Sound card advice

ballin · 15 Nov 2009 at 12:27

Hi,

I am in the process of buying a new gaming system, but after looking through most of OC'ers pre-built rigs, I noticed that even the most expensive builds still only use on-board sound.

Is this the norm nowadays, or are seperates still clearly better?

I have a Soundblaster Audigy 4, and wondered, if most new systems just use onboard, could I put my Audigy 4 in and be done with it?

It's quite an old card so perhaps onboard would be better even!!?

The thing is, I looked at the new cards, and they don't seem to offer anything more than my Audigy 4, except extras like remotes and stuff which I don't want anyway.

Eg mine has :

Hardware-accelerated EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD
24-bit/96kHz recording and 7.1 playback at 106dB SNR

Is this as good as any, or should I look to put a brand new dedicated sound card in my new build?

Thanks for your help!!

Marsman · 15 Nov 2009 at 13:08

Maybe, and this is just a maybe, quite a few who are using onboard with more expensive setups are using a DAC. This means no sound card is needed, but you will need to pay upto £100 for anything worthwhile. Or it couls be that they are not too bothered about audio, and concentrate funds into others areas of the PC.

As for the Audigy 4, it is certainly better than onboard audio.

ballin · 15 Nov 2009 at 13:35

I see, makes sense. I think I will just stick with my Audigy 4 then it's only for games anyway not music particularly, so I expect it will be more than enough.

Thanks for the info Marsman!

Marsman · 15 Nov 2009 at 14:03

Yes I would. Onboard is not really any good for gaming. It's fine if you don't give a rats arse about positional sound, but it offers none of the effects you get from a sound card from Creative or Asus aimed at gamers.

khisanth75 · 17 Nov 2009 at 12:44

Unless you are an audiophile I found onboard sound to be pretty good and not that much different from a dedicated card. They have 3d/positional sound, lots of features and effects etc.

I went from an Audigy 2 ZS to the onboard sound on my new Gigabyte mobo and really didnt notice any difference. My Audigy 2 was causing problems so took it out and used the onboard. Soundblaster cards always cause me problems every once in a while, usually a certain combination of chipset and soundcard makes things go wrong.

Of course a dedicated card SHOULD be better with more options etc, I think most people most of the time will struggle to hear a distinct difference especially using average speakers.

Greebo · 17 Nov 2009 at 13:48

Some mobo with onboard sound do come with quality chipsets like xonar so don't assume that with high end builds and no sound card that the onboard is not "quality"

Andrew G · 17 Nov 2009 at 13:50

What about performance wise guys n girls? On board will rob cpu cycles and some main memory won't it?

If I were a pure gamer and no bothered about playing music on the PC (have amp and stack system with proper speakers that can move air Vs puny i-dock type stuff) what would be good in the 1k gamer rig market?

Guest2 · 17 Nov 2009 at 14:02

I went from Audigy 2 ZS to Xonar essence ST

Burr-Brown PCM 1792A (DAC), integrated headphone amplifier with under 0.001-percent distortion rate, and 124dB SNR. It uses standard phono connections instead of 3.5mm output.

Yes, its better

Greebo · 17 Nov 2009 at 14:10

Little in it. Some onboard use more cpu than dedicated cards or vica versa.

Personally a mobo with a xonar built in would be my choice but that limits your mobo choice.

Guest2 · 17 Nov 2009 at 14:20

I think it depends a lot on the speakers and amp you have. My mate recently bought one of the value systems from this site for £300. Connected his amp and speakers up and got all it all running. Played a couple of tracks and it sounded like crap, then connected the soundblaster live he has been using for years and it was much better

Greebo · 17 Nov 2009 at 14:23

Also depends a lot on whether you are connecting to your amp via digital or anologue.

Guest2 · 17 Nov 2009 at 15:14

Greebo said:
Also depends a lot on whether you are connecting to your amp via digital or anologue.

Why would that matter? One of the best (if not the best) sound card doesnt even have digital output to amp

Greebo · 17 Nov 2009 at 15:54

Guest2 said:
Why would that matter? One of the best (if not the best) sound card doesnt even have digital output to amp

What I meant was is the the difference between onboard optical digital out and a quality soundcard optical digital out is not very much where the difference between anologue can be immense. Hence one of the best sound cards doesn't even have digital output.

I have a xonar d2x and compared to my onboard sound with optical out to my z5500's the difference is hard to tell but it is there (or am I imagining things?)

However, connected with anologue, I thought my onboard sound was fine until I got the xonar and then realised how utterly appauling the on board sound was.

So to the OP, depends how you are connecting to your amp. If anolgue then worth buying a decent soundcard. If optical, then probably not.

Guest2 · 17 Nov 2009 at 16:25

are right i see. (ive never ran digital, only 3.5mm - phono or phono - phono)

Or the OP could just buy a DAC and run from motherboard digitcal out to DAC then to whatever

khisanth75 · 23 Jul 2010 at 12:48

RE: onboard using CPU cycles etc. Does that matter in this day and age of multi-core high speed CPUs? Pretty much every piece of kit we have in our PCs is overkill for what we do with them usually!