Best Motherboards for Audio

Analyzing reviews from 74 Sites…

56 out of 56 products found

Sort By

Overall Audio Ease Of Installation Gaming Performance Reliability More ▼

64 Bit Core 2 Duo Dual High Definition Htpc Linux Onboard Video Quality Video Editing Windows

For Audio, people talk about

performance
price
reliability
ease of installation

Price (Go)

Brand: Select

Features: Select

Creative Technology SB Titanium Fatal1ty Pro PCIe

$144.00 Est. at Amazon

from jdillnger, www.newegg.com
i was using my onboard sound with my logitch 5.1 system and i thought it was loud untill i installed this today i have to say wow!
from N/A, www.newegg.com
other thoughts: i didn't but this at newegg, best buy at the time had it for only 100 dollars so i go it there and was blown away with the crystal clear sound.
from ubernator44, www.newegg.com
other thoughts: i was sceptical at first, you know, my mobo is no flake, it has hd built in sound and all, its nice.
from N/A, www.newegg.com
i got it when it was on sale so i thought it was a great buy, but what sold me the most is that i wanted a creative sound card w/ optical in and out, which this card has.
from Masta, www.newegg.com
i thought it was bull at first, until i started to research it a bit, and found out that my asus maximus x38 supreme fx ii was nothing more that a riser card and still using onboard sound.

Read more reviews

Positives: High Quality, Easy To Install, Excellent Performance, Compatible Processors: AMD Athlon, Intel Pentium

2 RECOMMENDED by 33 people for AUDIO

Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H 991443028

$156.00 Est. at Amazon

from Andrew, Oklahoma, www.newegg.com
+ esata+ 1394, obsolete, but you don't now when you might need it+ onboard audio is competitive with even the best soundblaster product, for most common uses.+ 4 slots for ram.
from pcrow, www.newegg.com
i'm using this for mythtv, and almost everything on the board is recognized by linux just fine, though it requires a fairly recent kernel to get sound working.
from quotaholic, www.newegg.com
dont know how true that is however when it was there the sound was great.
from Shakyone, www.newegg.com
it looks like it would be the geforce 9m on the supported devices listing, however that download only gives you an hdmi audio option when you run the installer, and i'm not sure it was the right one.
from mainedan, www.newegg.com
hdmi sound works as long as you install the driver for it.

Read more reviews

Positives: Easy To Install, Good Performance, Great Reliability, Socket LGA775

3 RECOMMENDED by 17 people for AUDIO

Gigabyte GA-EP43-UD3L

$91.00 Est. at Amazon

from N/A, www.newegg.com
analog and optical audio out.
from Fredzo, www.newegg.com
i can use the front usb ports on my case with the 2 usb headers and the front audio as well.
from N/A, www.newegg.com
his tiny little fingers did just fine.only other problem i'm having is that the onboard sound does not work.
from Mike, www.newegg.com
other thoughts: has pretty much any feature you could want, including digital audio out.
from Smoof, www.newegg.com
oh, and the onboard audio is actually pretty good too.

Read more reviews

Positives: Easy To Install, Great Reliability, Nice Performance, Socket LGA775

4 RECOMMENDED by 17 people for AUDIO

Gigabyte P45 DDR2-1333X4 UD3 CPNT1PCIEX16 4PCIE

$119.00 Est. at Amazon

from jonny boy, www.newegg.com
it is high quality, and offers great audio capabilities and as you see can run lots of memory.
from ExMagus, www.newegg.com
other thoughts: intel core 2 duo 2.8ghzrunning windows 7 ultimate x64 with gigabyte beta 64 audio and lan drivers.to install the previous turn off uac, otherwise you'll have problems in the install.i
from gamefreakjtb, www.newegg.com
other thoughts: i hate people that say flashing the bios is hard and they can't do it...eegiuts...wiked easy to update, windows recognised everything but the audio and lan.
from yalej, www.newegg.com
manual also very clear.has 2 pci slots, which is just what i needed for my "legacy" cards (a sound card and a wireless nic).bios is great, and has a recovery option you can use.
from N/A, www.newegg.com
especially the user complaing about 5.1 audio not working.

