Quote:
Imperator Fyron said:
Anyways, the point was that you can get better quality sound for less money than buying a Creative card. Or you could get much better quality for about the same money. If you are happy with your integrated chipset, then by all means, don't throw money away on separate cards.
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I was actually refering to the earlier post saying spend $30 and 'not subject yourself to onboard sound'. There do exist systemboards that have integrated audio chipsets that are just as good as PCI card audio. I know, for example, that Intel's systemboards have audio chipsets that sample at 192kHz/32-bit. Wikipedia page for Envy24 says it is up to 192kHz/24-bit. I know there exist soundcards that are even better than that, but that was your example. My point is, it is not a given that you need to get a seperate soundcard anymore, and more than likely, you will get better sound quality by getting better speakers. As a comparison, there's no point in getting dual SLI cards if your monitor is an old CRT with max resolution of 800x600. Or, if you drive a Ford Pinto, there's no point in putting 91 octane in it insead of 87. And, if you have cheap bundled computer speakers, there's no point in getting better audio chipsets, it's gonna be crappy either way.
--edit: I should also note I'm not against soundcards. My current main system has a 5.1 surround card made by Maya (not sure if they're still in business). It's hooked up with a "high-end" set of computer speakers, 90W 5.1 setup from altec lansing. I use the soundcard because I have a board that is 4 years old and has only AC97 codec w/ 3x 1/8" jacks (line out, line in, mic), stereo sound. I'm most likely building a new system in late spring/early summer, and it's not getting a sound card until I get a proper speaker setup for it, and even then, I'm not getting a sound card unless I determine that the onboard isn't adequate. Since I'm going for very high-end boards, it's likely the sound will be fine compared to seperate cards.