point of sound cards?

zamac_man · Jul 6, 2004, 12:20 PM

Right now I have no sound card but have built in sound on my asus p4p800 board. I have altec lansing 251s speakers. This sound pretty good to me. My last computer was a compaq 300mhz built like in 98. After listing to music on it then listing to it on my new one I could tell a big difference. On the compaq you could not hardly even hear the words. So if I get a sound card will the quality go up or what?

mkk · Jul 6, 2004, 01:21 PM

Sound quality and performance in games are typical reasons for getting a separate card. But some onboard solutions can be pretty good so if you're happy with the one you currently have then there may not be much reason to buy a card. Or you could at least save up for a really good card rather than buying some budgetline solution that might not be noticeably better than the onboard.

Logla · Jul 6, 2004, 01:26 PM

The audigy cards for example are a huge step up from ac97 on-board sound. I got one and didn't really notice the difference at first, but after a couple of hours listening you start to pick out pieces of music you hadn't heard before in a song or whatever.

In games the tend to be much better as well due to the fact that they can handle more sounds at once than an on-board solution.

BiGBrOwNPimpsta · Jul 6, 2004, 01:35 PM

yea an audigy 2 or audigy 2 zs is world of difference from an nforce board or intel board. my godbrother has inspires with an nforce i have inspires also and his clarity is half as good as mine.

sound card makes a huge difference, my inspires have been brought back to life with the audigy 2 and i use the ZS drivers large difference. if your really wanting an upgrade a huge one would be worth the wait later this yr im thinkin creative will have something, but if u want something now for a fair price the audigy 2 is your best bet. the zs is no big deal really, both are thx certified and when u run the audigy 2 zs drivers on the audigy 2 really theres no diff except the abscence of 7.1 sound.

u can put it at higher volumes, less distortion and cleaner bass

**dj_stick** · Jul 7, 2004, 09:06 PM

i myself like having cheaper motherboards w/o sound, and having a decent soundcard that i can still use when i upgrade - i did that when i had an sb-live!
i especially like the cababilities of expansion on the sblive and audigy series - wit hthe AUD_EXT/AD_EXT headers - get more inputs and outputs - easily controlled via kX - not sure about CL drivers
and again - i ama fan of the kX drivers

Judas · Jul 9, 2004, 02:15 AM

actually the audio on your motherboard coupled with the 251's... your pretty good off.... Most noteably the only major benifits you'll see if boosted clarity (volume wise however the 251's are TERRIBLE at volume controls.... as regardless, you pretty well have to have the volume at half the entire time across ANY sound card... worse on Onboard)....preformance in games will definitely climb specially in stressing gamesl ike UT2004 or various others that really nail a system for resources

Jul 6, 2004, 12:20 PM	#1
zamac_man DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 64 Rep Power: 0	point of sound cards? Right now I have no sound card but have built in sound on my asus p4p800 board. I have altec lansing 251s speakers. This sound pretty good to me. My last computer was a compaq 300mhz built like in 98. After listing to music on it then listing to it on my new one I could tell a big difference. On the compaq you could not hardly even hear the words. So if I get a sound card will the quality go up or what?

Jul 6, 2004, 01:21 PM	#2
mkk cheap philanthropist Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gefle, Sweden Posts: 3,698 Rep Power: 67 System Specs	Sound quality and performance in games are typical reasons for getting a separate card. But some onboard solutions can be pretty good so if you're happy with the one you currently have then there may not be much reason to buy a card. Or you could at least save up for a really good card rather than buying some budgetline solution that might not be noticeably better than the onboard. __________________ Playing Dragon Age, might forget everything else.

Jul 6, 2004, 01:35 PM	#4
BiGBrOwNPimpsta DH's #1 Hustla and Pimp Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: The Dirty Dot Posts: 7,224 Rep Power: 64 System Specs	yea an audigy 2 or audigy 2 zs is world of difference from an nforce board or intel board. my godbrother has inspires with an nforce i have inspires also and his clarity is half as good as mine. sound card makes a huge difference, my inspires have been brought back to life with the audigy 2 and i use the ZS drivers large difference. if your really wanting an upgrade a huge one would be worth the wait later this yr im thinkin creative will have something, but if u want something now for a fair price the audigy 2 is your best bet. the zs is no big deal really, both are thx certified and when u run the audigy 2 zs drivers on the audigy 2 really theres no diff except the abscence of 7.1 sound. u can put it at higher volumes, less distortion and cleaner bass __________________ Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music \| Logitech Z-5500 THX 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers \| 2 Lite-On 20x S-ATA Burners \| ATI TV Wonder Elite \| Logitech G7 Mouse \| Logitech MX5500 Bluetooth Keyboard

Jul 6, 2004, 01:26 PM	#3
Logla DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 3,310 Rep Power: 48	The audigy cards for example are a huge step up from ac97 on-board sound. I got one and didn't really notice the difference at first, but after a couple of hours listening you start to pick out pieces of music you hadn't heard before in a song or whatever. In games the tend to be much better as well due to the fact that they can handle more sounds at once than an on-board solution.