Read more reviews

Positives: Easy To Install, Good Performance, Great Reliability, Compatible Processors: Intel Celeron, Intel Core2 Duo, Intel Core2 Extreme, Intel Core2 Quad

5 RECOMMENDED by 19 people for AUDIO

ASUS Maximus II Formula Intel P45 Core 2 Extreme

$270.00 Est. at Amazon

from Madcat, www.newegg.com
beware of it!the sound card is below average and requires all this useless,memory eating, software to run.
from www.amazon.com
opt_fan1 connector is underneath sound card, and opt_temp3 connector is so close to sound card bracket that it almost shorts out.
from RAM, www.newegg.com
borrowed cd from a friend with the same board and his was also badly warped but was readable (though it made a horrible sound in my drive and took forever to copy).- asus website is very slow and
from Zedaine, www.newegg.com
comes with a very nice sound card, and it glows...ooooooo...
from www.amazon.com
the mobo, and sound card that comes with it, lights up, and if you have a case with a window, it looks good.

Read more reviews

Positives: Excellent Performance, Easy To Install, Good Reliability, Socket LGA775

ASRock A780GXH/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX

$94.00 Est. at Amazon

from Yuffiek133, www.newegg.com
hdmi works perfectly so no need for extra sound cables and it plays 1080p movies and games.
from Jaymer, www.newegg.com
everything from sound to video to drives just worked!
from Kyle, www.newegg.com
all sorts of onboard (sound, video, hdmi, etc) i don't use, but good to be there.2x pcie x16 @ 16 (crossfirex)phenom ii capability cons: pcie x16 2.0 slots are close together.
from N/A, www.newegg.com
cannot get audio headers to work.
from Moohasha, www.newegg.com
=)- has hdmi_spdif jumper to stream audio through your hdmi output, so you can run audio and video to an hdtv with one cable.

Read more reviews

Positives: Excellent Performance, Easy To Install, Great Reliability, Socket AM2

Gigabyte G31 DDR2-800X2 VGA EES PCIE16 2PCIE PCI

$67.00 Est. at Amazon

from BigDaddy, www.newegg.com
still it's better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.one thing that annoyed me was the location of the front panel audio header.
from SpAiD, www.newegg.com
went with the gigabyte just because it looks better in the windowed case, but the asus at the same price, had 7.1 channel audio on the back panel.
from N/A, www.newegg.com
onboard audio and video plenty powerful for casual games and music use.
from N/A, www.newegg.com
onboard sound and graphics are nice to have to fall back on if needed, but don't plan on being able to play games with gma 3100, its not going to happen.
from Sam, www.newegg.com
very nice sound.

Read more reviews

Positives: Nice Performance, Nice Reliability, Easy To Install, Socket LGA775

Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P

$238.00 Est. at Amazon

from ZFMax, www.newegg.com
it's a sound insulated case for an htpc.
from Gene, www.newegg.com
other thoughts: overall i feel this is a good motherboard for a digital audio workstation.
from A Sus Defector, www.newegg.com
less than my i7 extreme.the front audio header is a the rear of the board meaning the cable has to be run across the board to plug it in...so one engineer's brain shorted out on the audio header...
from TJ, www.newegg.com
the 8 pin atx power connector has to reach all the way across, as well as the audio connector.
from RPD_MERCENARY, www.newegg.com
sound quality is fairly good to for being integrated.

Read more reviews

Positives: Good Performance, Easy To Install, Excellent Reliability, Socket AM2

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P

$169.00 Est. at Amazon

from Kruton, www.newegg.com
i didn't even try it in vista64.the energy saver software, once activated caused extremely high dpc latencies resulting in crackling audio and sluggish performance in vista64.
from Jo3f1sh, www.newegg.com
i've noticed the asus boards bring both pci-e 16x slots up a bit which probably would have worked better for me.that said, the slot arrangements negate the use of my pci soundcard which i much prefer
from Fuzzy Logic, www.newegg.com
when connecting the front panel sound and microphone it does not shut off the rear panel connectors.
from hey_U, www.newegg.com
did i mention it overclocks very well....system specsq6600 3.6 -3.7 ghz (air thermal management, g0 stepping)4gb corsair dominator cm2x1024-8500c5dc-media cmi8788 audio chip pci(claro halo ht omega
from Bruce, www.newegg.com
audio drivers are supposed to have a new update according to the web but i have yet to find them on the mfr's website.

