Onboard Audio vs dedicated sound card

[Cloud121]

Yeah. My pc board has a built in 7.1 surround with optical out. I've had it connected to the 5.1 in my livingroom and it sounds great.

I'd stick with using the 3rd slot for a physx card. Your power supply isn't enough to handle 3 cards and even (2) GTX 550's is really pushing it. I have a GTS 250 in one of my PCs, and it requires a 475 Watt powersupply. My other PC has a 750 watt powersupply and (2) GTX 460s in sli; it really heats up when the cards start to push it.

My current setup is a 650 watt power supply with three GTS 250s set in 3-way SLI mode. The 550 Tis have less power requirements than the GTS 250s (110 watts vs 150 watts).

My old LGA775 board has a Realtek ALC888S HD audio codec chipset that works very well, even with line out and it also supports S/SDIF. I don't run my sound through my video cards. I run it directly from the audio outputs of my PC board, even when I'm using 2.1 surround (line-out) on my desktop.

http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/p...n=4&ProdID=141

That's mine as well. LGA 775 socket with the exact same Realtek chip.