Self Build PC advise Please

I have never bought a mother board with the sound on it, I have always used Sound Blaster sound cards. What I would suggest is this, if the mother board you are buying has the built in sound card try it. If you don't like it then you can add a sound card. It's my understanding you can disable the built in sound cards if you don't like them.

Personally I don't like any "on board" item, it's just another inexpensive part that can go wrong. I've always used a Sound Blaster card.
The Platinum is a nice card and should do you well for years.
Just a quick look at a price, you can search the net for better.
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php?page_id=59&form_keyword=sound+blaster+card&rd=1&skd=1

RadarMan wrote:

Personally I don't like any "on board" item, it's just another inexpensive part that can go wrong. I've always used a Sound Blaster card.

It looks like we think alike on this. The more add ons on a mother board the more there is to go wrong with it. I prefer adding my own components rather than having them built in. Sound cards unless you are buying the latest and greatest are not that expensive. If fact the more expensive sound cards are more than I need since I am not heavy into music on the computer.

That said, in built sound cards are a lot better these days than they used to be.

I went for an external too but on board often don't load the CPU as much ( if at all ) as they used to do.

If you are looking to save a bit of cash - try it... if its rubbish - you can always add one a month or 2 later 🙂

After many hours thinking which way to go either with the Intel or the AMD. In the end I went for AMD and this is what I've got so far.

ASUS A8N-SLi Nforce SLi (939) Mobo
AMD Athlon 62x2 Dual Core 3800+
CAS2.5 Dual Channel Ram 2GB (2x1GB)
Seagate Hard Drive (Sata) 250GB
Gigabyte GeForce 6800GS SLi 256MB (Hoping to got another one after about 2 months of building this machine)
Zalman Heatsink and fan
Windows XP SP2
17" LCD Monitor
Akasa ultra quite PSU 400Watt.

This comes to a grand total of £1009.32 so far. Hopefull I can get abit in there sales and I have a couple of online stores to price check against. These can all be found at www.overclockers.co.uk.

I think this will run FS9 and FSX really well. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Liono

Insight wrote:

That said, in built sound cards are a lot better these days than they used to be.

I went for an external too but on board often don't load the CPU as much ( if at all ) as they used to do.

If you are looking to save a bit of cash - try it... if its rubbish - you can always add one a month or 2 later 🙂

Agree with Insight.
In my old system i was using a Sound Blaster card,in my new one i use MOBOs output and im more than satisfied.
To be precise i didnt notice any difference between before and after.

My MOBO is an Asus K8V SE Deluxe.

I find your specs great Liono. 👍 Maybe if you can effort it buy a bigger in watts Power Supply.(450W-550W)

Hey Liono,

Make sure you buy the A8N-SLI Deluxe

the other versions aren't dual core ready out of the box and need a bios upgrade, which of course you cannot do unless you have a spare socket 939 mobo laying about 🙂

This is something the shop I got mine from pointed out at the time when I placed my order - this may of course have now changed. i don't think its a great deal extra for the deluxe but its always worth spending a bit more on the motherboard.

Insight wrote:

Hey Liono,

Make sure you buy the A8N-SLI Deluxe

the other versions aren't dual core ready out of the box and need a bios upgrade, which of course you cannot do unless you have a spare socket 939 mobo laying about 🙂

This is something the shop I got mine from pointed out at the time when I placed my order - this may of course have now changed. i don't think its a great deal extra for the deluxe but its always worth spending a bit more on the motherboard.

Cheers for the heads up Insight. I just checked another fender closer to where I live and checked for the motherboard and the Deluxe is just out of my price range. The one I quoted is Dual Core ready. Have a read

This motherboard supports AMD 939-pin Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core processor with 1MBx2 or 512KBx2 L2 cache which is based on 64-bit architecture. It features better multithreaded / multitasking performance than Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64. NVIDIA SLItechnology revolutionizes PC performance by combining multiple PCI Express GPUs in a single and scalable system! Gamers and hardcore enthusiasts know that dual GPUs mean increased, supercharged 3D graphics and performance. PCI Express is the latest I/O interconnect technology that will replace the existing PCI.

Liono wrote:

I'm in the process of planning my next PC. hopefull by Monday I should know if I have enough money (keeps fingers crossed).

The question I have is, is it worth paying out for a sound card or do I use the onboard sound?

Cheers
Liono

Onboard sound. Conventions change and so does technology. This MSI board is certainly worth to be looked at.

Audio

• Creative sound Blaster Live 24-bit onboard audio
- 24-bit / 96KHz audio quality
- 100db SNR clarity
- Up to 7.1 CH Surround Sound, Dolby Digital ready

It's got the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Chipset and here's the link ➡ http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=638

I use the onboard sound on my Asus motherboard, and ive had no problem with it, and it sounds great.

But ill will suggest what was suggest before, for your power supply get at least a 450 watt, as your Geforce video card minimum recommended requirements are a 450 watt power supply

Liono wrote:

Insight wrote:

Hey Liono,

Make sure you buy the A8N-SLI Deluxe

the other versions aren't dual core ready out of the box and need a bios upgrade, which of course you cannot do unless you have a spare socket 939 mobo laying about 🙂

This is something the shop I got mine from pointed out at the time when I placed my order - this may of course have now changed. i don't think its a great deal extra for the deluxe but its always worth spending a bit more on the motherboard.

Cheers for the heads up Insight. I just checked another fender closer to where I live and checked for the motherboard and the Deluxe is just out of my price range. The one I quoted is Dual Core ready. Have a read

This motherboard supports AMD 939-pin Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core processor with 1MBx2 or 512KBx2 L2 cache which is based on 64-bit architecture. It features better multithreaded / multitasking performance than Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64. NVIDIA SLItechnology revolutionizes PC performance by combining multiple PCI Express GPUs in a single and scalable system! Gamers and hardcore enthusiasts know that dual GPUs mean increased, supercharged 3D graphics and performance. PCI Express is the latest I/O interconnect technology that will replace the existing PCI.

Hey Liono,

I read that too at the time and thought the board was for me, but apparently - while it can support that - a BIOS upgrade was required first hence my "out of the box" statement.

By all means go ahead and get that board, but do please check with the manufacturer or the vendor to ensure compatibility - as I say this was a while ago and I imagine they will have started shipping the new boards with the correct BIOS by now... always worth a check to avoid frustration though 🙂