I have finally gotten some audio to come out of my speakers, but it is extremely faint. I am not experiencing the static that some other users have complained about.

Will installing the Realtek Codec fix this? Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks

What speakers do you use? Some obaord sound won't well with certain speakers unless there is an amplifer in the speakers.

yes you should be using amplified speakers for the best sound (even though the output is amplified already), also refer to page 25 in the asus manual to ensure that you are connecting to the sound jacks correctly. (for a simple speaker set your jack should be plugged into the 'Line Out' jack which is lime in color)

a new driver from Realtek may improve the sound