Sound Cards

[sKaD]

Are they all that necessary? I mean, if your MOBO doesn't have one already then yeah. But I mean, you see those soundblasters or whatever that could be close to $300 for a soundcard!?

Are they really that necessary? They can't make the sound THAT MUCH better. I mean, I don't think the onboard sound sounds bad even while playing MP3's loud..

What's the deal?

 

[Agent40]

i really think it depends on how much of an audiophile you are. if you have theater quaility surround speakers then i wouldn't skimp on a sound card, but if you just use headphones or small speakers to listen to music and games...not really needed.

 

[Nubius]

umm....this thread has already been started once before.

 

[ohGrFreak]

My onboard sound was pooping out on me, so I put in a old Soundblaster Live cheapy that I picked up for 30 bucks at walmart, and the sound is a lot better, not super great, but better, and clearer. But of course, my onboard audio was messing up in the first place. My speakers are also Creative brand 5.1 set up, the cheapies as well.

I have said this before, that I save the high end audio for my theater, onboard and cheap cards are good enough for my computer purposes. Although I would go all out for a graphics card, but that's a different story altogether.

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

Onboard hardware is great, so you dont have to buy the extra cards. But it takes away cpu cycles. Things like sound, nic/lan, sata, raid. You get better results from seperate cards.

The difference is noticeable between onbaord sound and a sound card. You dont even need to spend over $100. I like my audigy, i wouldnt go with an onboard card. Until the motherbaords come with the audigy chip and the front bay. But I dont see SB doing this, so i guess i'll stick with the cards.

 

[TheMajor]

Too many card isn't good though. I think they have to share the 133Mbps of the PCI bus.

Personally I had problems in games with AC '97 onboard sound. Weird high pitched stuff. So I put in a seperate soundcard and it was fixed.