MoFro Posted July 17, 2005 Posted July 17, 2005 just want to know which one you guy's use and why? how do i find out how much cpu it (onboard) use's Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fooit Posted July 17, 2005 Posted July 17, 2005 Onboard sound usually suck - I gave it try but it's not even close to my current Audigy 2 ZS (OEM) card. I am listening to music and watching movies on my machine so I invested in good speakers and sound card I could afford. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
suio Posted July 17, 2005 Posted July 17, 2005 I wire a digital coaxial cable to my Pioneer 1014TX 7.1 digital receiver. In this case, the onboard sound chip makes no difference. The computer is DVIed to a Z2 HD projector. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Slack Posted July 17, 2005 Posted July 17, 2005 If you are doing music production in ANY flavor, you need a decent card... if you are just gaming or watching films you will be fine with the on-board stuff. (Unless of course you are like me and end up with digital white noise every so often ) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Games Posted July 17, 2005 Posted July 17, 2005 the onboard sound on our Lanparty and Infinity boards are decent, and even pretty damn good.  but  i always prefer my Audigy/Audigy2 sound cards over any onboard sound (plus i play guitar and use my rig to record stuff through the Line-In and onboard sound has latencies upwards of 700ms vs my 2ms latency on the Audigy2) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erekosse Posted July 17, 2005 Posted July 17, 2005 I did a look see at Anandtech's review of SLI boards before purchasing my SLI-DR. You might find the following link of interest: http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2358&p=19. This page examines the onboard audio performance for the SLI-DR and three competitive mobo's. Â As you can see, the review takes a look at overhead associated with the onboard sound. You may note that the MSI board with the onboard Audigy Live! had the least drain on the CPU - and probably the best quality. I decided to go with an Audigy 2 ZS to reduce the overhead on the CPU and to improve the audio output quality. It was a big win for $40 (after rebates) for my 2 ZS Gamer Edition. My business partner keeps hoping that special will run again at Fry's... Â David Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vektor Posted July 18, 2005 Posted July 18, 2005 I had the same question so thanks for asking it, and not to hijack, but I have a soundblaster live, the one with the 5.25 bay w/jacks(which I don't even have installed) . Would that be a better option than the onboard until I get an Audigy? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmay119 Posted July 18, 2005 Posted July 18, 2005 I love my AudioTrak Prodigy 7.1 LT This card uses the VIA Envy 24-Bit Chip the same chip used on the M-Audio Revolution 5.1/7.1. I chose this card over the M-Audio only because of more frequent driver updates. I own a set of Klipsch 5.1 Ultras, using onboard these speakers sound good, but with this sound card, these speakers sound Great! If you are a gamer you might want to lean towards a creative soundcard, because it seems to stress the CPU less than other cards while gaming. I personally didn't go with creative because I believe they are overpriced and there software/drivers are too bloated for my liking. Just my 2 cents... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Games Posted July 18, 2005 Posted July 18, 2005 onboard sound is better than anything up to Audigy, and even the Soundstorm and new ALC650 stuff is probably as good if not slightly better than Audigy...but I have yet to hear ANY onboard sound that is better than Audigy2 Â im also going to order one of those Turtle Beach Catalina 7.1 cards soon to see if they are as awesome as their Santa Cruz 5.1's were. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobia69 Posted July 18, 2005 Posted July 18, 2005 I love the NF2 onboard sound on my Ultra B, the realtek on my MSI Neo board blows chunks of static and pops. I threw in a used SB live 5.1 and the nasty's went away. Still not as nice of sound on my DFI rig, but works well enough. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
3 Posted July 18, 2005 Posted July 18, 2005 You need the Audigy 2 for games that use EAX 4.0. Even cards like the turtle beach catalina only support EAX 2.0, which is very out dated. Doom 3 and BF2 both use EAX 4. I personally LOVE EAX in doom 3. It even has scared me on plenty of occasions. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deathwish Posted July 18, 2005 Posted July 18, 2005 Buy Audigy 2 ZS, it's great, weather you game and listen to music (me) or just listen to music, it's a must, much better than the integrated stuff, even for gaming, you can get a much better feel of where the enemy is with it... it's really not that expensive, just bad part is it takes up 1 of the valuable PCI slots Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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