Why does the B650 come with the old ALC897?

[Zaiphonx2]

Just wondering why they put Low Entry Soundchip on the boards that around the 200$ ballpark.

[Skiiwee29]

Thats going to be on the Board Manufacture and will likely vary from board to board.

[Dedayog]

3 minutes ago, Zaiphonx2 said:

Just wondering why they put Low Entry Soundchip on the boards that around the 200$ ballpark.

Maybe on some, but the $220 Gigabyte B650 AORUS Pro AX comes with AC1220.

Also, that $200 ballpark IS entry level for AM5 boards, so it kinda makes sense.

[YoungBlade]

Because it saves them money and it's something a lot of people don't notice, so it won't cost them a sale.

 

I hate to sound so cynical with that, but it's the truth...

[Kilrah]

Quite a lot of people don't even use the analog connections on their boards anymore anyway...

[Zando_]

7 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Quite a lot of people don't even use the analog connections on their boards anymore anyway...

^^^ Anyone who does is either me using wired headphones (I don't care it just needs to be decent sound) or is someone who cares and already has their own DAC and everything. 

[RONOTHAN##]

Quite frankly I don't care if my board has no sound chipset on board at all, so if they can knock $5-10 off the cost of the board by using a lower end audio chipset I'm all for it, it's $5-10 I could use for games or something else. I haven't used the on board audio from my motherboard in at least 5 years, either using headsets that plug in with USB or an external, higher quality DAC instead. 

 

Honestly, for me the "perfect" B650 board would end up being a stripped down version of the B650E Tachyon. Keep the same VRM, ditch all but the chipset heatsink (that's the only one that's actually needed), ditch the second 8 pin power connector, ditch the WiFi, ditch the PCIe 5.0 support if it would save money, keep the same memory topology, keep all the same switches, buttons, and internal connectors, and remove the audio chipset. Basically make that board $100 cheaper but keeping everything that makes it good. 

[Lurking]

31 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Quite a lot of people don't even use the analog connections on their boards anymore anyway...

So if my sound comes from my monitor or TV via HDMI or Displayport, then those onboard chips get circumvented? 

What about if I listen to sound via Bluetooth?

 

If those onboard sound chips are just for the 3.5mm analog, they could eliminate them entirely IMHO. I suppose it isn't a big saving, though. And someone will complain. ..

[RONOTHAN##]

13 minutes ago, Lurking said:

So if my sound comes from my monitor or TV via HDMI or Displayport, then those onboard chips get circumvented? 

Yes.

 

13 minutes ago, Lurking said:

What about if I listen to sound via Bluetooth?

The Bluetooth device does the sound processing, circumventing the on board audio chipset as well.

 

19 minutes ago, Lurking said:

If those onboard sound chips are just for the 3.5mm analog, they could eliminate them entirely IMHO. I suppose it isn't a big saving, though. And someone will complain. ..

There's a reason why I'm genuinely confused about people saying "I don't want that board, it's got a bad audio chipset". Most people nowadays don't use it, the people who do use it generally don't care as long as the audio quality isn't complete crap (which it's not, it's not amazing but it's far from terrible), and the people who do care should spend the money they'd spend on a better motherboard on a DAC instead. You could argue that it's nice to have as a backup for whatever reason, but I'm with you, they could completely ditch it and I wouldn't care. 

[YoungBlade]

21 minutes ago, Lurking said:

So if my sound comes from my monitor or TV via HDMI or Displayport, then those onboard chips get circumvented? 

What about if I listen to sound via Bluetooth?

 

If those onboard sound chips are just for the 3.5mm analog, they could eliminate them entirely IMHO. I suppose it isn't a big saving, though. And someone will complain. ..

Yes, you could get rid of them. I'm one of the antiquated folks who uses a wired headset connected to motherboard audio, but I'm not an audiophile, so "crappy motherboard audio" isn't a big deal for me.

[Mister Woof]

Wouldn't worry about it. The biggest thing is going to be making sure it has enough USB ports, fan headers, internal USB, and RGB headers.

[Lurking]

So do I still need to install the audio driver, like the Realtek audio manager for my MB, if idon't use the 3.5mm analog? I only have sound through the HDMI/DP. 

If so, I could get rid of another software that starts up needlessly.... 

[mononymous]

4 minutes ago, Lurking said:

So do I still need to install the audio driver, like the Realtek audio manager for my MB, if idon't use the 3.5mm analog? I only have sound through the HDMI/DP. 

If so, I could get rid of another software that starts up needlessly.... 

No you won't need the Realtek audio manager if you don't have need for the analog connections.

[toasty99]

Yeah, I'm gonna be in the group that doesn't care about the quality of my desktop sound. I'm just gonna use HDMI or USB these days.

 

Where I absolutely do care about sound quality is my cell phone. Anyone who has ever used a LG Android phone near the end like the v10, v20, v30, v40, G5, etc understands that you could use $1 earbuds with an LG phone and get better audio quality than a $100 set of earbuds on Samsung or Apple. It sucks LG couldn't reliably update their phones/support them, because in my opinion that was what did them in not tne products themselves. 

 

 

 

[Lurking]

4 minutes ago, mononymous said:

No you won't need the Realtek audio manager if you don't have need for the analog connections.

Excellent. Just removed mine, restarted, and sound still comes from monitor  

 

Love this forum, learn so much.