Which is better: C-Media or SB Live?

[HGC]

Any opinions on which sounds better, SB LIVE or C-Media onboard audio on the Shuttle AK35GT2? I don't care about the 5.1, just sound quality for music. Thanks.

 

[farns]

I have heard the sound quality is comparable but the c-media onboard uses about 10-15% of a p4 2.0 cpu compared to 5%???(rough shot in the dark) for the SB live.
I would like to know how much cpu-usage separate video cards use compared to c-media onboard but havent been able to find anything.

 

[MichaelD]

Interestingly enough, I'm contemplating this exact thing. I have the Shuttle AK35GTR and a SBLive XGamer 5.1 I currently am using. Unfortunately, I occasionally get a BSOD with an "IRQ not less or equal to blahblahblah" which can be traced directly to the damn SBLive card. :| I've tried changing the PCI slot that the card is in...but W2K gives everything an IRQ of 11, so I'm screwed anyway, actually.

I'm thinking about trying the onboard sound and burning the card. I would imagine that as long as you have a decent set of speakers, the sound quality shouldn't be much different. I am concerned about "fixing one problem and creating another" though. Except for my old Dell *snicker* I've never used onboard sound, but am considering it now.

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

Don't burn it! I need a sound card for my car mp3 player!


Incidentally, I've never actually used the C-media card, but regular PC-97 audio always gives me static on hard drive access. My SB Live Does too to some extent, but never as much in comparison. I've tested this with about 4 systems, and come to the same conclusion each time. My suggestion is to try the c-media, and if you don't like it - use a stand alone card.

 

[LordAccord]

I had planned on dropping my SBLive 5.1 (even though Ive never had any trouble with it) and going to onboard the next time I upgrade.... any other comments on CPU usage, etc.... Id be interested to know if there is actually a good reason to stick with a PCI standalone sound card.

LoRdAccord

 

[arynn]

For the C-Media sound CPU usage, you can look at Anand's roundup of the Pentium 4 motherboards he did a while back (December or so). In that review, he compared the CPU usage of various implementations of C-Media and other onboard sound.

For the most part, a stand alone sound card will give you much lower CPU utilization than onboard sound. The only exception I know of is the nForce sound which is supposed to have a lower CPU utilization than the SB Live (I think it was comparable to or a little more than the Audigy). The discussion of the nForce's CPU utilization I remember seeing was in the review of the chipset at launch at either (or both) Anandtech or Ace's Hardware.