use onboard or invest in a card???

[G-Man]

Im building a gaming rig and 98% of the time only use headphones. Have no experiance with anything but onboard sound. Would it be to my benifit to install a soundcard ? and if so, what would be a great card for gaming?

thanks, G-Man

 

[ak47is1337]

meh, its more or less if you are an audiophile. Unless you need 7.1/5.1, it might be nicer to just stick with onboard and save some dough.

 

[cheetsy]

card everytime man, thats my opinion, unless you get a board with an audigy 2 already on it, but for me the difference between the onboard and an audigy 2 value was big enough for me to go for a card. Music is much better, bass is deeper (im in to my dnb), and it takes a little weight off the psu when running games etc, for the sake of about 40 quid id go for a card man, the onboard on my hdd was fairly good, but tinny i thought.

hope that helps

 

[ak47is1337]

Man, my onboard AC'97 7.1 is plenty for me.

 

[cheetsy]

yeah, i hear what ya saying, but for me i generally use headphones, and loud for music, and i really did notice a difference, im not saying the onboard was bad, it was very capable, but for example, you cant adjust the bass or treble in the windows sound configuration panel, perhaps if you could force it to be less tinny i wouldnt mind, but on normal volumes the onboard was certainly very capable, i just wanted more... lol

 

[sturm]

Start out using the onboard and if you dont like the sound then get a card and compare
You are the only one that can determine if a card is right for you. Use your ears and decide.

My on board sound has full bass and treble adjustment, individual volume controls for front, rear, center and sub just thru normal windows options, 7 or 8 band eq with presets, supports eax and has way too many preset surround environments. Sounds damn good to me.
So no not all of them are "bad", just depends on how much of an audiophile you are.

 

[cheetsy]

yours is probably an onboard audigy 2 then...? What board is it?

 

[Dr_Snyder]

I Mostly use onboard Soundcards, but if you aren't a surround sound junkie the only noticable difference will be volume. If you want to wake up the neighborhood, get a nice sound card. I enjoy my Audigy 2 ZS, but I rarely ever have it loud enough to notice. Plus it depends on your Speakers.... If you have great speakers, get a decent sound card.

 

[sturm]

Its an msi neo 2 platinum about 1 1/2 old. Its using the realtek ac97 audio. I know its not audigy becasue I dont think any board was using it then. I am also using the Logitech z530 5.1 surround speakers. $80 bucks and sound great.

 

[ak47is1337]

$80? i paid 53

 

[sturm]

I bought them about a year ago, so the price has probably come down.

 

[ak47is1337]

:O where at?

 

[sturm]

Fryes

 

[mikeicarus]

Well if u are using headphones 98% of the time... you should definitely invest some money in a good soundcard.. like... audigy2 or if u have deeper pockets than mine, Creative X-fi fatla1ty or X-fi Elite Pro...

The X-fi Platinum and X-fi Extreme had some serios problems running games... that's what i've heard from a friend who bought an X-fi Extreme and he couldn't play games like FarCry, HalfLife2, Doom3, etc...

I don't know if the guys from Creative fixed these bugs... anyway... audigy2 is a good choice.

HP nx9030
2 GB DDR
40 GB HDD
Audigy2 ZS

 

[uncle_ben]

As I said I have not encountered any problems with my X-Fi.

@mikeikarus
but now I get what you are saying:

yep, there was incompatibililty with some nForce4 boards. But it has been patched on both sides so it is no longer an issue as far as I know... Basically some motherboards did not allow for X-Fi installation, but symptoms were pretty straight forward
(so get your friend to use google or, maybe msn.com 8O )

Btw. Microsoft is spending $1,000,000 on prizes for purely using their search engine, that is insane...
... but how do I qualify?

Sorry 4 OT

 

[Crashman]

Use onboard, Creative makes crap.