Sound Blaster Live Value 5.1 or onboard sound

[DarylJ66]

I am purchasing a new system, but need to keep the costs down. I am not sure whether to go with the onboard sound on the MSI K7N2-Delta-L motherboard, or to get the Sound Blaster Live 5.1.
The machine will be used mainly for gaming and surfing the internet but I just need to know if onboard sound is OK; or will I notice significant improvement with the above mentioned sound card.
Thanks.

[BipolarBill]

Why don't you tell us? Don't spend the money on the Live! until after you've sampled the onboard sound. Chances are that you'll be happy.

[Skip74]

I must admit you do have a good point, because I’m really interested in finding out if on board sound is of decent quality these days. Because some of the mobo packaged with their on board sound do look go. I do have my concerns though as I currently have a I will kk-266-r mobo with sound and all I can say is that the sound from the mobo is not earth moving, subsequently I have 5.1 sound card. But then again my mobo is 2 years old, poor old thing. I recon go for the onboard sound give it a try, and if no good then get a sound card, lets face it their not hard to put in and could save you a few quid.
:t

[neverwhere]

personally, I havent found a good onboard sound capability yet (most dont support 6-channel output [surround sound baby!]) But BiPolar is right, test it out then see before buying

[Bigjakkstaffa]

If i remember rightly the K7N2-Delta-L has Soundstorm Audio onboard, which is comparable and in some instances better than the SB Audigy 1... keep your money ;)

--Jakk:t

[braamer]

I went from a Sound Blaster Live Value to the onboard audio on the Asus A7N8X Deluxe board, and I am more than happy.

[cuelebre]

I also have the SoundStorm.
Big, great ,huge difference compare to my old on-board C-Media(Dragon +).
No need for anything else...........but if one day I do .....Turtle Beach will get my money before Creative.:p

[fishybawb]

I'm not so sure the "L" version of that board has SoundStorm certified sound...
Anyhow, I agree with cuelebre about the Turtle Beach cards - get a Santa Cruz over a Live 5.1 any day :cool:

[Terminator]

I have soundstorm on my ASUS A7N8X dlx and when I first built it I also had a sound blaster live card. Have tried both onboard and the live card and can definitely say forget the live card. The soundstorm is very good if not better quality than the live card.
Remember also that you'll only 'see' the diference with some good speakers. Have 5.1 Creative speakers on mine and DVD's sound like you're sitting in the cinema :) . Also saves a PCI slot and helps with cooling with reduced cards taking up space.

Keep the soundstorm and put your live card in another machine like I did.

T

:t

[Swordfish]

you can only say that when you hear it...wait till it arrives and then just check for yourself.

Sometimes onboard sounds are better than most pci soundcards.

I really liked those nforce2 boards onboard solution.

[Rob R.]

The delta L comes with AC97 audio but it's not on the driver disk that comes with the board. The driver disk installs the basic nVidia Audio codec instead which doesn't have much to offer. You'll need to go get AC97 codec and install it on your own.


It can be found here. (http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dlac97-2.aspx?lineid=5&famid=12&series=8&Software=True)

Unzip it to a place you can easily find (like your desktop) and then go in and update your "nVidia audio codec interface" under sound in the device manager to your new AC97 codec.

No soundstorm for this board guys, sorry :(