so I know. Not as good as a >50$ soundcard, but better then most cheapo ones. Plays mp3, dvd and games just fine. In win98 it's detected as a Soundblaster 128PCI.
Only problem so far - I have problems when installing latest nvidia drivers, 12.xx. If anyone can help me on this one 😕
 
Ruther I can't really say how much better the TBSC is compared to any other sound cards since I went straight from on board to it. I did do a lot of reading before I bought it, though, and the general consensus seems to be that the Herc GTXP is #1 followed by the TBSC and the Philips Acoustic Edge.
I wasn't going to do the upgrade until I saw the refurb Santa Cruz on the Dell site - seemed to be too good a deal to pass up.
 
I brought the Iwill KK266 with onboard sound, listen for a second and put back my Sound Blaster Live.
 
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