Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Digital Still Worth Using

[arranmc182]

I have an old Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Digital that I use to use on my old Motherboard because the onboard died then the board died also (2 blown caps ) so I got a new board the ASRock N68C-S UCC this has onboard sound the VIA VT1705. What is happening is that the onboard sound some times stutters where as on my old motherboard with the Sound Blaster that never happened at all & the only thing to have changed in my system is the Motherboard. So any help would be nice

 

[davcon]

Update the Via audio drivers at Asrock if you haven't done so.
The last time i used my Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Digital was in 2003 on a WIN98 pc.
If you have an O/S past XP the SB is rather useless = no driver support.
You're onboard is probably 24bit and the SB isn't.

 

[arranmc182]

I have the latest Drivers and for the sound blaster I used the kX drivers (http://www.kxproject.com/) to get the card to work in Win 7 Pro 64-bit and the card worked grate before so I dunno maybe just think I should try it.

 

[arranmc182]

Would the fact I only have a Athlon x2 5000+ (OC'ed to 3.1GHZ) in my system be making it stutter more when playing games that use the CPU a lot if so I guess adding card could off load the sound processing from the CPU.

 

[davcon]

Well since you put it that way!
yes!
by all means try it.
I had no idea they had drivers for that puppy.
It is a hardware based card too so it may help your cpu.
You really have nothing to lose.

 

[arranmc182]

I was thinking that and if you look at this page they have have done a switch trick that allows the card to be a great 2.1 card http://www.kxproject.com/rear.php?language=en.

 

[davcon]

Nice link and info i have 4 or 5 old SB's of various vintage laying about.
I've always prefered 2.1 anyways.

 

[arranmc182]

Yeah on the PC I love 2.1 better so when I have the time I will get a Midi file and play it on both cards that way we can see how good both cards are at Midi synch play back to me that shows off how good a card is at its simple to tell.

 

[arranmc182]

Well have installed the card working fine for sound output but no sound in for my Microphone oh well didnt record Midi files was only just a lil better but gunna test GTA IV and see if the crashing is fixed and will post back

 

[arranmc182]

WOW it has stopped all the sound stutter in GTA IV so im happy now . I think if i get a quad core I would go back to onboard or i would just pony up and get a PCI-e x1 sound card like one from ASUS

 

[leon2006]

The add in cards process the audio on its hardware. The onboard audio chip the task is done by the CPU.

Audio is a very minor task in a PC. Dual core is more than sufficient for that. Chances are something is wrong with the on-board chip hardware.

I still have my sound blaster live 5.1 working on my old machines.

VIA base chips are not that recommended. I don't get any hardware with via chips on it. They are cheap but as they said "You get what you paid for"

 

[arranmc182]

Well i understand how the onboard can use up some cpu but not a lot at all its just i have never known of a good VIA sound chipset my last motherboard had one on and it died.