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[mito]

Is the realtek onboard audio device good enough (quality and performance) or should I consider purchasing a separate audio card like an Audigy?

Thanks...

 

[ANova]

Onboard audio sounds great in general but it has two main drawbacks. One, it uses CPU cycles because it lacks hardware acceleration, which leads to slightly reduced performance and two, because it uses the CPU is has direct access to the rest of the system which, as I recently discovered, leads to a noticable amount of static and noise if you're using sensitive hardware like headphones.

 

[Martin Eddy]

Interference can be a major problem with on board sound. There's nothing worse than hearing squealing noises every time you scroll your mouse.

 

[Diplo]

There are a couple of NForce4 athlon boards that have the Realtek audio chip physically isolated from the rest of the motherboard to avoid crosstalk/interference.

 

[Altcon]

I didn't like it

I thought the onboard didn't sound good, I felt like it had no depth.
I know Abit have a seperate board you have to add in for sound (which is supposedly making it more insulated from board noise), and MSI have a 24bit sound blaster on their high end Nforce4 mobos.
I personally used a Creative SoundBlaster 24bit instead of the onboard, and later I switched to Audigy 2 ZS for better gaming compatibility (the live/24bit series didn't get any driver updates since 2003 if Im not mistaken, and they don't supprt EAX).

 

[Tahir2]

The DFI NF4 Lanparty series do something strange.. as does the ABIT boards IIRC - rather than isolate the Realtek audio processor they isolate the soundcard inputs (Line-In, Aux, Mic etc). On the DFI NF4 Lanparty it doesnt help at all... not sure about the Abit solution as never tested it for sound quality.

 

[Diplo]

You can get an OEM Audigy 4 for less than £40 in UK. Might be a good choice?