I got this one: Asus P8P67 B3 Rev i7 i5 i3 LGA1155 P67 DDR3 USB3
Which has: Realtek ALC 892 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
Maybe it has something to do with my speakers. I use the cheapest 2-speaker desktop option that Dell was offering at the time. Perhaps Sound Blaster is just better at making shitty speakers sound good?
-420
There's different onboard sound cards and quality, two mobos could both have realtek but have different sound quality. Speakers do make a huge difference, though I have doubts that the sound quality between one card and another will have much to do with your speakers, as they don't typically get along with certain cards/drivers better than others, it's usually your other software and hardware that do. If one card sounds better than another then it's likely either due to better hardware and/or software for that card versus the other. I do recommend getting new speakers though, now that I read the word "Dell." Logitech has some affordable speaker sets of good quality.
I remember reading reviews for my motherboard having good onboard sound, but since I am used to onboard sound quality almost always being worse than having a card I had bought a low budget sound card with my comp. Which was the Sound Blaster Audigy SE, which I think I got on sale for like $21 at the time. But I regretted it a little afterwards because I struggled with getting my sound to work correctly with Windows 7, after awhile I could use it, but it didn't work in video games so I tried the onboard realtek which turned out to sound better anyway. I did a comparison because I didn't want second-rate sound when I bought a card, but the SB was definitely inferior, and my onboard worked in games. Nice to know now though that I can use the SB with 7. I may have to double check, because with the new drivers it may sound better. But I hope to buy a more expensive sound card down the road anyway. I'm looking at those HT Omega's, but they're spendy. I didn't have the budget at the time to go full boar on extras like a sound card.
Well, based on your experience, I might try to play with my SB card sometime soon and get these new drivers and see how it sounds, it may very well be that the sound quality wasn't good due to software issues, so I'll have to give it another shot, because I like my loud music to sound good, and it does, but if it can sound better...
