Realtek ALC655 Or Sound Blaster 5.1

[Baddog]

Which gives the best performace Realtek ALC655 on board or Creative Sound Blaster 5.1 card?

[Ankerson]

It comes down to personal preference really and what you want to do with the machine.

I would try both and see what you like the best.

[RockNRoll]

I have an ALC 97 on my board and I love it. It's got 8 channel sound, all the EAX virtualization stuff, etc. I love the ALC ships.

[Ankerson]

I can tell you something that happened to me not too long ago if this helps.

After 3 years my Orginal SB Audigy 2 died and I just pulled it out and turned on my onboard sound (Realtek AC'97 6 Channel) and installed the drivers etc.

I have not noticed any difference when Playing games, listening to music or Watching Movies so I have not replaced it.

[Baddog]

I did not see any use in cluttering my machine any more than I had to if I could help it.

[RockNRoll]

Exactly, IMO the ALC's are the best onboard chips I have heard so far.

[Rabbitrunner51]

If it sounds good to you then thats all that matters...

Myself.., I have the ASRock Dual Sata 2 board and its got the Realtek 850 7.1 channel AC '97' audio codec.

Since i have an Audigy 2 ZS sound card , then i would not know what that alone ( onboard sound would sound like compared to my current config.

All i know is that I have personally alwys preferred the options incorporated into a sound card.

Since you seem to have alot of good controls for enhancements and like the onboard sound.. then I suppose that works perfect for you and that is fine... LOL

[Rugor]

Start with onboard, if you have the spare money, then move up to the add in. Personally I'm running the same ASRock board and am happy enough with the sound for now, but once I can find a decent deal on an x-fi I will be upgrading. Until then, it's the onboard. Most of the time these days it's fine for general use.