Read more reviews

Positives: Easy To Install, Nice Reliability, Nice Performance, Socket LGA775

Intel D945GCLF 533FSB DDR2 667 533 Audio Video

$98.00 Est. at Amazon

from Raz1r, www.newegg.com
i had a low buzz with the onboard audio the first two days though it has left now.
from Buford, www.newegg.com
other thoughts: i can't comment on the sound or video as i have audio disabled and have no need to use a monitor with it beyond the initial setup as neither is needed for a headless server.
from Rick, www.newegg.com
sound is nice using boston acustic ba 635 speakers.
from kulaid982, www.newegg.com
small, quick processor, low power consumption, sata, integrated video and audio.
from na, www.newegg.com
works fine with windows2000-sp4 including the onboard sound.

Read more reviews

Positives: Excellent Performance, Easy To Install, Great Reliability, Socket 771

Asustek S775 INTEL P45 DDR2 ATX AUDIO LAN P5Q PRO

$138.00 Est. at Amazon

from N/A, www.newegg.com
silicon image raidez backupez flashvariety of connectors, soundfully compatible with linux suse 11.1 (defulat installation)easy overclocking (i played with it, but i am not using it) cons: i
from Scotland Tom, www.newegg.com
my only current problem is that the onboard sound seems to have difficulty with microphone pickup - it's extremely quiet.
from NASA, www.newegg.com
it just takes longer to translate and understand what in the hell you are selling you marketing droids.using the other novelty feature, for a quick boot to internet explorer sound nice; however, you
from simon_lefisch, www.newegg.com
purchased it for my audio production workstation.
from J-T, www.newegg.com
plenty of expansion slots and on-board raid controller.audio chipset and realtek audio installed without a hitch and performing great.

Read more reviews

Positives: Socket LGA775, Compatible Processors: Intel Celeron, Intel Core2 Duo, Intel Core2 Extreme, Intel Core2 Quad, Memory Type: DDR2 SDRAM, Number of Memory Slots: 4 x DIMMs

ASUS MB P5KPL-CM C2D LGA775 INTELG31 ICH7 DDR2

$56.00 Est. at Amazon

from E-Lizzle, www.newegg.com
the onboard graphical specs aren't bad either and are, in fact, better on this noard than some $100 boards, and it has onboard 8 channel sound.
from www.amazon.com
it work great only problem i had with it is the sound use via chepset and my pci dvr recording card does not like via chipset
from justpassedAplus, www.newegg.com
i've been able to play my ea sports games as smooth as xbox 360.nic and sound both work which was a scare because on my last asus sound was dead.i'm very happy but i hope it lasts me more then 3 years
from asperation, www.newegg.com
(only because it had a 1394 up front)....less than $100 total.(really folks) this hp came with lots of extras like front card reader and in and out audio as well as the firewire for video, so it was
from Grawlix Computing, www.newegg.com
it has both ps/2 ports, and a full set of audio ports -- a corner that's sometimes cut on budget boards.

Read more reviews

Positives: Great Reliability, Easy To Install, Excellent Performance, Socket LGA775

ASUS M3A76-CM

$70.00 Est. at Amazon

from skyblue, www.newegg.com
put the board in my htcp atx case...ready to run the phenom ii 955 out of the box.mine had no issues installs vista fast...the via audio has dts, not dolby disconect but more than what i thought
from Randall, www.newegg.com
audio adapter was far away from the front audio connector in an antec 300 case--the hd audio connector wouldn't reach by a few inches and the ac97 audio connector barely made it.
from Frank, www.newegg.com
well marked, good documentation, excellent on-board audio and video (thus far).
from BenKlingon, www.newegg.com
sound-card is decent and there is an spdif header, digital out for the integrated graphics which are pretty good (can run tf2 at acceptable quality settings = happy camper).
from OFaceSIG, www.newegg.com
also using an sb x-fi so no need for fancy onboard audio anyway.

