xsabrewulf

Should I buy a soundcard ?


is the onboard sound any good?

Retrospekt

Do you plan on gaming? If not then dont buy a soundcard, ive been running without a soundcard for 2 years. If you have a lot of money, go for it, quality will be better.

zone

You cannot compare onboard sound to an X-Fi sound card but it should do the trick if you're not that picky. I have been using my onboard sound for quite a while and I'm ok with it... for now.
However, I think using onboard sound normally makes you lose some FPS (Frames Per Second) while playing games as it relies on the CPU whereas having a separate sound card helps free the CPU for other things because the card takes care of processing sound.
Check this review.

Maxima

Yeah, I was debating the same thing myself, should I buy a soundcard?? I still haven't yet, but I'm sure I probably will. But first, I need to get a backup drive!

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xsabrewulf

wow I did not know onboard used the CPU

that sucks.


anyways, how is this Soundcard?

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...reative%20Labs


if I get this soundcard will there be a correct slot on my Asus A8N Premium for this card?

and will it use ANY CPU with this card?

soloz2

having a real sound card will always give you better performance and better sound quality (unless it's a really old/crappy sound card) An actual sound card uses less system resources too so you'll get better fps in games.

I have an audigy2zs in my gaming rig, live 24bit in my HTPC and live in my bro's rig and they all seem to be better than onboard, even the oldschool live card in my bro's rig

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rcantec

on board is OK for games with a good video card but you cannot compare the sound you get from a current high quality card.

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zone

The card uses a PCI slot. So if you have a free usable PCI slot (by usable I mean one that's not adjacent to your video card which might have an extruding fan) then you're good to go.

Concerning the card performance I think it will be better than onboard sound.

Even with the card installed, your CPU will most likely still have some processing to do but the soundcard should take a good chunk of the workload by performing calculations for analog and digital conversion for example.

metalkobra

What are you doing with the PC? thats what it all comes down to, gaming, get one, office work, screw one.

scotishhaggis

well i only bought a cheapy sounblaster live 7.1 24bit edt for like £25 in th uk and it sounds 100 times better than my onboard sound if thats any help

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