I am not sure about the onboard sound solution it has, but im just as unsure of the benefit a card like an Auzentech prelude or a fatality would have.
I already own z5500s on my rig, they will come over to my next build.
Is it worth shelling out for any sound card at this point? Or will i get just as good sound from the onboard solution provided by that board. The system is pretty much only used for gaming and music.
An aftermarker card will sound better (more dynamic, potential for more channels, digital/optical outputs to external sources. etc etc..), and will save some CPU cycles. So if your system is marginal, then you could see a few more frames/sec. But neither is onboard sound the joke it used to be - It does sound perfectly decent. So if the budget is a little tight: Take your sound card money and put it towards a better Video card than you maybe would have otherwise chosen for your self.
So I wouldn't worry about it. Besides - You can always buy a sound card (weeks... months...) later.
This obviously and horribly bias'd message has been brought to you by a confirmed audio maniac, who has spent more dough on the stereo than the PC. Currently enjoying an Auzentech 7.1 Prelude, sending optical zeros and ones to a very nice Onkyo/Polk setup.
--------------- The worst part of my Vista 64 experience is having to listen to all of the individuals who apparently feel it's their 'Grand Mission In Life' to tell me about all of the things that (supposedly) don't work, when it *does* work.
Absolutely do not buy a sound card now, use the money elsewhere to pump up your gaming rig, more CPU, memory, or video card. Your on-board sound will do for now. Later on, when you have the extra cash to spend and just dying to upgrade something, even though everything is working perfectly, buy a sound card.
A simple solution is to try the motherboard's onboard sound and find out if you like it. If you do like it, then the next thing to do is to try your favorite games and see how they perform. You might download FRAPS for this, as it will tell you frame speeds more accurately than your eyes. Typically a separate card will give you 3-5 FPS in a game, which though small, may make the difference between getting a literal headache or not.
Some of the factory sound systems are fairly decent. Others are bad enough that you'd like to throw them in the trash, especially since you're using a good set of speakers. The ASUS board I recently bought had an actual sound card for its factory sound system, one that plugged into a PCIe 1x slot, so it both doesn't draw on the CPU and has the ability to give better sound than the typical onboard sound. It actually sounds fairly good with my Z5500 speakers. But it still doesn't have quite the quality of tone that a Creative Fatal1ty or Auzentech Prelude would have. Its basically that old line of "You get what you pay for".
So I'd suggest trying the onboard sound and find out if you like it. If it sounds good and the FPS of your games is acceptable, then fine. If not, save some money and look for a separate card.
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Evil lurks in the databanks as it lurked in the streets of yesteryear. But it was never the streets that were evil.
