Audio Codec question.

[Guest MarcoTheNoob]

Hello, topkek.

 

So, Im finally making my PC in a month, but Im pretty confused about a thing. And said thing is the Audio Codec.

(Here is an important thing, I have been using the audio codec from my crappy laptop all my life, so every good change matters.)

 

I am planning to get one of these mobos, listed below.

1. Gigabyte Aorus B450 Pro
2. ASRock B450M Pro4

Now, the B450M Pro4 is obviously cheaper, but If I want to make an build with the Aorus one it will be only 16$ more expensive.

The ASRock one has the ALC 892 Audio codec.

The Gigabyte one has the ALC 1220-VB Audio codec.

 

So, which one is better?

I will be using the Cooler Master MH752 headset.

Thanks in advance.

[mariushm]

From a technical point of view, ALC1220 would be better because it's newer and supports more things

Has better signal to noise ratio, for example 108dB SNR for ALC 1220 vs 95dB or something like that for ALC 892 (but this doesn't mean anything to you if you use it with 10$ speakers or 20$ headphones ... they'll sound the same to you if you use crap)

However, the final quality also depends on the components AROUND the audio chip (capacitors, filtering, how isolated from the rest of the circuit board is the audio circuit, quality of audio jacks used etc)

 

The Gigabyte board is more expensive because

* it's ATX

* it has an extra pci-e x16 slot (so you have 3 pci-e x16 slots, one running at x16, one at x4, one at x1) - the Asrock has only 1 x16 and 1 x4

* has heatsinks for both m.2 slots

* has what seems to be slightly better heatsinks for the VRM which may help with overclocking - i say may because if the Asrock uses more efficient VRM chips that don't make a lot of heat, then it doesn't need so big heatsinks in the first place ... and while Gigabyte seems to have bigger heatsinks, if they're just chunks of aluminum without fins or ridges, they won't cool efficiently (dissipating heat is about surface area and fins and stuff not just volume)

* you get 5 analogue jacks on the back so you can have a 5.1 audio system AND have line in and microphone jacks. The asrock board has only 3 stereo jacks in back, so if you have a 5.1 speaker system you would need to use the mic and headphones jack in front for line in or microphone or whatever (so gigabyte is more convenient)

* you also get optical out on the gigabyte board, which you could use for example to send digital audio to a TV or a receiver (avoiding the analogue outputs)

* you also get 2 SATA ports more, 6 in total - Asrock has only 4 sata ports

 

The only thing the Asrock has that may matter for some people is the VGA connector on the back - useful for people with ancient LCD monitors, because you can buy a cheap processor with integrated graphics and use a VGA cable with those old 17-21" lcd monitors that have only VGA input.  But it makes sense, people that are so poor or cheap to still have such old monitors won't spend 16$ more on a board like that Gigabyte model.

 

 

PS. Those headphones can connect with either USB or regular analogue jacks. If you use usb then you avoid the sound card completely (the headphones have a sound card inside them basically). If you use the analogue jacks, then sound card will matter.