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#1
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onboard sound or sound card?
i am wondering whether it is worth getting a sound card in place of the
onboard sound on my K7S5A. i currently have 2 speakers and would only consider upgrading to a 2.1 speaker system and not a 4.1,5.1, etc speaker system as i have no need for anything more than 2.1 as i dont see the point in having a better sound system on my pc than my tv. anyway i want to know how significant the performance can increase with a sound card over onboard sound as i play games all the time and always listen to music when im not playing games. or would i be better advised to put a second 512MB DDR PC2100 stick in and pay the extra ~£30? current specs: ECS K7S5A 2000+ AMD Athlon XP 256MB DDR PC2100 60gig Seagate Barracuda 64MB DDR ATI Radeon 7500 -- mig |
#2
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mig wrote:
i am wondering whether it is worth getting a sound card in place of the onboard sound on my K7S5A. i currently have 2 speakers and would only consider upgrading to a 2.1 speaker system and not a 4.1,5.1, etc speaker system as i have no need for anything more than 2.1 as i dont see the point in having a better sound system on my pc than my tv. anyway i want to know how significant the performance can increase with a sound card over onboard sound as i play games all the time and always listen to music when im not playing games. or would i be better advised to put a second 512MB DDR PC2100 stick in and pay the extra ~£30? current specs: ECS K7S5A 2000+ AMD Athlon XP 256MB DDR PC2100 60gig Seagate Barracuda 64MB DDR ATI Radeon 7500 TBH, it depends on what you are doing with your computer. If all you are doing is playing a few games and listening to music now and again, then I very much doubt it is worth spending money. If on the other hand you want the super duper 5.1 sound or you are using your computer to record the Cristams number one in the charts, then you will need something decent. I suggest you get some more memory, It seems like your sound chip will do you fine. |
#3
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I'd have to agree,256MB is low for an XP system.Games especially would
benefit more from more memory as opposed to a new soundcard. "AD C" wrote in message ... mig wrote: i am wondering whether it is worth getting a sound card in place of the onboard sound on my K7S5A. i currently have 2 speakers and would only consider upgrading to a 2.1 speaker system and not a 4.1,5.1, etc speaker system as i have no need for anything more than 2.1 as i dont see the point in having a better sound system on my pc than my tv. anyway i want to know how significant the performance can increase with a sound card over onboard sound as i play games all the time and always listen to music when im not playing games. or would i be better advised to put a second 512MB DDR PC2100 stick in and pay the extra ~£30? current specs: ECS K7S5A 2000+ AMD Athlon XP 256MB DDR PC2100 60gig Seagate Barracuda 64MB DDR ATI Radeon 7500 TBH, it depends on what you are doing with your computer. If all you are doing is playing a few games and listening to music now and again, then I very much doubt it is worth spending money. If on the other hand you want the super duper 5.1 sound or you are using your computer to record the Cristams number one in the charts, then you will need something decent. I suggest you get some more memory, It seems like your sound chip will do you fine. |
#4
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"mig" wrote in message
i am wondering whether it is worth getting a sound card in place of the onboard sound on my K7S5A. i currently have 2 speakers and would only consider upgrading to a 2.1 speaker system and not a 4.1,5.1, etc speaker system as i have no need for anything more than 2.1 as i dont see the point in having a better sound system on my pc than my tv. anyway i want to know how significant the performance can increase with a sound card over onboard sound as i play games all the time and always listen to music when im not playing games. or would i be better advised to put a second 512MB DDR PC2100 stick in and pay the extra ~£30? current specs: ECS K7S5A 2000+ AMD Athlon XP 256MB DDR PC2100 60gig Seagate Barracuda 64MB DDR ATI Radeon 7500 You play first-person 3-dimensional games on your television? No, but you might on a computer. I've played several games in which I can use my hearing to discern location without having to take my eyes off of something else. For example, I can monitor the whereabouts of a patrolling guard while watching how to pick open a door or punching in a code. If I happen to forget to turn on the rear speakers, I'd wonder how that guard snuck up on me only to realize it was because I didn't hear him coming from that direction. But not to go with rear speakers is your choice. Perhaps you only play flat 2-dimensional games that cannot produce sound from all directions. In that case, the onboard sound is probably fine. As to whether you need more memory depends on what operating system you are running - which you do not mention. Since 95-based Windows uses cooperative multitasking, tis easy 'nuff to shutdown other apps and just play a game to have it the only [major] process running, so even 256 MB is probably good enough but you really need to check your games to see what are their *recommended* hardware configuration (rather than just their minimum requirement). You might get more gaming enjoyment just by replacing your power supply and case fans with quieter units. -- __________________________________________________ __________ ** Share with others. Post replies in the newsgroup. ** If present, remove all "-nix" from my email address. __________________________________________________ __________ |
#5
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probably gonna go for the memory and possibly hook up my hifi speakers to
the pc as the crappy ones i have at the moment are unable to handle sound at a decent volume without sounding crackly and i cannot see the sound card being responsible for this as it seems decent enough any one suggest the cheapest place to buy 512mb DDR PC2100 in the uk? -- mig "Vanguard" wrote in message news:MF_Wa.36247$Oz4.10557@rwcrnsc54... "mig" wrote in message i am wondering whether it is worth getting a sound card in place of the onboard sound on my K7S5A. i currently have 2 speakers and would only consider upgrading to a 2.1 speaker system and not a 4.1,5.1, etc speaker system as i have no need for anything more than 2.1 as i dont see the point in having a better sound system on my pc than my tv. anyway i want to know how significant the performance can increase with a sound card over onboard sound as i play games all the time and always listen to music when im not playing games. or would i be better advised to put a second 512MB DDR PC2100 stick in and pay the extra ~£30? current specs: ECS K7S5A 2000+ AMD Athlon XP 256MB DDR PC2100 60gig Seagate Barracuda 64MB DDR ATI Radeon 7500 You play first-person 3-dimensional games on your television? No, but you might on a computer. I've played several games in which I can use my hearing to discern location without having to take my eyes off of something else. For example, I can monitor the whereabouts of a patrolling guard while watching how to pick open a door or punching in a code. If I happen to forget to turn on the rear speakers, I'd wonder how that guard snuck up on me only to realize it was because I didn't hear him coming from that direction. But not to go with rear speakers is your choice. Perhaps you only play flat 2-dimensional games that cannot produce sound from all directions. In that case, the onboard sound is probably fine. As to whether you need more memory depends on what operating system you are running - which you do not mention. Since 95-based Windows uses cooperative multitasking, tis easy 'nuff to shutdown other apps and just play a game to have it the only [major] process running, so even 256 MB is probably good enough but you really need to check your games to see what are their *recommended* hardware configuration (rather than just their minimum requirement). You might get more gaming enjoyment just by replacing your power supply and case fans with quieter units. -- __________________________________________________ __________ ** Share with others. Post replies in the newsgroup. ** If present, remove all "-nix" from my email address. __________________________________________________ __________ |
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