INTEL On-Board Sound

[RDSaustinTX]

Thanks to HTC for making me keep my hardware current. I am a slob about updating. New box parts arriving today:
 
P4/3.0EGHz (Northwood) w/ 1Mb L2 800MHz FSB
Intel D865PERLL w/ ICH5R (native RAID, USB, Firewire)
Buffalo DDR 512|PC3200 x 2 (1 Gb)
ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 256Mb
7200 rpm SATA Seagate 80 Gb w/ 8 Mb x 2 (RAID 0)
7200 rpm IDE Seagate Barracudas 160 Gb + 120 Gb
Rosewill DVD/CDRW   Sony 1.44 FD
Windows XP Pro
Aspire Alien Case w/ 420W ATX12V
 
What I am wondering is ANYBODY using Intel on-board sound?
 
I realize this mobo is a Volvo 240 compared to most, but I have a real hard-on for Intel. The '97 soundmax and sonic focus on-board sound is the only on-board stuff that really still gets rave reviews, albeit from music buffs.
 
I use logitech 5.1 speaker system and can scab live!5.1 board if necessary off old machine.
 
mullah

[Skuzzy]

FYI:  The 3.0E Pentium is a Prescott (also 1MB of L2) and not a Northwood (512K of L2).  The Northwoods are designated 'C'.  I hope you have lots of cooling if you are, indeed, getting an 'E'.

Honestly, I would spend the $88 on a SB Audigy 2 ZS card for that.  Onboard sound will always incur more CPU overhead than a dedicated sound card will.

Between the Live! and onboard, it is a toss up.  Although the Live! has been around longer (does not make it better, just older), it has very poor driver support compared to the Audigy line.

[zmeg]

You should have enough CPU power to run the onboard with no problem and it should sound just as good as the SB live, however if you do get sound stutters in AH2 then install the SB live.

[RDSaustinTX]

Ooops. Yeah it's a Prescott. Added 3 fans and used Arctic Silver. Idles at 47C, toasty!
 
Thanks for info, my Live!5.1 has been flawless, heard Audigy was having driver problems too. Will plug it all in and give an update.
 
Mucous Grassass,
 
mullah