onboard vs. card

[joshmoEE]

building a new system and it seems like every mobo today comes with some sort of 8 channel on board hd audio. is their any advantage to using a sound card from creative? I use Bose companion 5 speakers and they have a USB connection, so not sure if a sound card will even be used.

thanks

 

[Menelmarar]

If they connect via USB, they have their own internal audio codec, and your right, no soundcard would be used.

The benefit of Creative cards, hardware acceleration of 3D effects via Directsound3D in XP, and OpenAL in XP/Vista. Reduces CPU load, sometimes substantially. Also more advanced EAX effects. Definitely a must for a moderate-hardcore gamer IMO.

 

[TheBluePill]

If they connect via USB, they have their own internal audio codec, and your right, no soundcard would be used.

The benefit of Creative cards, hardware acceleration of 3D effects via Directsound3D in XP, and OpenAL in XP/Vista. Reduces CPU load, sometimes substantially. Also more advanced EAX effects. Definitely a must for a moderate-hardcore gamer IMO.

BIG +1,

Plus, If you are an audiophile, an X-Fi or similar high-end audio card really does make an audible difference in sound quality.

 

[PolygonGTC]

An actual card is going to sound better than any onboard pile of crap you can find.

 

[exabyte]

I like onboard, I've always used a sound card until my current rig. I think it sounds better than a card these days. YMMV

 

[TheBluePill]

An actual card is going to sound better than any onboard pile of crap you can find.

For the wholey most part that is true, but some board makers to include a high-end creative chipset that is a cut above basic 7/8ch "crap" chipsets.. though they are few and far between.

Another caveat is that some Cheap/Poorly made MB's have some noise on their PCI Slots that is noticable on some combinations of cards...

Yet again, this is all a VAST, VAST minority, I just wanted to throw that out there a "food for thought".

 

[joshmoEE]

thanks. this really helped out