Sound card

L

LapGamer

Active member
I know I'm getting a laptop but my brother is looking to get a new PC and isn't sure whether to get a separate sound card. The built in chips are ok for me but he's more into his music than I am, not an audiophile by any means but just wants it to sound ok. Will the built in chips be sufficient for anyone except a hardcore audiophile or should he spring for an audio card?

Thanks!
 
tom_gr7

tom_gr7

Life Serving
I Went for a sound card because I have a DVD sound system, so wanted to connect that with my pc, via optical cable and give me awesome surround sound! quality! So if your brother has a awesome sound system it might be worth it.

The onboard sound will be perfectly fine for your laptop.
 
Tracker

Tracker

Enthusiast
some laptops can spit out digital sound via various connectors using the onboard chip, just depends on the make and model laptop you get. I have a Dell xps 1730 that outputs full digital sound (SPdif and a few other formats) from it's S-video port (using some wierd dell adapter), and that's just got a basic realtek sound chip on it.

The main thing is that you won't be able to adjust levels the same way a sound card can, so for example, if you find the bass is a bit weak, you can't tweak it via software (which can be a pain if you're using headphones, like the PC350's, which suffer from such a problem), otherwise sound quality is more than adequate for most gaming / casual music needs.
 
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