onboard sound vs. Addon sound card

What would be the advantages/disadvantages of onboard sound vs a sound card? With a sound add on card are there headers for front panels connections.? Would I see/hear a big difference in the sound?

Onboard sound will meet just about everyones needs.

I believe I remember someone mentioning the only time you would need a sound card was when working with audio production. For general surround sound playback, I believe the onboard is more than adequate.

When this was answered in the past they said you would be better off buying better speakers than buying an additional sound card.

I agree - put the money towards some very nice speakers and you'll be much better off. Personally, I've been eyeing the Bose Companion II for a while.

The Realtek HD Audio chipset found on most of the better quality motherboards is a VERY GOOD sound chipset.

It's the speakers that will make the difference for sure. Logitech makes some very good kicka$$ speakers for not too much money.

I am using my onboard soundcard but my hubbie is using an add-on soundcard (soundblaster). The biggest difference I see is that the soundblaster is highly configurable (via the Soundblaster Suite of Programs) compaired to my onboard. For him (the audio nut) it has a ton of features he uses every day that I wouldn't care about nor miss not having. So if your an audio nut that loves to tweak your sound, get an add-on but I feel for most the onboard is great.

Most modern MoBo's have at least 5.1 sound on-board.

And, many have advanced 7.1 audio and many come with pretty sophisticated software for various enhancements and effects.