Asus K8V vs SoundblasterLive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chadwick
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Chadwick

Should I use onboard sound, or my old Soundblaster Live card?

I'm upgrading my PC to an AMD64 with the Asus K8V motherboard (either
SE Deluxe or normal, depending on cash at the time). My existing setup
includes a SBLive card, currently with 4.1 Creative Works speakers.
All this is about 4/5 years old.

Details of the Asus boards' audio system below:

Signal Processor: VIA VT8237
Audio Codec: AD1980
Sound Output Mode: 5.1 channel surround
Compliant Standards: AC '97


I've got no immediate plans to replace the speakers with a 5.1 set
(maybe when the bank likes me again...)

So... am I better using the onboard sound, or the SBLive card?
 
Should I use onboard sound, or my old Soundblaster Live card?

I'm upgrading my PC to an AMD64 with the Asus K8V motherboard (either
SE Deluxe or normal, depending on cash at the time). My existing setup
includes a SBLive card, currently with 4.1 Creative Works speakers.
All this is about 4/5 years old.

Details of the Asus boards' audio system below:

Signal Processor: VIA VT8237
Audio Codec: AD1980
Sound Output Mode: 5.1 channel surround
Compliant Standards: AC '97


I've got no immediate plans to replace the speakers with a 5.1 set
(maybe when the bank likes me again...)

So... am I better using the onboard sound, or the SBLive card?
Click to expand...

Most onboard sound uses CPU cycles to do the work as it's basically
software driven, if you're a 3D gamer you will notice the onboard sound
can make some games lag (micro freezes) when lots of sounds are playing
all at once. Almost any decent card will have better Signal to Noise
Ratio and better Frequency range then onboards.

Ed
 
Ed said:
Most onboard sound uses CPU cycles to do the work as it's basically
software driven, if you're a 3D gamer you will notice the onboard sound
can make some games lag (micro freezes) when lots of sounds are playing
all at once. Almost any decent card will have better Signal to Noise
Ratio and better Frequency range then onboards.

Ed
Click to expand...

Except the sound controller on the K8V SE Deluxe is hardware based and
probably better S/N and resolution than a 3-4 year old SB Live. IIRC
Anandtech (sp?) had a review up a few months ago comparing onboard sound
with PCI-based controllers. The review was quite thorough and was aimed at
the 3D gamer crowd.

James
 
I have been wondering about that for awhile now. I couldn't find anything
on Anand's web site, but I was wondering what the word was on the Realtek
ALC850 (I have a K8N board with it). In my opinion, it definitely sounds
better and has more features than my SBLive! Value (one of the original ones
from 1998/1999 or thereabouts).
 
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