K7S5A onboard sound

[Spamela]

i finally broke down & decided to join the K7S5A cult & just ordered one from newegg. does anyone have an idea of how much using the onboard sound bogs down the system? and what about the sound quality compared to a Soundblaster live?

TIA!

 

[DragonWizard]

When one out of five of the K7S5A motherboards I purchased worked for a brief time the sound through my Klipsch Promedia 4.1's was less than acceptable with various crackles and hums. I then put in my ABIT KT7A with an audigy sound card and it was sheer pleasure to the ears.

I would disable the sound and buy a high end sound card.

 

[Buz2b]

To correctly answer the question without the K7S5A bashing, the sound quality is "OK" for non-serious gamers or "normal" computer use. There is no humming or crackleing as was mentioned. On board sound is never as good as a high quality sound card would be though; at least not AC97. As to the drag on the processor; it is minimal. Not really something to worry about unless you are going to be using a low end CPU such as a Duron 750 or so. Even then you probably wouldn't notice the difference in any apps using on board sound vs a sound card. Keep in mind that you will need "powered" speakers; the K7S5A sound output is not amplified itself.

 

[Peter]

Buz2b, SB!Audigy also uses AC97 codecs. So? AC97 is just a digital interconnect bus between sound engine and digital/analog converter (aka codec). Everyone uses that standardized bus, that says nothing about how good the components on either side are.

K7S5A uses the "SiS 7012" chipset integrated sound engine, an AC97 interconnect to either a Realtek ALC100 stereo or a C-Media 9738 4-channel codec, and has pretty good analog circuitry behind the codec.

Analog output quality is good, good enough for flawless wave replay and CD listening on a quality HiFi rack. The sound engine itself is a bit sensitive to other PCI cards that block the CPU for too long. Disturbances have been seen with old&slow PCI graphics cards (and stayed that way with a PCI sound card btw).

regards, Peter

 

[Thump553]

On my office system based on a K7S5A I'm using the onboard sound. It seems fine to me WHEN I have the sound on, which is rare. This particular system has el-crapo (TM) speakers and my office location causes me to pick up the trucker's CB once or twice a day. I've certainly never noticed any system bogdown from the sound.

My son games a lot on a K7S5A system using onboard sound (and not much better speakers) and he's never complained about it.

If you are sitting on the fence, I'd say try the onboard sound first and see how you like it. Soundcards are pretty cheap and easy to add on later if you're unhappy.

 

[Buz2b]

Peter:
Not saying that AC97 can't be used in quality output but as a basis (or interconnect as you describe it) for onboard sound systems, it does not have (or is not usually paired with) the kind of output that the Audigy or comparable systems do. I'm sure you're not saying it does. And I'm reasonably sure you're not saying that the onboard sound here is good enough for semi-serious gaming application. That is all I was pointing out. I was not attempting to say it was crap and shouldn't be used. Since he didn't specify what his usage was going to be, I just figured to cover the bases. I have used onboard sound quite a bit before but I'm not a serious gamer either and only listen to CD's from time to time; not on a regular basis. I have a home stereo for that.