SB live or onboard?

[Yukyo]

Hey I Have a Asus A7v8x-x motherboard and i was wondering which one is better The onboard sound or a Soundblaster live 5.1
Im kinda leaning towards the onboard audio since it seems to have louder sound than the SB live.
Thanks

[cubedgame]

I've got an Asus A7n8x-e deluxe and the onboard (nvidia audio i think) is fine. It actually sounds better than my old Soundblaster live 5.1 card because I get better Eax effects in games. I say test them out and just see which you like better.

[dicki]

modern onboard sound is really good in my opinion, especially now people are integrating the envy24 chipset and stuff...

personally unless you have a problem with it i'd leave it as is :)

[illmatik]

I'm a bit of an audio geek and have used PCs for professional audio recordings, and own/have owned several $2000+ sound cards and can say on board audio is very good these days. People fail to follow the decades old rule that your audio system chain is only as good as its weakest link, being speakers and 60-70% of your budget should go into speakers. If you're running basic multimedia speakers, almost any soundcard will do. If you want a little extra juice and are using a speaker system or hifi w/ digital in, use it. It'll allow for less noise and longer runs. Its definately noticeable in a decent hifi system, although I'm still a bit skeptical about the quality of DACs used in these multimedia 5.1 deals.

Also, don't beleive the THX certified hype. It doesnt mean what it did 7 or 8 years ago. Thats just lucas being greedy. He'd THX certify my farts if I paid him.

[Nettik]

I have your motherboard and I used to have Soundblaster live, I really do not like Live, but if you cant afford an Audigy 2 (which is what I have now) then the Live 5.1 would be good.

Again, I do not notice the other to speakers anyways... either that or it immerses me so well that I forget that speakers exist and I am really there. :)

:Nettik

[Player0]

My biggest complaint with onboard sound is usually the drivers. Not that Creative drivers are much better, but they have at least some more features usually.

This is a very common question actually, and most people have told me that they prefer the PCI sound card better than onboard (usually a live).

Audigy on the other hand is very nice, fairly cheap too. Theres no hard decision between an Audigy and onboard in most cases. between a live and onboard though? Theres probably not a huge difference.

I only run 2.1 channel at home, but I notice the difference between the Live, Audigy and Audigy 2 right off. My speakers were only $100, so the speakers dont have to be amazing to notice the difference. But, if you have $30 speakers then no, it doesnt make any difference :)