"Dell Vostro 1700" and audio

I'm thinking of buying this laptop (as a desktop replacement), which is absolutely perfect for my needs apart from one thing:

I've got some nice external speakers and listen to a lot of music so decent onboard sound is vital. I'm not sure if the Vostro 1700 quite steps up to this task, and seeing as it's aimed at the business market I doubt it puts high quality audio on its checklist. I could be wrong though.

Any knowledge and/or opinions on this matter?

Thanks.

 

its standard intel HD audio on an iCH8.

!!!Hey Vostro 1700 owners -> anybody heard any static from your system (like 1520?)

 

What are your "nice speakers?"

The onboard is decent, its the same as the inspirons.

 

i just went ahead and bought a Creative external audio USB card for my 5.1 system..

 

I used to have the static, but after tweaking to fix the cpu whine it has disappeared. Think the Rightmark CPU utility is to be thanked for that.

 

I don't think the built in audio of any laptop is 'high-quality'. If you want high-quality audio, get a discrete soundcard of some sort.

 

Buying an external card won't matter unless you order with XP. All it would do would be eliminate the hiss that you get out of the default Headphone out, and i'm not even sure it would do that as i have yet to try one.

 

Thanks for the responses!

@nizzy1115

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/home_pc_speakers/devices/250&cl=gb,en

I was just unsure whether the sound quality would be deteriorated by playing through a laptop's onboard sound. From what I see in these responses, it probably won't make any real difference unless I have a very expensive surround sound system.

 

Might be a bit over the top for just listening...but you won't go wrong with an M-Audio Transit.

http://www.maudio.co.uk/products/en_gb/Transit-main.html

 

Maybe so, but if you asked in a more audio dominated forum, then the responses you would get would be very different.

That said, I guess it will be pretty good for your needs. Just not hi-fi.