Onboard sound vs sound card sound

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RTFMish

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My new computer is coming in a week, and one thing I noticed is that the motherboard is a nForce 2 chipset, and I heard someone here mention that the chipset features nice on-board sound.

When my computer comes it will just be case, memory, processor, power supply, and a fan I won't be getting my Radeon 9800 Pro for at least a month so I was wondering if it would be worth it to get a soundcard somewhere in the near future or should I just stick with on-board sound?
Also please give some reasons to explain your decision..
 
I found this on the forum from a previous post
THE NF2 boards will be better if they have SoundStream technology. It'd be good to post a model number of the board you're using. Generally the NF2 boards w/Soundstream are equivalent to Santa Cruz's, which are better than SB Live.
Click to expand...

And this

I`ve actually boxed away my Audigy because I was very impressed with my nForce sound,crisp clear,no crackling, works great in gaming and for general use.
Click to expand...
 
SoundStorm is the best audio processor for multiple reasons - quality on par with the most expensive soundcards - whilst keeping the majority of the audio processing away from the CPU itself - meaning you get better framerates in games etc.

Double check the motherboard has nForce2 and soundstorm - some nForce2 motherboards do not have soundstorm.

I seriously dont understand people that have nForce2 Soundstorm motherboards and go out and put Audigy2's in them. WHY?!
 
I belive you need to have the nForce 2 Ultra to have sountstorm. look in your mobo manuel.
 
If I had an nForce 2 I would DEFINATELY use onboard sound. I hate creative I really do. Their drivers are crap their configuration software is crap. I wouldn't be surprised if their cards were crap too.
 
And soundstorm is the best if you have digital speakers as well since it can do digital 5.1 and Live/Audigy/Audigy2 cannot (Only Digital 2.1 and their 5.1 is Analog).
 
i noticed that my friend's new comp has onboard sound (not sure which mobo) and the quality is on par with my 16 bit sb live card
however, audigy 2 cards are relatively cheap these days
hard to beat em
 
I would have to say that the quality of my Hercules digifire is far above that of my friends Soundstorm. Both using the same speakers.
 
jonesey2k - soundstorm audio quality is either on-par-with or better than that of rival boards - you're friend must have it set up incorrectly, or your speakers are analogue-only.
 
Im using the bulit-in soundcard for my stereo. I just got a new one (worth 1210 bucks ;)) and i dont have any problems with the sound what so ever... and I play really loud.
 
I currently have an A7N8X D and i can tell you, the onboard sound was merely alright. I do alot of sound editing and music work, and when I built my computer i decided to leave my SB out and just use onboard sound because I hear how great it was.

But after using it for a week I couldnt figure out why my music just didnt sound right. Everything coming out of my computer sounded like .wma, which is crap if you have some nice speakers and a good ear.

The problem I believe was that I like treble in my songs. I like the highs to be high and the lows to be low with very little in the 500hz range and I eq it as such. The highs purely sucked. So I went on and said, ok I WANT to use onboard sound, so I played some songs, hoping it was just me. Put my SB back in and noticed right away how much clearer it sounded. Never used my onboard sound again.

I dont care what soundcard its supposed to be "equivalent" too or how its suppose to work or sound on paper, but all I know is onboard sound isnt on par with some pci cards. And this is based on my own two ears. Dont buy into all the hype.

Others may hear different.
 
^^ Thats the exact same thing I'm getting, its already ordered.. So I am sure the mobo is fine.
 
I have on-board sound, never used it with this mobo but use to use on-board sound with my old mobo...it is crap compared to a soundcard, i use a audigy2 now and they rule. I payed £100 for mine at the time but you can get them for about £50 now.
 
Alig said:
I have on-board sound, never used it with this mobo but use to use on-board sound with my old mobo...it is crap compared to a soundcard, i use a audigy2 now and they rule. I payed £100 for mine at the time but you can get them for about £50 now.
Click to expand...

Agreed. 10 char minimum...blah
 
I have a creative audilgy and it rocks!
the sound quality for mp3's is stunning, dvd's stunning
games are amazing especially blackhawk down, the guns firing are awsome.
Go for the audilgy.
 
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