Read more reviews

Positives: Easy To Install, Excellent Performance, Great Reliability, Socket AM2+

EVGA X58 LGA1366 Intel ATX SLI 132-BL-E758-A1

EVGA X58 LGA1366 Intel ATX SLI Motherboard (132-BL-E758-A1)

$396.00 Est. at Amazon

from Dukie, www.newegg.com
theslots for usb, 1394 and other wire slots are directly under the 3rd pci-e card area so it makes it a very close situation if you use 3 sli cards.the backplate for the audio/usb etc was heavily
from Dr Cpp, www.newegg.com
some better documentation on that would have been nice.-no built in blue tooth.-on board sound card doesn't support dts connect, contrary to the statement on the realtek website that says it does
from Nowaynoverberwhat, www.newegg.com
the hd audio connector is placed where it will be inaccessible should you decide to run sli 16x/16x, top and middle slot, with dual slot cards (2 gtx 285s for example).
from Slim, www.newegg.com
it has coax digital audio out which i was super happy about.
from N/A, www.newegg.com
the front panel sound connection is on the opposite side as well...which means stringing cables across your board if you want to use it(mine dont even reach it in my abs diablo adv).

Read more reviews

Positives: Easy To Install, Excellent Reliability, Great Performance, Memory Type: DDR3 SDRAM

ASUS Skt 775 Atx P45 ICH10R 1600MHZ 4719543162576

$186.00 Est. at Amazon

from www.amazon.com
this motherboard has it all including dual gigabit lan, 6 sata ii ports, 10 usb ports,express gate, 8-channel high definition audio and all the over clocking features you could want.
from tweek, www.newegg.com
i've used easy flash and it worked perfectly, as did the front audio.
from Ryan Gardner, www.newegg.com
this sucks because i want to use it to pass audio out through my video card's hdmi.
from N/A, www.newegg.com
a removable soundcard would be better than built in option as it isn't very good.
from Forrest, www.newegg.com
a bios setting needs to be changed to allow sata drives to be recognized (can't recall the setting); and the board was missing support for both the ethernet and sound card is every distro i tried.

Read more reviews

Positives: Easy To Install, Nice Reliability, Nice Performance, Socket LGA775

ASUS MBD UATX SOCK 775 1 PCIE-X16 2PCI VGA AUD

$151.00 Est. at Amazon

from N/A, www.newegg.com
plugged this into sony sound bar,,,,it was a plug and play.
from Watercooled, www.newegg.com
not sure how it happened but both realtech and nvidia audio drivers were installed.
from N/A, www.newegg.com
nice hdmi audio (nvidia).
from CabinetMaker, www.newegg.com
i did have some trouble getting the simple sound system not to echo/reverb.
from Noxx, www.newegg.com
surround sound is great.

Read more reviews

Positives: Compatible Processors: Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium D, Intel Core2 Duo, Intel Core2 Extreme, Intel Core2 Quad, Memory Type: DDR2 SDRAM, Number of Memory Slots: 4 x DIMMs

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H

$97.00 Est. at Amazon

from kolop1, www.newegg.com
it supports 1080p through hdmi and can even run sound through it.
from gloryroad, www.newegg.com
a solid dual monitor video card, a solid sound card and the wired network adapter all on-board a smooth running motherboard (so far) for only $65 with rebate.i'm not pushing the envelop with fancy
from ajeauxdn, www.newegg.com
this board has plenty of options and lots of connections for fans, front audio, more than enough sata ports etc.
from glenngds, www.newegg.com
i believe that all is needed is a better audio driver.
from M sound, www.newegg.com
onboard sound is good also.

