audigy 2 ZS or onboard sound?

ok interesting question for you techie's out there.

i have an audigy 2 ZS pci soundcard out of my old machine , ive just built my new one with the following motherboard
lanparty DFI-LPUTX48-T2R Intel X48 , this has Bernstein audio module - Realtek ALC885 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC ,
will i benefit from using the old audigy or should i stick with the onboard? , im running vista btw but ALchemy is now free thankfully!.

I had an audigy soundcard. for fun i thought i'd try the onboard on my Asus M2N-E. Like buzznut says: for games you will want the EAX. For movies i have it plugged into some logitech z-5500 with the 6 channel from the PC.
i was very very suprised to notice that i liked the onboard sound better for movies and music, the software interface was just as flexible and intuitive and easy to use as the audigy software for dialing in the surround and it sounds great. i use the CCCP codec pack (don't know if it is vista compatible, just google CCCP). I think you would be just as happy with onboard as you could be.


and i have to say that EAX is the only thing i missed. i say missed because i don't miss it any more. As much as you payed for the motherboard, you should at least give the onboard sound a shot. you can still add on a card if you are dissapointed.

The difference is minimal.

Creative
+ALchemy (run EAX with vista)
+Firewire onboard
+Bass/Treble settings

-Some driver issues
-No game port on Vista 64
-Almost all the software no longer works. (CMSS, CMSS 2, Stereo surround are gone, but work with alternative software)

Realtek
+Almost any port can do anything(as long as the board maker set it up right.).
+Front and rear ports can play a different stream(games on one and teamspeak or whatever on the other(headphones).)
+You can tell the front and rear speakers to both be front sound in the software so you get more sound out of stereo files(no unmixed, just mirrored), just set it right for movies/games.
-No ALchemy
-May have lower performance(but cpu's are so fast it may not, i have noticed nothing)

IMO they sound close for music and movies(and since creative no longer has stereo surround mode i am running the realtek with front and rear doing the same sound for stereo files).