Worth Switching from a Onboard?

[Hussar]

Hello. I just received a Creative I-Trigue 3300 for free, a major upgrade from my standard pair of Harmon Kardon's. I'm currently running an onboard AC97 sound card, and am considering changing it for something better. Would this card work and be worth the upgrade?

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Soun...00J1F1BI/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_1/104-1962852-4956768

 

[Helix47]

Mate I have had an audigy 2 for the past 3 years and judging by the lack of post on the ALC 822 onboard S/c I would get a sound card lol

 

[Yrusoad]

dont think just get it. it is a great card and has no cpu strain.

 

[ajfink]

Depending on what you do with your system the leftover few percent of CPU power alone may be worth it. I have a seven or eight year old PCI audio card in my P4 folding / storage box just for that.

 

[Clob]

If you just listen to two channel music, or dont care for EAX, then I would stick with onboard.

 

[jaguarskx]

I find that on-board sound is somewhat flat and there is generally more noise (hissing) coming from an onboard sound than a discrete sound card.

EAX is great too for sound affects. But from what little I've read about Windows Vista, EAX is not supported in the new OS. Vista uses something called OpenAL for sound.

 

[derek2006]

O ya definitely worth it. Going from AC97 to Audigy 4 was a huge improvement. Especially in bf2, and bf2142. Every thing just sounded so much richer and you could hear more.