sound card or onboard sound???

[sweeper2]

I have a soundblaster live i am using, but also have onboard sound K7N2 Delta L nforce 2 400 edition motherboard 5.1 channel audio. Would i notice a difference if i take out the soundcard and just use onboard. I don't really use sound unless i play games which isn't very often and or burn cd's.

thanks

[DanGrease]

I have both a Sounblaster live from Creative and an Onboard sound card. The sound is way better with teh Soundblaster than the Onboard. Plus there are better drivers for the Soundblaster, specially for XP. But maybe this is because I have an old version of an Onboard sound card. Mine is too integrated to the motherboard. My Soundblaster is not. What I do is I disable the Onboard in the OS after I have installed the Soundblaster. Works perfectly for me.

dan

[sweeper2]

i have the onboard disabled but i was just wanting to clear up some pci slots for more airflow If the soundblaster wasn't much different then onboard from my MSI board i was going to remove it along with my 56k modem since i use cable.

[DanGrease]

If you dont listen to much music or play alot of games then I think you would be fine with the Onboard. But its something personal. We all have different hear capabilities.

dan

[nork]

With an older board i would say the s\blaster live would be better.
However, with a newer, presumably high-quality NFORCE board like that one, with onbard 5.1 sound, i wouldnt be surprised if the onboard was better, or at least equal to the s\blaster live!
Then again, you need certain amount of a certain type of speakers to take advantage of the 5.1 sound, so if you only have a 2 or 3 piece speaker set, then you cant take advantage of the 5.1 features.
That being said, with a 2 or 3 piece speaker set, i would say that they would sound about the same. But, if you got a 5.1 speaker setup, then i would say that your onboard sound would be better.

Your s\blaster live, could it be a live 5.1 or just plain live? Which version is it, there are quite a few differernt versions of the sound blaster live card. Then there are live 5.1 cards also.

[whannanna]

i have the same Mobo,.. with the Nforce2 Chip and the onboard sounds sucks... it wont let you adjust the bass or Treble,.. you have to pick a equalizer preset if you want a little bass or so ,.. i have a custom JBL theatre surround speaker system and it sounds awsome with the Sb live,... Def the SB live over onboard Nforce soundstorm

[jpheg]

Onboard sound also tends to be more susceptable to noise from the rest of the motherboard. PCI solutions are usually better, IMO.

[sweeper2]

well, sold my K7N2 board, and downsizing my pc system, so going to be using downsized board, so i will put the SB live back in. And i am not sure if it is a 5.1 live card, i was assuming it was but maybe it might be just a live card, will have to check into that.

Thanks Nork for the info on that....

[twistedbrntucker]

I have two MSI K7N2G-ILSR mainboards and I am running onboard sound on both.Of course they are the Soundstorm audio.I am completely happy with the audio quality.

[cysus]

I'm running an ASUS P4C800 dlx and compared to a sound blaster live this rocks.