on board sound vs sound card

Pc_Pimp

Pc_Pimp

New Member
For watching movies, listening music and gaming how much of a difference will i notice going from on board sound to a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channel sound card?
 
When I moved from RealTek onboard to a $20 Diamond 5.1 card, the stuttering and distortion stopped during multitasking, and the sound was a LOT cleaner... especially mp3's and DVD playback. A lot also depends on your speakers and/or headphones.
Tom
 
I've never thought the sound difference to be worth the price. If you're upgrading to a quality sound card, then you're going to want a nice speaker setup as well, or else it's not worth doing. I'd say to make it worth upgrading at all you'd have to put in at least $200, and at that point unless you have an awesome rig to start with, I'd rather put that money into a graphics card or a second/bigger monitor.
 
Is there really any difference in the different X-Fi cards such as the audio one vs the gamer one?
 
The Audio is just a beefed up Audigy, doesnt really even have a X-Fi chip. The gamer does it own processing with its onboard chip and the Audio uses your CPU time
 
If you need 7.1 then sure, change it, but for sound quality? No difference. Chances are you'll be listening to mp3's anyway, and they're compromised in the first place. I just use the onboard sound on my mac pro as opposed to my m-box2 (which technically should be far higher quality) for simlplicity, it sounds just as good, and unless you have a pair of £2000 speakers hooked up, you aint gonna notice.
 
You'll be fine with onboard sound. I think if you are questioning it, then you really don't think you need a sound card.
 
I have the Logitech G51 speaker system and when I finally build my PC, I am making sure that I get a good sound card to gett eh most out of my system... they are quality speakers and in order to get the best, i suppose you have to spend the money

Tho saying that, onboard sound is pretty good these days. If you have the money then go for it otherwise you'll be fine without
 
I've been thinking about getting a soundcard for a while. I think my onboard sound is messed up. I get a really nasty distortion ranomly during games, and my mic channel, and a couple of the speaker channels don't work at all. But I might just get a new mobo, and use that onboard sound. hmm...
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PlayfullLika
 
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I sound card purchase would be cheaper and much easier to do overall. I also suggest doing that. Replacing a motherboard sucks.
 
Thanks, thats what I'm probably going to end up doing. My current mobo just isn't that OC friendly, and the BIOS isn't that great. But its not that big of a deal. $30 is a lot better than $250.
 
jds21 said:
I have the Logitech G51 speaker system and when I finally build my PC, I am making sure that I get a good sound card to gett eh most out of my system... they are quality speakers and in order to get the best, i suppose you have to spend the money

Tho saying that, onboard sound is pretty good these days. If you have the money then go for it otherwise you'll be fine without
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Only get a new card if your current onboard cannot output a 5.1 signal. There is no point to buying a 'better' card for any other reason. You might imagine it sounds better, but it won't.

Anyone know LINN audio? They make fancy expensive hi-fi gear, they do all the aston martin sound systems... Anyway, few years ago I was in one of their demo rooms, and the guy played a CD through their 'base' model cd player (£1000) and then through their top of the line one (£10000 or something stupid). They sounded slightly 'different'. Neither was better.
Point is for the best part you want good speakers and a nice clean amp, the computer makes **** all difference
 
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