Many normal users who use onboard sound will say why need a soundcard ?

You'll correct yourself again when you plug in a sound card with the same pair of speakers, you'll definitely hear the difference. I've used plain old AC97 before and I just cant stand the crackling sound and hissing noise when there is a cpu spike on soft music, crankling the volume up will hear alot of cracklers and hisses.

With an external soundcard like Creative (SB Live! onwards) you'll definitely hear a clearer sound with better SNR ratio, crispier sound and lower noise signals compare to onboard ones.

If you're an audiophile or music enthusiasts, you'll definitely want a soundcard than onboard solution but if you're a gamer, sound quality doesn't really matter as all you need is multi-speaker output which onboard sound offers up to 7.1 nowadays.

I personally uses Creative X-Fi, the sound quality difference comparing to Audigy 4 is Huge I dare to say, due to its 24-bit Crystalizer. If you ask me to get an Audigy 4 in favour of onboard solutions, save your penny I'll say

My 2 cents.

EDIT:



For your definition,
Onboard = High Quality

For my definition using your definition,
Onboard = High Quality
X-Fi = Very High Quality



This post has been edited by tanghm: Feb 28 2007, 05:36 PM