Sound on the Newer Motherboards

Hello,

I am thinking about building a new computer and I am wondering about the HD sound on the new motherboards these days. Is an external sound card even needed anymore? I know a long time ago if you wanted to have good sound without killing your computer games' processing power you needed to have an external card. But nowadays with the advent of multi core processors are sound cards like the XFI even needed? Some new motherboards are offering HD audio. I am just wondering if anyone knows if I should budget for a new sound card or just get a good board with HD audio on it. Which most new motherboards already boast.

Thanks for the input.

 

Hi and welcome to MG... Yes you are correct and depending on which motherboard you choose its best to compare prices. Nearly all recent boards have a 8 Channel HD Audio so there is little need for a sound card but at the end of the day its your personal preference depending on your needs. And as you say back in the Ol days you had to have a Sound Card but times have changed and onboard sound quality now is pretty good IMHO. :major

 

Hey Toke thank you for the reply. I am also thinking about building a new system and was wondering if I would see a significant improvement over my current computer. Aside from my video card which is newish. If I got a new core i5 or i7 would I see much an improvment in gaming? I usually play graphic intensive games online like Guildwars- I've started playing Tera and I was going to play D3 but I found Path of Exile to be more my style.

Anyway my computer is a:

Core 2 duo E660 with 2 gigs of ram and a 74 gig raptor.

My motherboard is an MSI P6N Platinum

Its about 5 years old now or more. I've been having some strange issues with it lately and I've tried some thing but I almost just want to build a new machine. Can someone suggest a motherboard and chip combination for me? Also on the new chips do they actually have the video drivers on the cpu now? I havnt quite figured out what i'm reading at new egg.

Thanks for the help and advices everyone.

 

Some motherboards have onboard video, but you really wont be likely to have any good gaming performance out of those onboard chips, you really want to go with an graphics card thats not built on to the motherboard.

 

Correct On board Video cards for desktops really suck for gaming they have Very low FPS compared to the Video cards that plug in and alot of times with the on board video cards i hear that some of them will fry the mother board if its pushed to hard.

So its kinda like a double edge sword threw the heart lol:-D with the on board video cards.Unless your able to keep them cool i would not bother with them.