onboard sound vs. sb audigy card

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 9:15 pm

I think I'm going to get this mb for my new system (p4 3.2 chip):

Abit MB IC7 P4 Intel875P Socket478 8MHz 4DDR AGP-Pro8X 5PCI SATA15 wAudio Raid 8USB2. 1394 HT

it comes with onboard sound, but I was thinking of getting a sb audigy 2ZS platinum card....I've always been a dedicated sound card fan, but does anyone know or have experience with this mb's sound?

I dug up some references in the dbb about soundstorm onboard sound, but I guess they dont make it anymore...

as an aside, anyone know anything about that mb?

thanks!

RM

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 11:03 pm

Soundstorm is for AMD boards only, and thankfully is making a comeback for newer nForce 4 motherboards.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 2:03 pm

Intel onboard sound chips are no slackers either, onboard sound chips from the retail mobos today are much higher quality then the OEM boards of the past.

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:16 pm

so Krom, do you think it's worth having a dedicated sound card ($160 or so for the audigy) if onboard sound is available?

is there a particular mb with sound that you'd recommend?

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:44 pm

Not really, for both questions.

Jeff250 · Post by **Jeff250** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 8:14 pm

You can knock close to a $100 off of your quoted price...
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... ode=290223

The only reason why I bit the dedicated sound card bullet is because with a non-Creative device, you're just always going to have those few games (like Descent3) that just don't sound right with 3d sound (i.e. DirectSound 3d or EAX) enabled. But this isn't much of an issue if you don't use 3d sound or are not big into gaming.

Defender · Post by **Defender** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 8:34 pm

I like having 5.1 support in my sound card

ReadyMan · Post by **ReadyMan** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 9:43 pm

Thanks Jeff. The quoted price I have is for the platinum version of the card....
tho I doubt there's much difference between the 2, other than the front mounted controller in the 5 1/2 bay (something I think I want

)

kurupt · Post by **kurupt** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 2:34 am

i have the abit IS7, its not the same but pretty similar, and i'm very happy with it. onboard sound was just fine in everything i ran, games, dvd's, movies, etc. just the eax though, i was used to playing games with it enabled and going from that to something else was wierd, so i picked up an audigy 2 for $60 some odd dollars just for the eax support.

as far as performance goes, onboard sound on that board is pretty solid.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 11:37 am

Defender wrote:I like having 5.1 support in my sound card

So do I, most motherboards today support 5.1, mine included, I even have a digital optical sp-dif out on my board.

Pun · Post by **Pun** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 2:33 pm

Soundstorm for Intel is on the horizon, if you can wait...

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:07 pm

punisher wrote:Soundstorm for Intel is on the horizon, if you can wait...

Soundstorm is dead

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:48 pm

fliptw wrote:Soundstorm is dead

Thats just....dumb! Soundstorm is what really sold me on my choice of motherboard. I just hope they're whipping out something just as good or better.

Teddy · Post by **Teddy** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:53 pm

i recently upgraded to a 939 amd setup, and the board i got was a gigabyte k8ns ultra. It supports 8 channel sound with the onboard codec. So far, every game has had absolutly no problem and it even supports eax, I imagine being an onboard deal, it supposedly takes alittle out of the cpu, but i cant tell the diffrence from my old audigy which i pulled out cause the whole creative line doesnt play nice with tv-cards/pvr software.

Admiral LSD · Post by **Admiral LSD** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:26 pm

Pity SoundStorm is dead, an upgraded SoundStorm combined with one of those newer 8 channel, 96Khz high-definition "Azalia" (AC'97 on 'roids basically) codecs would rock da house.

I ditched my BSLive because I got sick of Creatives endlessly crappy drivers, even the unofficial kX drivers were still complete ★■◆●. I wasn't expecting much from SoundStorm but anything had to be better than Creatives shite. Long story short: I was pleasantly surprised and wouldn't even dream of replacing it, god knows what I'll do when I inevitably have to upgrade this box. Hopefully by then SS would have made a comeback