Why sound subsystems in highend mobos?

[MikeSp]

What is the reasoning behind the manufacturers of highend motherboards designing multichannel sound subsystems in their motherboards? I would suspect that anyone using such motherboards would want to achieve the maximum speed and also achieve the best sound which would require disabling the sound subsystem in the BIOS and installing a good soundcard? Also, the lack of a multichannel sound subsystem would make for a less expensive motherboard as well as a cleaner layout. Hmmmmm?

MikeSp

[Redfallon]

I only use onboard sound....don't really think it's worth it to upgrade to an audigy or anything, as I do nothing more than game and listen to MP3's music-wise....Most will agree the difference in those uses would be barely noticed...There's the argument that using a dedicated sound card will free up some CPU cycles, but when you're talking about P4's and newer athlons, I don't think you'd even notice the difference in a benchmark

[Alienware_Dude]

If you're a heavy gamer, you simply need a separate sound card that supports EAX, etc. Also, you'd be surprised at the performance loss you can experience by using onboard sound instead of a sound card.

[demandred55]

I too use onboard sound. It's not like we're talking about the difference between mono, case speaker sound and stereo, amplified stand-alone speaker sound as used to be the case. My MoBo comes with 6 channel sound with digital opticle ins and outs as well as the analog ins/outs. I have not detected any situation where I wished I had a seperate sound card.

[BARNEY]

Audigy 2 ZS is light years beyond your onboard sound. if you have the proper speakers you'll notice a huge differnce. You would hear sounds in Call Of Duty that quite franky are not even there with your onboard sound.

[Snake2715]

Originally posted by BARNEY Audigy 2 ZS is light years beyond your onboard sound. if you have the proper speakers you'll notice a huge differnce. You would hear sounds in Call Of Duty that quite franky are not even there with your onboard sound.

do you feel that this is the case even when compared to say the soundstorm onboard?

I am deciding whether to go onboard or just buy a SB Audigy 2.

I dont wasnt to spend money for no reason.

[BARNEY]

Soundstorm witj full on MCP-T is about on par with the Audigy, if not a tad above - if you use either your optical out or RCA out. If you use Analog out then you are getting only AC97 (alc650) sound through the realtek dac only. Your MCP-T sound is quite formidable actually. But to hear the digital differrence you need speakers, or an external decoder to match it. Logitech has several that will match. In your case I would stick with your digital solution. Now having said that I don't want the others above to think that onboard alalog is no good. It's relative to what you use your PC for. For many onboard is just fine. Sensura emulation is good enough for most - and AC97 covers that, and - if you don't have a problem with it then your fine. Soundstorm though will do EAX 1 and 2. Ac97 wil only do sensura emulation and Miles fast (which is not bad).

[pam123]

Originally posted by MikeSp What is the reasoning behind the manufacturers of highend motherboards designing multichannel sound subsystems in their motherboards? I would suspect that anyone using such motherboards would want to achieve the maximum speed and also achieve the best sound which would require disabling the sound subsystem in the BIOS and installing a good soundcard? Also, the lack of a multichannel sound subsystem would make for a less expensive motherboard as well as a cleaner layout. Hmmmmm? MikeSp

I agree and I also note that NVidia has dropped integrated sound from it's most recent mobos.
The SoundStorm is still giving people trouble but, when it works, it can rival audigy.
If I were a mainboard fabricator I would use integrated sound on most of the lower end boards and leave all highend and most midlevel boards without it.
It's just that the most habitridden guys I know seem to be in cutting edge tech !!!!
Or is it that they can't ask ?

[BARNEY]

Originally posted by pam123 I would use integrated sound on most of the lower end boards and leave all highend and most midlevel boards without

Not a bad idea. I wish they would also leave off the NIC. I would rather add my own Giga and sound card both.

[pam123]

Bless you.
Do you think somone from Asus reads PCMech ?

[BARNEY]

Sure, maybe occasionally. I know for fact that Maximum PC staff reads amdmb.com forums for specific mainboard setup info and tricks - they admitted as much abut a year ago. So I would not put it past that fact that they "might" read the forum here occasionally. Thing is though that this forum is very general, and not split up into mainboard brands, and no reps (that I have seen) hang out here. So you generally don't see stickies about paticular boards here. Still a very nice overall forum here though. I like it.

[i3OSS]

if you have the proper speakers you'll notice a huge differnce.

you wont notice much of a difference with $10 speakers, but when you have decent speakers like Megaworks, Klipsch and the Logitech Z 680 you will DEFINITELY notice a difference from your onboard sound.

[BARNEY]

Right on~

[glc]

It costs just pennies to integrate nic and audio functions into the chipset. If you don't want them, just disable them.

[BARNEY]

Truth is that most do use the intergrated nic, and integrated sound.

[homer15]

i don't use my integrated sound card. i find that it gets scratchy when a graphic intense game is running. with a seperate cheap sound card, i don't get any scratchy sound at all.

[BARNEY]

What card do you use?

[Alienware_Dude]

I prefer to use the onboard NIC, it frees up a PCI slot.

[Tin]

all my PCI slots are open on my board. i use onboard sound and nic. i just dont feel like shelling out the bread for a killer soundcard.

[Redfallon]

Originally posted by Tin Canary all my PCI slots are open on my board. i use onboard sound and nic. i just dont feel like shelling out the bread for a killer soundcard.

heheh, better spent on something that will bring you more speed! that's why i stick with ob sound

[Tin]

Originally posted by Redfallon heheh, better spent on something that will bring you more speed! that's why i stick with ob sound

exactly...i could use the money from an SBA2ZS and get some killer memory and juice the FSB even more im happy with my onboard audio though. my games sound great through my logitec Z640s. i must say though, even without the digital interface connected to fully utilize the MCP-T, this onboard audio blows my old SB Live! out of the water.

[BARNEY]

certainly, sound is very subjective.. I like the Grado 60's with the Audigy 2 ZS.