8300 System Sound

Question

Purchased a 8300 system online last week and selected a Audigy2 sound card as you had to select either a SBLive or Audigy2 sound card to proceed with the order, to my suprise when the system arrived it had the onboard sound disabled, it says nothing about intergrated sound above where it says intergrated 10/100 so expected the system to be shipped without onboard sound like my 8200 system I go a few years ago, if I had known that there was onboard sound I wouldn't have spent the extra $100 for the card.

Does all of the 8300 models have onboard sound?

I wish Dell would be honest about their system configurations and a week later Dell releases the 3.4GHz with a 1mb cache and I brought the 3.4GHz with the 512KB cache.

Whats on my des · Answer

Yes, the 8300 comes standard with onboard sound.  It works fine for general use and games; you probably want the upgrades if you are an audiophile.

datsun240z · Answer

That's a good sound card - although maybe more than you need.

Phone up Dell and complain about the CPU - possibly they will swap in the 1 Mb version for you. You could send the system back and re-order.

talmy · Answer

The 1MB cache processor is the new 'Prescott'. Sometimes it performs faster than the older 500kB cache 'Northwood' processor. Sometimes it is slower. Unless you run benchmarks, you will not notice the difference. The Prescott does generate more heat so will cause the fans to run harder and will use more electricity. Intel charges the same price for either processor.

SidBord · Answer

I intentionally DID NOT order a sound card for my new 8300. I figured if the integrated sound was too bad, I'd just cannibalize the sound card out of my old Dell. I gotta say, if you like to play/listen to music, you won't like the integrated sound. It's OK for 'You've got mail', but music sounds awful. No I haven't gotten around to installing my old sound card yet . . . in fact I'm not sure it's OK to do that. It's about 5 or 6 years old.

Locked Topics – Desktops General

8300 System Sound

Was this post helpful?