P4P800 onboard sound or SBLive! ?

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nancyboy

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 11, 2004
Messages
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I just built a computer and noticed the Asus P4P800 has a built in sound card.
Should I use my SBLive or the onboard one?
What are the pros & cons of using onboard sound cards?

thanks,

Pentium 4 3.0c
Asus P4P800 (non-deluxe)
Aero 4 Lite CPU Cooler
1GIG Mushkin RAM
ATI 9800 Pro
Lite-On CD/DVD Combo drive
Thermaltake 480W Silent PurePower
Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Philips 19' Monitor
 
As far as i know. getting a sound card will help the CPU, because on board sound is processed by the CPU with the exception of nforce. I heard that if you have a Nforce mobo, then you will not notice much of a difference in performance if you get a soundcard because nforce mother boards have their own sound accelerator,thus relieving the CPU.

Also depends on what type of system you want. If you want a 7.1 i don't think there are onboard 7.1 systems, just 5.1 that's another issue.

aside from that.. that's all i know

also.. how is that Thermaltake PSU you have? is it silent? i'm looking for a silent PSU, what do you think about the one you have.. though 480W is too much for me.. i would go with a 400W.
 
my 420w thermaltake is quite but it doesnt seem to push much air. the back grill of it always seems hot and u cant feel much air.

the generic PSU, turbo link i think its is, seems jsut as quite as thermaltake and pushes more air.
 
Its one of those things. Some say itll make a big differance, some say it wont.

My reasoning is that if onboard sound required so much processing power it wouldnt have beeen feasable to have it on older systems.

someone mentioned a link to a guru 3d review in which better sound cards net'd a few frames per second.

From a money standpoint you could easily make up those frames and then some puting that 50-100 dollars into a better cpu, AND taking up your video card a notch.
 
If you already have a SB Live laying around then put that card inside and use it over the onboard. If you are planning to actually go out and purchase an SB Live, I suggest that you use your onboard for now and save up some cash till you can get a better Sound Card.

I was using an SB Live before upgrading to an Audigy 2 and I must say that the SB Live card sucks when compared to the higher end sound card. The card would make static type of noise because I had a PCI wireless adapter.
 
if you have enough for an audigy2 go for it, otherwise, like the poster above suggested, save up some money
i used onboard for a bit, hated it. i used to get static, bass had almost no power, it was sad really. then i grabbed an audigy2, sweet....


p.s: 800 posts w00t
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll stick with the SBLive! (leftover from old comp).

Rancid, the Thermaltake PSU hasnt given me any problems and the noise factor depends on how high I set the knob that it comes with. It can get really loud on HIGH & Quiet on lower settings. I would have to agree with laxjax13 and say it doesnt push out alot of air on lower settings. I guess if u adjust it u can get a good flow vs noise.

About 480w being a bit much, most new video cards will require 480w (new NVidia 6800 if I'm not mistaken). I payed $60 @ newegg.com for this Thermaltake. Might be a good investment if ever a new video card falls in your lap :)
 
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