Motherboards that dont use USB sound

Devious

Devious

Devious

Soldato
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I'm returning an Asus B650e-e as it has some issue. One is the ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller is junk and its 50/50 whether it is detected during boot up.

Also thee sound on this board is Realtek ALC4080 which is USB and it keeps dropping off and shows in device manager as Unknown USB device (Device Desriptor Request Failed)

I was using an Asus Xonar card to avoid using the crap USB audio but now I need an add-in card too to run my SATA drives and only have one accesible pcie-e slot due to the 5090 card.


I have been offered a return of the B650e-e but they have to recieve it by Friday so I am in a rush to buy another motherboard.

Are there any motherbaords that dont use USB audio these days ir ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller. I was think of the MSI Tomahawk x870e but that seems to have other isses which arnt being fixed.
 
Devious said:
Are there any motherbaords that dont use USB audio these days.
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I believe ALC1220x is the old version, whereas the 4080 is exclusively USB.

Devious said:
I was using an Asus Xonar card to avoid using the crap USB audio but now I need an add-in card too to run my SATA drives and only have one accesible pcie-e slot due to the 5090 card.
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How many SATA ports do you need from the motherboard?

Quite a few previous gen boards have 6, but the only board of the new gen that has 6 that I'm aware of is the Taichi.
 
Tetras said:
I believe ALC1220x is the old version, whereas the 4080 is exclusively USB.

How many SATA ports do you need from the motherboard?
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I just read that the ALC1220 is the old non USB version, seems not many boards use it. i think some of the gigabyes X870e do but seems 2 of 4 of their M2 slots tend to share with the main pcie-e x16 slot.

i have 4 SATA drives and 3 M2 drives. I was looking at the Asrock Nova and MSI Tomahawk due to the number of M2 slots that dont share lanes. It seems they both use RealTek USB audio though. I dont need amazing quality audio, just want it to work. Maybe I got unlucky with this board and another will be fine.

A good thing about the Asrock Nova is It has 2 useable pci-e slots right at the bottom of the board if needed.
Sin_Chase said:
Onboard audio is all mostly trash.

Just buy an external USB DAC and AMP (if needed) and be done with it for good.
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Any recomendations that arnt too expensive? What about the FiiO KA11 Type-C DAC? I will be outputting to an amp and speaker.

Is there not a chance that this could have the same issue being USB?
 
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I cant answer why your onboard audio keeps dropping out but ive been using a Schiit DAC over USB for years without issues (It doesnt need drivers either) Are you sure its not a software or configuration issue?

What inputs does your amp accept? RCA stereo?

For a solid DAC my money would be on a Schiit Modi.
 
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Devious said:
I just read that the ALC1220 is the old non USB version, seems not many boards use it.
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Yeah, I looked at the spreadsheet and seems like they're moving over to the USB one except for Gigabyte, as you said.

Devious said:
but seems 2 of 4 of their M2 slots tend to share with the main pcie-e x16 slot.
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Common issue for boards that have USB4, unfortunately, the previous gen (X670E) rarely has this problem.

Devious said:
Maybe I got unlucky with this board and another will be fine.
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I'm not sure if there is a widespread issue with this codec or not, but I have seen it mentioned frequently and certainly not just you avoiding boards that use it.

Devious said:
I was looking at the Asrock Nova and MSI Tomahawk due to the number of M2 slots that dont share lanes.
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The Nova does seem to be the best board for M.2 slots. I think MSI just let you turn off the USB4 ports to avoid M.2 issues?
 
Why spend so much money on a rig and then use onboard sound? I'm sure there might be reasons for it but almost any external solution for £20-50 that can be connected by USB is going to be superior to onboard. The only reason I can think of off the top of my head to be so stringent is the need for multi channel physical analogue ports, and those old school surround systems from the likes of Creative are increasingly rare. There's a few that should be viable via optical also, saving you needing to worry so much about said analogue outputs.

