If you purchase a motherboard with on-board sound is the sound generally poor quality??

Answer 1

This depends. Most motherboards come with a RealTek chipset or a SoundMAX chipset.

Most newer motherboards do not have poor sound, but most, if not all, of them cannot support EAX or other hardware effects for games. The new Azalia chipset supports HD audio, and it's not that bad.

I would suggest if you want to do gaming, buy a dedicated sound card. The X-Fi is an amazing card, but I'd recommend the Xtreme Music one as it's cheaper and is just as good.

If you do not plan on gaming, you'll be fine with an onboard chipset. Also, if you do not care about hardware effects and fancy gizmos, onboard chipsets are just fine.

Answer 2

No unless, your running 7.1 surround sound there is usually no need to upgrade, and some mother boards have that capability of 7.1 surround sound, and unless your putting it throught i high quality system( say over $500) there is no used unless there is something wrong with some frequencies, which you could tell right away, there is not much quality difference an average music listener could tell

Answer 3

this depends on the motherboard u buy. go for a higher range and you will find a better one... it is NOT of a poor quality, but always a dedicated device is better than a shared one... if you are ready to spend, go for a soundcard, iff you have really good kind of speakers, or else if u have a cheaper variety of speakers, it doesnt really make a difference....

Answer 4

I have an HP with onboard sound which cracks and cuts out when deep bass hits. I'm replacing it because I think basic onboard sound sucks.

Answer 5

not at all. i use onboard sound on my home pc. it sounds great. it really depends on the type of motherboard you have. i have an asus a8v deluxe

Answer 6

not unless you plan on hooking up a surround sound package.

Paul
Flying Hills Computer Service
www.FlyingHillsComputerService.com