sound on motherboard

[Jumby]

I see that there are a lot of motherboards with sound. Is there a benefit to having sound on the motherboard? I would assume that a good sound card is going to much better. True? And if I see a motherboard that I like, but it has sound, do I have to use it? Can I use my sound card instead?

[tjaymadison]

You can almost always disable the onboard sound, either by a jumper or in BIOS setup. Usually integrated sound has fewer features and capabilities than a separate sound card, unless it is a very basic no-name kind.

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"When I nod my head, hit it with the hammer."
(Moe, holding nail, to Curly, holding hammer)

[CLTEK]

Hey there!!

My $0.02...

"Is there a benefit to having sound on the motherboard?"

Yes. You don't have to dink around with anything when you are putting the thing together. You don't have to worry about compatibility, etc.

"I would assume that a good sound card is going to much better. True?"

You assume correctly. Usually onboard sound is ok for things like gaming and average everyday usage. But if you are doing any recording that you need to use reference monitors with, you'll find that most onbaord sound has sonic characterstics akin to CACA!!! ESS, AC'97... Ewww-UH! SBLive, Accoustic Edge and such are pretty good though.

"And if I see a motherboard that I like, but it has sound, do I have to use it? Can I use my sound card instead?"

No and yes. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif No. You don't HAVE to use the onboard sound. You can disable it through the BIOS and/or jumpers on the board. In some cases, though, as previously mentioned, you have to disable it in the BIOS *AND* disable it on the board itself.

Before you get a card, however, check for incompatabilities with the manufacturer. The SBLive! is pretty much standard although it's been known to be a little 'buggy' with the VIA KT133 chipsets. There are ways to get around those things though.

Best of luck to you...

Respectfully, Cory


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Age and Treachery will forever triumph over Youth and Skill.

[hiredgoonz]

It's all well and good to disable the onboard sound card if you decide you need somthing better, but boards that have built-in sound usually have one less expansion slot...

Built in sound costs you a pci slot, so then to add a better sound card later, you'll have to use a pci slot, so in essence, sound is now costing you 2 slots instead of one...

Unless you are absolutely sure you won't need a better card in the future...it is always better to not get built-in sound or video (particularly video, but also applies to sound)

[Jumby]

Thanks. I figured as much. Now I'm sure my next board will not have sound.

[Icy]

I personally find onboard like a comforting back up seeing as how I've fried several cards. If you are worried about the amount of PCI slots then maybe you should investigate a better motherboard. Not arguing just my opinion is all.

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ICY

[hiredgoonz]

No matter what board you get, your slots are limited...my Athlon board came w/1 agp, 6 pci and 1 isa...guess how may I have left...1, and that will probably go to a firewire card...

I'm running two vid cards, nic, modem (for faxing) and sound...I can't use the first pci slot down from my agp since the fans on the card are too big (as they are on a lot of cards nowadays and try using a pci slot next to an ata adapter) and the last pci is shared w/the isa my modem is in...

I'm not trying to pi$$ in anybody's wheaties, but it seems silly to get anything built into your board unless you KNOW you'll never need to improve it...and you can burn out onboard components as well as cards, maybe not as easily, but I've seen it happen...

Another issue to consider is driver support...one of my systems is an older socket 7 board w/built-in sound...well, not all the features of the sound card work in Windows 2000/XP, and the ones that do leave something to be desired (clicking sound gets irritating after a while)...and this thing has 1agp/4 pci/2 isa...subtract a vid card,nic,modem and ata100 card, which renders the slot next to it useless, and again, expansion issues which preclude me from getting a better sound card that will work correctly with the OS I'm running...