Onboard HD 7.1 vs Creative Add-in ?

[sdeivis]

Hello,

I just bought an Asrock awarded motherboard 4CoreDual-VSTA with integrated
7.1 CH Windows® Vista™ Premium Level HD Audio (ALC888 Audio Codec)

Should i still stick with my Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24Bit 7.1 ?

Thanx!

 

[cheesetoast]

Spec for spec, it's all numbers... I recommend you listen to the same audio on both devices to actually 'hear' which one is better. a key question that comes to mind is, what kind of speaker system do you have? you must take advantadge of the upper-echelon sound device with quality matching output, whether it be headphones or speakers. you'll likely be happy with either product so just make sure it sounds good when it hits your ears... get the nice speakers if you dont have them...

 

[DavidMBaker]

Technically I believe a seperate sound card tends to be kinder when it comes to things like CPU load. I would check off what technology is included with both options though. If one has a newer form of EAX for example I'd go with that.

 

[rammedstein]

cpu load won't be significant enough to warrant a change, but i would go for the stand alone one for a few reasons, one, use it while it is still supported, two, probably sounds better, 3, your bound to have slots your never going to use, so use them... some other stuff...

 

[SBacklin]

I also bought this motherboard and I am having some trouble with the 5.1 and quadraphonic sound schemes. I can get good sound coming out of my front speakers but the sound coming out of the rear speakers sound completely crappy. I do have the "speaker fill" option enabled. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, is there a way to fix this problem?