I'm currently in the parts purchase phase of my new i7 build.

I've been looking on PCPartPicker and have notice a lot of new builds aren't running designated sound cards.

Have we progressed that far that on board sound is the norm now?

Keep in mind my last build was about 10yrs ago when the E8600 wolfdale was new.

I'm currently running a Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro on my current system and have upgraded this build

to the Asus Maximus VII Hero.

Any benefit to dropping in my X-Fi?   

 

Comments?

 

Thanks

This is always going to be subjective, it depends on the state of your hearing and the quality of the hardware that you will be using to playback the sound on. Some people say they can hear no discernible difference between on-board sound and a dedicated card whilst with others it is night and day. I have a cheap Asus Xonar DG card which I much prefer to the on-board hardware on my Asus P8Z77-V Pro but I am using a pair of M-Audio AV40s, if I were using a set of cheap speakers / headphones maybe the difference would not be so evident.

 

As you have the hardware try both and see what suits you best, I'd definitely suggest disabling the on-board sound in BIOS before installing your X-Fi to avoid driver conflicts. If you find you don't need the X-Fi you can always sell it on.

 

Motherboards these days have excellent sound chips built in. The capabilities have come a long way. In fact, I just built a new computer and never thought twice about adding a sound card. They just are not needed anymore. I think partially due to the increased performance of the rest of the hardware, it is no longer necessary to have a dedicated card to take over those responsibilties. However, I would imagine if you are running a high performance audio visual system, there would be benefits.

I haven't had a customer ask for a soundcard in years.  Use HDMI to connect to a 7.1 system and be impressed.  I never felt the need to buy a soundcard.