Read more reviews

Positives: Good Performance, Easy To Install, High Quality, Socket AM2

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P

$325.00 Est. at Amazon

from RayJ, www.newegg.com
those timings won't hold if i overclock but should run fine at defaults.the main reason i got the board was because it included hd audio, onboard raid, 8 sata connections, 8 usb and support 24gb of
from Ben, www.newegg.com
when i updated the drivers, it disabled the ethernet port as well as the audio drivers.
from Dave, www.newegg.com
yes, it does take sometime (about 10 secs) from power-on to the post screen, but this doesn't really bother me much.descent on board sound.
from N/A, www.newegg.com
(fluff= higher quality audio card, extra lan port, etc.)comprehensive biosheatsinks aren't in the way for any configuration of video cards no matter how many or how big.
from N/A, www.newegg.com
on-board dolby audio is amazing; decided not to bother with a sound card.

Read more reviews

Positives: Easy To Install, Excellent Reliability, High Quality, Memory Type: DDR3 SDRAM

FOXCONN A74MX-K AMD 740G AM2+/AM2 Phenom

$51.00 Est. at Amazon

from CMM programmer, www.newegg.com
put together in an old dell case - the front usb and audio panel connectors worked with this motherboard.
from Shawn, www.newegg.com
the audio ports perform adequately, again based on my intended uses, and the board supported it's advertised cpu without a hitch.the bios is easy to navigate and features are clearly labeled and easy
from Longshanks, www.newegg.com
as it stands, my 3870 dual slot gpu takes up one pci slot, so if the onboard sound goes south, i'll have to come up with a single slot card, or use onboard video.
from Kamaaina, www.newegg.com
gige lan, audio, vga hd 2100, all works fine.
from KTL, www.newegg.com
added a 4350 card with hdmi output and had no problems connecting to a lcd with just the hdmi cable, providing both video and audio.

Read more reviews

Positives: Easy To Install, Excellent Reliability, Excellent Performance, Socket AM2

M4n72-e - ASUSTEK COMPUTER 90-MIB750-G0EAY00Z

$139.00 Est. at Amazon

from JDiffy, www.newegg.com
even though it's not listed on the site, the box says it all!+ amazing onboard audio!
from JimmyJ302, www.newegg.com
the onboard sound is quite impressive for what it is and it has hd audio.
from Dakean, www.newegg.com
runs at a good temp for my build 35 c no load cons: only real con was the onboard sound is kinda crackly but other than that the fact that the #5 and #6 sata ports can only be used in raid is
from s1ave_one, www.newegg.com
the s-pdif and 6 external usb are great as is the hd audio.
from smooney3, www.newegg.com
other thoughts: i'm currently running a phenom 9850, 4gb of 800mhz geil ram, evga gtx 295, 500gb hdd, and an x-fi titanium fatal1ty pro sound card in an nzxt tempest case.

Read more reviews

Positives: Great Performance, Easy To Install, Nice Reliability, Socket AM2

1 2 3 Next

Also Try:

More ▼

Not What You Need? Try:

More ▼

Electronics

Motherboards

Best Motherboards for Audio

Creative Technology SB Titanium Fatal1ty Pro PCIe

Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H 991443028

Gigabyte GA-EP43-UD3L

Gigabyte P45 DDR2-1333X4 UD3 CPNT1PCIEX16 4PCIE

ASUS Maximus II Formula Intel P45 Core 2 Extreme

ASRock A780GXH/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX

Gigabyte G31 DDR2-800X2 VGA EES PCIE16 2PCIE PCI

Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P

Intel D945GCLF 533FSB DDR2 667 533 Audio Video

Asustek S775 INTEL P45 DDR2 ATX AUDIO LAN P5Q PRO

ASUS MB P5KPL-CM C2D LGA775 INTELG31 ICH7 DDR2

ASUS M3A76-CM

EVGA X58 LGA1366 Intel ATX SLI 132-BL-E758-A1

ASUS Skt 775 Atx P45 ICH10R 1600MHZ 4719543162576

ASUS MBD UATX SOCK 775 1 PCIE-X16 2PCI VGA AUD

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P

FOXCONN A74MX-K AMD 740G AM2+/AM2 Phenom

M4n72-e - ASUSTEK COMPUTER 90-MIB750-G0EAY00Z

Celeron

Wireless

Water Cooling

Price

Sound

Top Brands

More Brands

Socket Type

Compatible Processors

Memory Type

Number of Memory Slots

Chipset