Old Sound Card Vs. New Motherboard

[JayMiller8080]

Drivers for my sound card aren't even listed on the Sound Blaster website anymore, unless I'm missing some archived link. Besides that, EVGA decided to put the front panel audio connection RIGHT next to where the PCI expansion slot is for my sound card and there's no way it would even fit both. Unless there is some adapter/extension that is WAY smaller than my front panel cable, then there is no way you could ever use both at the same time.

Aside from this, my on board sounds pretty awesome with those speakers, so I'm not really going to worry about it.

Thanks for the input guys!

 

[KSoD]

What Os are you running? Creative has all but discontinued driver support for many of their older cards, including the Audigy series for Win7. They are trying to force people to update their cards to newer models to get more money.

If you can give me the card and OS i might be able to find drivers.

 

[JayMiller8080]

What Os are you running? Creative has all but discontinued driver support for many of their older cards, including the Audigy series for Win7. They are trying to force people to update their cards to newer models to get more money.

If you can give me the card and OS i might be able to find drivers.

I still have the issue of fitting it >.<

I know I said it was a Sound Blaster live 6.1 earlier, but I think it may be a 5.1. I can't recall the specific model number but I believe it was SB0100 or something like that. I can double check tomorrow. Oh and I'm running Windows 7.

Pretty crappy that they are doing that eh? That's one thing I love about EVGA. Driver support is a cinch.

EDIT: After a quick Wikipedia search ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_Live!#Sound_Blaster_Live.21_5.1) to verify that model number, it would seem that the improvements made with this sound card are pretty obsolete, especially considering my more pressing matter in my other thread (http://www.techist.com/forums/f12/amplified-speakers-standard-speakers-223258/). Seem reasonable? If I'm making any dumb assumptions, please do inform. =]

 

[KSoD]

I would bet you that the onboard is going to be better than that card. That card is at least 10 years old and it was a bottom of the line card to begin with. It was entry level card to get surround sound. It doesnt have built in Dolby Digital or DTS decoding. You are better off staying with your onboard till you get a real sound card.

 

[EricB]

I would bet you that the onboard is going to be better than that card. That card is at least 10 years old and it was a bottom of the line card to begin with. It was entry level card to get surround sound. It doesnt have built in Dolby Digital or DTS decoding. You are better off staying with your onboard till you get a real sound card.

to make onboard sound sound as good as outboard, it would add about 300 bucks to the cost of the board. you have to factor in thing like signal to noise, voltage output, isolation for the mobo chipset etc. it just cheaper and make more sense to put it in as an outboard device if you are striving for high quality

the best onboard cards out there are just flat out noisy. the better companies package outboard sound with the mobo.

of course most people can't tell the difference. sound is sound to them. some ppeople will prefer that noisy 7.1 surround sound that has a signal to noise ratio of 50-70db to that of a sound card that s/n ratio is 95-96db

that old card didn't have dolby digital built in but it has a bypass feature that won't stop it from playing dolby or dts

yes new card have these feature built in (Like I said earlier)

 

[KSoD]

While i fully understand what your saying, i would think that a new onboard sound chipset would be at least comparable to something that is over 10 years old. I would have to think that in 10 years the cost of the technology came down enough to have it be included or at least make them close to sounding the same. I mean it was only a SB Live which was bottom of the food chain as it is. Those were the cheap sound cards of the Sound Blaster series. So i dont even think that those would include much of a bypass if they included one at all.

Even when SB Live were released they were only $40. I could buy that card online now for less than $5. While i do understand i find it very hard to believe that the lowest of low cards make that long ago would be better than stuff included today.

So yes while you are right, i have trouble thinking that this low end card would still be better than anything we have onboard today. I have heard SB Live 16 bit cards and they stink compared to even my laptop sound. I got more noise and static from that card then i did from anything in my laptop which even that is several years old now.

I am not trying to fight or argue with you. I am merely making a observation based on what i have encountered and what i think.

 

[JayMiller8080]

In addition to this controversy.. it still wont fit. Besides, the on board sounds fantastic with these speakers (and I do have an ear for sound quality, being a musician). It could certainly sound ALOT better if I wanted to shell out a lot more money for the card, a better receiver, better speakers, and a new sub, but honestly from what I pieced together around my house it sounds great.

I'll just stick with the on board. Maybe when I move into my dorm next year I'll do a little surround sound setup, and get a nice sound card.

Thank you guys for all your input! It's been very informative.

 

[EricB]

While i fully understand what your saying, i would think that a new onboard sound chipset would be at least comparable to something that is over 10 years old. I would have to think that in 10 years the cost of the technology came down enough to have it be included or at least make them close to sounding the same. I mean it was only a SB Live which was bottom of the food chain as it is. Those were the cheap sound cards of the Sound Blaster series. So i dont even think that those would include much of a bypass if they included one at all.

Even when SB Live were released they were only $40. I could buy that card online now for less than $5. While i do understand i find it very hard to believe that the lowest of low cards make that long ago would be better than stuff included today.

So yes while you are right, i have trouble thinking that this low end card would still be better than anything we have onboard today. I have heard SB Live 16 bit cards and they stink compared to even my laptop sound. I got more noise and static from that card then i did from anything in my laptop which even that is several years old now.

I am not trying to fight or argue with you. I am merely making a observation based on what i have encountered and what i think.

I know that you are not mak. but you at least deserve an expalination on why onboard sound will never reach the specs of outboard

It's kind of complicated to explain. but in a nutshell a sound card need to be isolated from the rest of the onboard components to be truly free of system noise. this will require a dc to dc converter which will make the board way more expensive. even though onboard can claim 16bit signal to noise specs, it can't really achieve it because system noise will get in.

it is just a lot simpler to just run the power of the onboard card with the rest of the pc components and live with the noise that most people won't hear (this is exactly why they do it). Play 1812 overture and you will really notice the noise during the not so loud passages.

now the the chipset of an out board card is automatically separated for the other components so this little problem just won't exist on the card even if the card is a 5 dollar card. of course the cheap components of a 5 dollars card will introduce noise to the system by it's cheap components, but that's another story

the rational behind the thinking is whoever is that worried about this isolation noise issue is going to buy an outboard card anyway. why make a 400-600 dollar motherboard with a dc to dc convertors built it in when it just simpler to built a basic mobo and buy a separate sound cards to achieve the same results

 

[KSoD]

Thank you Eric for explaining that to me. I fully understand now. Makes much more sense to me now.