onboard video and sound?

[earther]

I'm getting close to putting together a new PC. I'm going to piece together some of my current hardware - CD-ROM, floppy etc and someone just gave me and IBM CD-rw/DVD combination drive - pretty cool, huh! I even have an old Compaq Presario that I can gut and recycle the case (it has 3 drive bays, floppy and 2 USB and 1 firewire on the front). I'll need a new motherboard, processor etc.

My specific question is . . . will on-board video and sound cards work for me? I don't do animation or music only Photoshop. I was advised locally that on-board would work quite well for my purposes and save $$ too as I have a tight budget. But I would like some feedback from SitePoint members before making a decision. Anyone? Thanks. earther

[john.stone]

On-board video and sound is fine if you only want to play minesweeper and never plan to have dolby 5.1 audio.

[iluminatae]

Todays high end graphics cards are generally built for 3D/gaming so if you don't plan on playing games or rendering 3D then an onboard video should be ok.

As far as sound goes - again it depends. Alot of newer motherboards are coming out with onboard sound that can do 5.1 audio (albeit slightly poorer than a separate card). Music is another issue altogether - For the sake of your wallet and credit cards don't get into high end audio

[cranial-bore]

Personally I'd prefer a dedicated AGP card. I'm not much of a gamer either, but a cheap AGP card is probably worth the difference over an onboard one IMO.
Sound on the other hand will be fine on board if you're not an Audiophile.

[kaos]

Most onboard video uses system ram, might as well just get a dedicated cheap agp video. As for sound, onboard sound these days are pretty decent IMO.

[iluminatae]

Most onboard video uses system ram, might as well just get a dedicated cheap agp video. As for sound, onboard sound these days are pretty decent IMO.

I never thought about the ram issue That's a really good point.

[earther]

Most onboard video uses system ram, might as well just get a dedicated cheap agp video.

This sounds like good advice but could you please explain a bit more about why this is better and how a video card uses system resources differently than onboard. Sorry to be such a hardware noob.

[iluminatae]

a dedicated graphics card has a processor installed on it so it processes the graphics thingy's separately from the mainboard - ie - more efficient.