sound card?

Jayce · 07-27-2008, 02:35 AM

I'm running an onboard realtek sound card.

If I spend 30 bucks and get a creative labs audigy SE or something, do you folks think I'd notice a significant enough difference to justify the cost?

Do you folks think that I'd notice a max volume increase? Or would I simply notice a difference from a quality standpoint?

Luke · 07-27-2008, 03:29 AM

you may see a difference, it depends on the person, some can, some can't. No, your max volume would not increase, that is the speakers, not you sound card.

ricanflow · 07-27-2008, 03:53 AM

Actually, sound cards do increase the amount of gain on the output, also they do it with less distortion.

And they offload the work from the cpu, and give cleaner crisp sound.

Luke · 07-27-2008, 04:00 AM

^they do? (increase the output)hmm, didn't know that. Some people just can't tell the difference between onboard and a sound card though, mostly because onboard is getting better.

Jayce · 07-27-2008, 10:56 AM

Well, this may work to my benefit then... because my board is an easy 3-4 years old.

I might as well go for it. The price of the card is 5 dollars more expensive than newegg, so after shipping, circuit city offers the same price as newegg... plus CC has a 30 day no questions return policy, so I might as well give it a shot and see if it makes a noticeable change.

I'll post back here with what I find, assuming they end up having the one I want.

ricanflow · 07-27-2008, 07:51 PM

Go for it.

Onboard may appear to be getting better, but its really not.

The realtek "hd" audio, isnt really hd.

Its just a chip with software that emulates surround sound and these other features, you will not get 24 bit 96khz sound and hardware sound acceleration, eax, and all these other features a dedicated sound card can offer.

Direland · 07-28-2008, 05:04 AM

I was using onboard sound for years, then I went and picked up a Audigy SE card about a year ago and I never looked back. The sound difference (to me at least) was amazing!

EricB · 07-29-2008, 11:23 PM

ricanflow and direland hit it dead on. the difference is huge. a creative x-fi card (if you can afford it, get it. it's better than the audigy se) put out 2.0 clean volts compared to .3 to .5 volt that onboard does with distortion. it signal to noise ratio is 113 db as oppose to 80db for that hd audio (what a joke. it was a gimmick to make people stick with onboard sound). a newbie with cheap speakers or non audio guy can't tell the difference, but everybody else can

m-audio and presonus cards can do even better than that

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