"Jambo" wrote in message
...

Not only will the sound be better (think of what your sound
card cost and then think about how much an
onboard sound chip will cost in comparison!)

I believe my SB Live can be purchased for about £10 or probably
less these days (if you can get it at all), though it cost
considerably more at the time. I'd've thought a deal of that
cost is associated with the fact that it's a separate board and
not down to the chips on it. I don't really know, but I suspect
there's little to choose in cost between an old SB LIve and a
modern on-board sound chip.

but there should be a performace gain in games as the
soundcard has dedicated processing power on board.


Having said that I still use my SB Live in preference to the
on-board sound chip on my MB, because I also have heard that the
on-board sound systems tend to use up CPU more than dedicated
cards. I've no real idea how true that is in my case, and I've
not tested it.