onboard is enough or have 2 get???

[The Day Walker!]

hey pals....

i m thinking of upgradiong my sys,,,,

i have 4.1 speaker sys from creative,,,,

and my soundcard has been damaged....

so needed 2 know,,, if i upgrade my sys

then do i have 2 buy another soundcard or the onboard will perform good

enough....

i m a good music lover so needed 2 know,,, whether 5he onboard is

really better or i have 2 buy a card...

by the way wot is the price for audigy2 zs,

and which card should i buy if i m goin 2 buy for within 5ks..

thanx

angel

[vijay_7287]

the onboard sound cards on any modernday motherboard is good enough to handle 4.1 speakers

[phatratt]

onboard sound on most mobo's are normally AC97,they provide decent sound but not upto the mark.If u r upgrading u'r speakers to 5.1 or a 7.1 then get a new sound card.If u r a music lover then get one now.ABout pricing,no idea about augidy series,but creative live-24 bit soundcard which supports upto 7.1 channels costs around 2K or less.

[hotdogXP]

hey guys, I too have a similar Q?, I have Logitech 2.1 Speakers ZS2300 THX 200W RMS, im using the onboard sound card in my Asus A8N-E mobo, does this soundcard provide the best sound processing capabilities for the ultimate performance of my speakers or do yu suggest i buy a sound card seperately...if so plz also tell which one to get... Im mainly into music, gaming and watching downloaded DivX movies.....

[eddie]

imho you should buy a dedicated sound card solution only if you are:

1) into recording and mixing sounds, work with audio and need a dedicated solution.
2) planning to make a Home Theater out of your PC and need to have an excellent audio system at hand.
3) having extra money and just do not know where to spend it.

Other than those things you don't need a dedicated card. Running games, listening to MP3s and watching divx/xvid or other encoded movies are not worth buying a new hardware for. All these uses don't require much hard work from sound card and these days with on-board sound reaching levels of 7.1, you are better off saving your money. In any case, MP3s don't have any such musical details that you'll be missing anything by not using dedicated hardware. Its just not worth the money for home users.