I am contemplating buying a more powerful PC and gather that FS2002 is processor-driven. How important is the sound card? Would an on-board sound card be adequate or would that be a false economy? If yes, what sound card would you recommend?Any advice gratefully received.

It obviously depends on what motherboard you get. I understand that the nForce2 based boards have decent on board sound. The sound card doesn't affect performance very much in fs2002, but it has a great effect on sound quality. Given that soundcards are relatively cheap compared to CPUs, videocards etc. you don't have much to lose really. I use a Soundblaster Audigy myself, and I am pretty satisfied with it. It is cheaper than the Audigy2 and just as good for gaming purposes. I also hear that Hercules has some great cards.- Oyvind

I have heard a few complaints that "on-board" sound is more processor dependent than on PCI addons.I know that sound cards can cause problems within FS2002 on occasion. I believe the previous poster has some wise recommendations.gwillmot

I have an nForce2 with onboard sound out of necessity. I have little room to clutter up with speakers. I thought I'd miss having a sound card; I don't. There are other aspects more important (to me, at least). Given that the sim is quite CPU dependent, I just opted for a notedly bigger processor upon upgrade. I'm pleased with the arrangement; others might not.Rick

I would get a good soundcard and make sure you get some nice speakers too, try to get some speakers with a Sub-Woofer, it makes a big difference!

The soundcard is very important. As I've upgraded PCs, I've brought along my old soundcard. It was a Soundblaster Live Gamer. Pretty outdated these days. I started noticing stutters in the sound in detailed scenery.I got an Audigy at Christmas and it fixed the problems.Apparently sound cards can get outdated just like video cards!

I'm not too fond on my onboard sound. I'm quite picky when it comes to sound and noticed the difference in the quality of the onboard sound vs my Audigy.On the plus side I have great sounding music etc and I can use the onboard sound for RW when I fly online :)

The quality of the on-board sound of a fairly new Intel mobo was distorted to my ears. My previous card would not work. I now get great music and FS Sound with a Hercules DigiFire 7.1. It feeds a hi-fi receiver/amp with hi-fi speakers as opposed to using pc amplified speakers. I should note I am only using the normal stereo channels with synthed surround.You can get some on-board reviews as well as seperate card reviews at www.guru3d.com and www.tomshardware.com.Music of various types is important to me.

I'm still using one of my old ESS AudioDrive ES1938 PCI cards I got 4 years ago. I never had problems with it other than some crackles and pops in FS2002 LOL. I just got like 4 of these cards surplus at a comp store for like 5 bucks a card back in 1999 for spare parts. I never upgraded because I had 3 cards left and I really dont care about sound quality.....as long as it plays, i'm fine LOL.

I have an Intel Mobo with the SoundMax software that was included and it sounds great..I have Radar Contact ATC piped in from another computer. No complaints. Intel mobos are great!Barry

Onboard sound for me too. I previously had an SB Live! Value and I found that there is minimal difference in sound quality / CPU load between the two. The SB Live! Value now lives in my kids computer, where it did make a quality/perf difference over their SB 64 AWE ISA (remember those?).

Hey, ten replies within 24 hours! Thanks everybody. Shall go through them with the proverbial fine toothcombe and then hopefully make the right decision.