I know in normal everyday gaming and such its always better to have a real sound card, in my current setup I am running a Sound Blaster Audigy SE Low profile. Does it even benefit XBMC Live at all to use or is onboard just the same?
Analog or digital sound output desired?
I cant say for certain but afaik everything is software decoded and mixed in alsa, (same as with windows vista). So performance gain, nah. You´ll probably get less lag as it might have smaller latency, no need when you play audio/video, just needed when you record.
The big difference between onboard and addon is usually the DACs and will probably give you way better sound. Also you might have better luck obscure and high samplerates
BLKMGK Wrote:Analog or digital sound output desired?
Digital, saw another post mention about HDMI audio. I currently get digital via toslink from the SB Audigy, but my onboard video/sound (which I utilize the video) supports HDMI for both.
Its not a deal breaker or anything just freeing up one Digital Input on my receiver for other things hehe. Topfs2 I dont do any recording just playback of movies direct from hard drive. So I might give it a test to see if there are any differences.
Might all be irrelevant if I upgrade my MB from the Nvidia 630i (7100) to the newer 730i (I think that was the model) it has a 9400 builtin.
Thanks all for the responses thus far.