Integrated Audio or old SB Live

[Lightning983]

Hello,

I'm using the very old SB Live!, Value PCI sound card, and it has always been a bit of a hassle to get all the drivers working perfectly, and in Vista x64 i couldn't even get anything to work, so i was thinking.

Is the old Live card that much better than the Intel integrated audio? I have the Gigabyte X38 DQ6 motherboard, and don't really know what's the audio onboard, i'm assuming some realtek stuff.

So what's the better component of the 2?
And is there any relatively cheap PCI-express sound cards out there?

 

[corkyg]

Most of today's integrated audio systems are excellent, and probably better than your old SB card. Moreover, they usually work with today's OS's.

Unless you have a very sophisticated speaker system with a high quality external amp, I would stick with the on-board sound.

Actually, I would suggest try both and let your ears be the guide.

 

[Lightning983]

Well the thing is that i'm using the old SB live card all the time since i bought it like, 7 years ago i think?

I don't have a high quality speaker system... just a regular 2.1 system. But the thing is i don't really have the time to "experiment" and try out different cards or compare with the onboard stuff... so i'm just asking if there's like a "general concenzus" so to speak about this.

Will i hear the difference say in winamp, or games? or is the card so old that most integrated solutions already past it a long time ago?

 

[egale]

Your integrated solution will be fine!

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Lightning983
Will i hear the difference say in winamp, or games? or is the card so old that most integrated solutions already past it a long time ago?

No.
Yes.

 

[konakona]

of course, if you needed something actually sounds good, you would rather be looking at standalone DACs geared for computer use (apogee, monica, beresford, etc)
for simplicity of use, integrated cant be beat. I use one with my swan m200s no probs.

 

[Lightning983]

Okay so i guess simplicity wise, i'll go integrated

But i am curious, are there any quality PCI-e sound cards out there & with a decent driver support? Because Creative really sucks at that.

 

[Twitch22]

Originally posted by: Lightning983
Okay so i guess simplicity wise, i'll go integrated

But i am curious, are there any quality PCI-e sound cards out there & with a decent driver support? Because Creative really sucks at that.

Hello Lightning,

I got two words for you: Asus Xonar. PCIe interface with very good driver support from Asus. Then again, almost anything's better than Creative... :disgust:

Anyway, the Xonar cards are top notch in terms of sound quality, sonic definition and build. They produce sound/music so cleanly and effortlessly...no harshness or pitch problems what-so-ever. They probably aren't the best choice for gaming since the X-Fi based cards support EAX better. But, for everything else, can't beat a Xonar right now!

If you can get by with a PCI-slot solution, look at Auzentech, especially if you're looking for a more game-focused option. They're the only third-party vendor to use an actual X-Fi chip in their Prelude card and it's a much better solution than Creative, both in terms of support and build quality. I'm a big fan of theirs (I use two of their cards in my rigs) and have found them to stable, solid performing products.

Cheers,

Twitch

 

[mpilchfamily]

Just so you know vista handles drivers differently then XP does. Now because of the cost of R&D companies have not developed vista drivers for hardware made before Vista was in Beta. So you won't be able to get older hardware like your sound card working on vista.