>>106255335
>I typed up a long post and lost it all, so here's the shorter version: New mobo has ALC4080 audio codec, and I can tell the audio has changed for some reason from my old build which had ALC897. little more boxy? little more compressed? little more latency? I play music so (I think) have a reasonably good ear. some things I might get used to or get over, but one that's really annoying is a consistent crackle any time I run a program and windows prompts to confirm running. this is just one I've noticed so far. I noticed some mentioned this might be bypassed using optical output, but the crackle happens on both optical and aux outputs. any solutions or am I just fucked? would an audio card really help? is this some kind of shielding/electrical issue maybe? my speakers don't have any hum

The ALC897 only had a SNR of 100dB while the newer 4080 chip had a theoretical range of 120db so if anything your audio should sound clearer and the 870 Tomahawk looks well put together..

1. Did you update all your firmware and (audio) drivers?
2. Download LatencyMon and let it run while doing things that causes the crackle:
https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
Those symptoms sound like a DPC latency storm typically from either a bad driver install/conflict or something like a wonky storage/PCI-E slot