I'd kill for motherboards that did away with the audio part entirely, give me something for £20-30 less without it please, I've been exclusively external for over a decade! (and apparently spend a good deal less on my PC :p)
 
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Devious said:
I'm returning an Asus B650e-e as it has some issue. One is the ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller is junk and its 50/50 whether it is detected during boot up.

Also thee sound on this board is Realtek ALC4080 which is USB and it keeps dropping off and shows in device manager as Unknown USB device (Device Desriptor Request Failed)

I was using an Asus Xonar card to avoid using the crap USB audio but now I need an add-in card too to run my SATA drives and only have one accesible pcie-e slot due to the 5090 card.


I have been offered a return of the B650e-e but they have to recieve it by Friday so I am in a rush to buy another motherboard.

Are there any motherbaords that dont use USB audio these days ir ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller. I was think of the MSI Tomahawk x870e but that seems to have other isses which arnt being fixed.
Click to expand...

Sounds like your motherboard is faulty to me, I have the same board since Oct 2023 and onboard sound is excellent, zero issues, running perfect for my gaming needs, boards can go faulty and I've had bad ram, motherboard, PSU etc...

Can you get a replacement?.... FYI I'm using NVMe and SSD drive plus three external USB drives all working flawless with onboard ALC4080 sound, never had an issue in a game or music, zero pops or crackles, it just works period, my bet is a faulty motherboard component.
There was a firmware update for optical output but doubt that is your issue.
 
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Devious said:
I'm returning an Asus B650e-e as it has some issue. One is the ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller is junk and its 50/50 whether it is detected during boot up.

Also thee sound on this board is Realtek ALC4080 which is USB and it keeps dropping off and shows in device manager as Unknown USB device (Device Desriptor Request Failed)

I was using an Asus Xonar card to avoid using the crap USB audio but now I need an add-in card too to run my SATA drives and only have one accesible pcie-e slot due to the 5090 card.


I have been offered a return of the B650e-e but they have to recieve it by Friday so I am in a rush to buy another motherboard.

Are there any motherbaords that dont use USB audio these days ir ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller. I was think of the MSI Tomahawk x870e but that seems to have other isses which arnt being fixed.
Click to expand...
Onboard audio isn’t great but it does sound like you’re having quite a few issues.

RMA the motherboard. See if that helps.

You shouldn’t need to buy an external audio card (DAC) to have basic audio capacity (regardless of how bad onboard audio is).

That being said, a good external DAC is a good value purchase and will last many upgrades.

I use a Ifi Zen v2 DAC and it’s fantastic but it’s not a “gaming DAC” so see which you would prefer.

There are many good USB DACs though so look around at reviews.
 
I had to order a board before Friday so I've ordered an MSI x870e Tomahawk over the Asrock Nova as that also uses the Asmedia SATA controller which has been a nightmare for me. With the full refund it only a few quid on top.

I'm still going to look into an external DAC even though my XONAR card still sounds good. I quite like the look of the X4. Can get at £100 with a 17% off voucher. Are any better than that for cheaper?

The DAC may have solved my audio issues but I feel I should return the board anyway as it's faulty if I sell on in the future.
 
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Also in the "get a DAC" vote.
You can even go with something with flavours (depends on your wants, some like "just direct sound please") with, for example, a soundblaster G6, £45 from the usual auction place on a good day. Will run speakers or headphones with/without an added amp/etc.
 
Devious said:
I'm returning an Asus B650e-e as it has some issue. One is the ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller is junk and its 50/50 whether it is detected during boot up.
Click to expand...

I'm a bit surprised at this, AFAIK the ASM1061 is generally reckoned to be pretty solid. I'd be inclined towards the faulty motherboard explanation.
 
I needed a board for weekend so I have bought and installed the MSI TOMAHAWK x870e yesterday and so far so good. Its great to have working sound and detected SATA drives.

The SATA benchmarks are 25% better than the crappy Asmedia controller on the Asus..

Will look into getting a DAC later so started doing some research. The X4 seems good for gaming but average for music. Looking for an allrounder but I tend to use my PC mainly for gaming. I don't use headphones so not sure if I will hear the benefits.
 
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