Hi, all.Just thinking about doing this, but wondering whether it's even worth the effort.Currently, I have a brand new Dell desktop working great with FS9. Decent frame rates (NVidia 6800), no complaints.However... my rig (since I cheaped out on the sound card option) came with the "SoundMax Digital Audio" card onboard.My question is this: is it worth it for me to put an old SoundBlaster Live ('Value') in one of the PCI slots? I know I'll probably get better sound with it, but I'm curious if this will give me a boost in frames, texture loading, etc.Currently, I don't have any sound skips or other anomalies that some folks experience with onboard sound cards. But if I could benefit from plopping in the SBLive, I'd do it.Any ideas? Thanks for any information.- J.

I have tried both onboard and SB live value options with my last two motherboards - one an ASUS A7N8X-X (Athlon XP) and the other an ASUS A8V (Athlon 64). In both cases, performance hit in FS with sound and sound quality was basically the same. In other words, don't bother. Perhaps the Audigy series of cards offer more.Gary

Had a feeling that might be true. Thanks very much for the response!Regards,J.

I have a system with built in sound, it runs on a AMD XP1900. The internal card does sound find on my board Biostar nvidia chipset. What made me go to the soundblaste live was I already had one from another machine and it has the extra channel output which I've connected to a Sub-wolfer system that gives great low frequency and rumble noises. Most likely your built in card has only output for 1 set of speakers like mine did. If you wish toset up more speakers I like the SB Live because it's fairly cheap, no stuttering and accessible drivers.;)

gcompc:Thanks very much for replying.Your reply gave me something to think about. When I first received my new system, I immediately hooked up a similar speaker setup (4 speakers, 1 boom box) to it, but learned that the SoundMax integrated audio didn't support that speaker setup. No biggie, I thought; I use earphones half the time anyway.However, it sure would be nice to have the great sound I had on my old system (the one with the SBLive). I think that -- since it won't do any harm -- it might be worth the extra effort to install it. It would be nice to have that deep bass rumble again as I roar down the runway.Thanks for your input!- J.

Strange, my onboard sound on my semi-new A8V motherboard supports 6 channel audio and subwoofer in fully glory. What motherboard is in your new system?Gary