On board vs Sound Card

What are the biggest differences between On board sound and a Sound Blaster Audigy sound card?

Right now I use onboard and I plan to upgrade to the above card but I'm just curious because right now I'm a little strapped for cash (and currently seeking a second job). When I play music files or CDs the sound seems just great. I'm not a big time Computer gamer either.

Where will I be getting my advatages with the sound card? Is it worth the $80 I plan to pay for it, or should I just keep my on board for now?

Thanks guys

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Originally posted by Jome20
...Right now I use onboard... When I play music files or CDs the sound seems just great... should I just keep my on board for now?

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By all means you should just keep what you have (and are apparently happy with) for now! Wait for prices to go down, you know that they will soon enough...

I know what you mean. I have onboard sound AC97 with SoundMax3 on this Intel board. My freind has a Sound Blaster Live card with the same speakers (Z-560) as me and h3e plays the same games as me. I can not for the life of me hear any differance.He even says he can not tell the differance either. I think I wll save the $80 for a sound card and put it towards a Video card instead,, than at least I can see some differances when playing a game.

The thing about onboard sound is that it's taking resources away from the rest of the computer when doing heavy sound computations. Now, for a top of the line system nowadays I wouldn't worry about it at all.
There is a sound difference between the two even though it is pretty difficult to notice. Try running both the onboard sound and the Audigy on a set of very good speakers at high volume.

Well I probably will get an Sound Blaster Audigy card, just not yet. I was going to order one online this weekend after I got paid but now I think I'll wait awhile. I just got done buying this new computer and I'm pretty broke so I should probably save up some money before I go out and spend it all again.

EAX is incredible for games. If you don't game, you won't have to worry about it, though. :)

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Originally posted by CrawlingEye
EAX is incredible for games. If you don't game, you won't have to worry about it, though. :)

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Is that the Audigy Xgamer or is that something else?

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Originally posted by Jome20


Is that the Audigy Xgamer or is that something else?

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EAX is an environmental effect used in many games, similar to A3D or whatever it is. Basically it's a hardware-dependent feature which uses variations of reverberation and other acoustical anomalies into mapping the ambience of the sound.

For instance, city sounds in Deus EX -- faint, clear and little to no echo. Then, enter an alleyway... the sounds are a touch muffled, louder, and the presence of an echo is very apparent. I was truly impressed the very first time I heard a game in EAX.

There are dozens of environments that EAX can duplicate -- underwater, stone walls, crowded rooms, large halls, etc.

I'd just as soon get a dedicated sound card which doesn't hamper the CPU's capabilites as it relies on the PCI bus instead of the CPU. Also, not all onboard sound chips support 5.1 digital output.

Could probably find a nice Creative 5.1 card for $50~80 these days.

[edit -- All Live! cards, 5.1 Live! cards and Audigy cards have EAX]

Keep your onboard sound. I say this as someone who has 2 comps - one with SB Live and another with on-board sound.

Getting a separate soundcard will definitely improve the sound, but really it depends on what type of speakers or headphones you use to listen to your music. Even getting a $1000 sound card will not sound any better than on-board sound if you have $20 speakers which play the music. :( Sound cards are nice if you play a lot of games because you get extras such as environmental sound effects and less cpu overhead, but if you mainly play music, you dont care about cpu overhead and you definitely dont want any crummy environmental effects spoiling your music. :rolleyes:

So my advice is - Keep your onboard sound and save the money. Get a soundcard when you have some extra cash and can't think of anything else to spend on. :)