Using Integrated Audio used to be a source of shame for those that had to use it in the not too distant past.  That started to change with nVIDIA’s Soundstorm and it has only improved since then.  InsideHW has rounded up a fair number of onboard sound solutions, representing the market as it stands today.  They tested them on multiple uses, including gaming, so that you can see the difference in performance between the various chips as well as how they fare against the Creative X-Fi Music.

“In the beginning of era of integrated sound cards, they weren’t for any recommendation because of many troubles. Even though the sound quality on certain models was satisfactory, by purchasing quality speakers, you could notice difference in sound quality compared to quality nonintegrated sound cards. There were even some relatively “bad” models of C-media nonintegrated sound cards with better sound quality. Beside sound quality there were also some problems with too big noise, as also sound interruptions during reproduction of audio contents (if someone remembers well known “integrated” PC-Chips motherboards in their own time)…”

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Audio Corner