Onboard sound or soundcard?

[LBTRS]

Hello,

Do most people just use the onboard sound or add a soundcard when building a new computer? I use two speakers and a sub for music and games.

Thanks.

 

[Running]

do you have extra money for it? if so then get one, you'll notice a large improvement. if you don't you'll think onboard is pretty good until you get a sound card =D

 

[bum]

Onboard sound has been great to me. Not totally sure about the subwoofer, but the easiest thing to do is set up you mobo and try it. If you like how it sounds leave it, if not then go and buy a soundcard. Newegg takes 3 days to ship so worst case scenario, you'd just have speakers for 3 days.

 

[atomic tofu]

I prefer onboard...some people think externals are better. It can be subjective...like that videophile that swears he sees an extra pixel when he's looking at the screen from 2 inches away. It can apply to computer audio people too...they'll swear it's that much better. To me it's just sound, lol.

I haven't purchased a soundcard since the days of soundblaster 16 and when Creative made you buy your drivers via snail mail.

I did actually buy a sound card....when I built a comp that didn't have it in the mobo. But not creative, since I wanted real quality

All in all it can improve your system performance about 1%, offloading some of the processing...etc

 

[gurusan]

Sound card all the way...i love my XFI

 

[M733mhz]

Well for example, it's not just people being picky. Sometimes you can notice it, like when listening to rock music on some onboards, cymbols will sound harsh and annoying when with a soundcard it will render the sound better so that same cymbol sounds full and not so harsh to the ears.

 

[Dr DMoney]

Only get a soundcard if your are getting or have 5.1 surround because then you would be wating money otherwize!