Sound cards

[Mephisto_kur]

Now, I just got a new mobo a little bit ago.  I thought I could finally move on from my 6 year old Hercules GTXP.  I thought that mobo sound cards should at least be as good now as add-in cards from 6 years ago, right?

Well, no, as it turns out.  I will give you a pro-con list:

GTXP Pros:
Up to 7.1 speaker support
Mic can be manually turned off
Headphones can be used without turning off speakers
USB hub built in
Cool breakout box with a buttload of connections and individual volume controls for both headphones and mic

GTXP Cons:
Old
USB 1.1
Center channel controls are kludgey at best on consumer level speakers

Mobo soundcard Pros:
Discreet center channel contols
7.1 surround supported
New

Mobo soundcard Cons:
Sounds like ass
Mic is too quiet in games
Digging around in the back of the computer
Sounds like ASS

So I just put my GTXP back in.

[haase]

What chip is on the Mobo?

[Mephisto_kur]

ALC850, I think?

[haase]

hmm...  I have that chip on one of my boards, and I didn't think it sounded that bad.