This weekend I had to go out and buy a new sound card for my gaming PC. So I spent $70 and bought a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS.

More info on the card here >> Audigy 2 ZS

I didn't want to buy a new sound card, but I had to. When I built my current gaming PC I tried to save some money by not buying a sound card. Instead I tried to use the on-board sound that came on the motherboard. It was a 5.1 built in card, so I thought it would be good enough. Wrong.

Several issues kept occurring on my lovely PC that would tick me off. First, whenever I would open Windows Media Player, the PC would freeze for about 15 seconds, then the player would open and work just fine. Second, I couldn't get the 5.1 sourround sound to work in a lot of games - mainly Half-Life 2 and Guild Wars. I would instead have to switch the audio options to 2.0 sound.

Finally, the third issue was the worst. My computer would randomly lockup while playing Quake 4 and F.E.A.R. While playing the game, the computer would just lock up and I would have to restart the entire system. With Quake 4 the freezing was minimal and I was eventually able to get through the game. But with F.E.A.R. the game would lock up ever five minutes. Talk about frustrating.

At that time I had no idea why Quake 4 and F.E.A.R. kept locking up, but figured it was an issue with the games themselves. So I went and bought a new sound card to correct the sound issues in Half-Life 2 and Guild Wars. Once the card was installed, I tried Quake 4 and F.E.A.R. again. They both ran perfect, with no issues what so ever. They actually seemed to run smoother. Plus, the other issues with Media Player were gone as well.

Never again will I use an on-board sound card, and I recommend none of you gamers do either.