[primus]

hi guys,

I've been browsing and reading a bit, but still am unsure of what to do. Anyway, I currently use the onboard sound which comes with my nForce2 board (SoundStorm) and it seems decent enough powering my DT 531's by itself - a decent cheapish amp like a pimeta may be on the way but thats a different issue.

I'm thinking about getting a sound card but am unsure what to get. The Chaintech seems to be getting rave reviews on here but I'm not sure of what availability's like here in Australia. How's the Chaintech for gaming? Will it be much better than my current onboard (read SoundStorm) solution?

What other (reasonably affordable) cards are out there which will serve my purposes for gaming, movies and music.

Thanks for reading

 

[Wodgy]

Look into the Terratec Aureon Sky or Aureon Space (not the Aureon Fun).

 

[Kush_]

How much are you willing to spend?

 

[halcyon]

How hardcore gamer are you? Do you play first person shoot'em ups? Do you care about frame rates?

How important is music quality to you? How important is bit-accurate output to you?

 

[primus]

hi guys, thanks for the replies thus far.

hmmm willing to spend say up to $200US (EDIT: errr maybe not.... would be sub $200 by a fair margin I'd say

) I guess, but preferably cheaper than that

Hardcore? I wouldn't say that but I definitely play more games than I should

. Minimal CPU usage would be great but it isn't overly important - I've got a pretty decent PC anyhow.

I'm pretty fussy about music quality too, but I don't know all that much about "bit-accurate output" and the like. But basically, all my music is CD quality so I'd like to keep it as close to that as possible I guess

What's the difference between those two Aureon cards?

cheers

 

[Kush_]

I am also in Perth WA. The E-MU 1212m is probably out of your budget but It cost me ~$430AUD to have my E-MU 1212m sent over to me. Gaming wise its fine, I play a lot of Firstperson shooter games and the extra CPU power that the card probably uses goes completely unnoticed. It's not an issue with most CPU's today.

 

[primus]

yep, that's a far way out of my budget

I better change that US$ figure... I'm not sure what prices are like over there compared to here that's why I made it rather generous. But ideally, if I were to go down the the shop and buy one, I wouldn't want to spend much more than $200 AU.

 

[kalzone]

hmmm... see you can nab a AudioTrak Prodigy 7.1. it's on par with the M-Audio Revo 7.1
or some people have gone with the Chaintack AV-710. it's very cheap here in the US ~ $30 at most.

 

[Mr.Radar]

www.compgeeks.com carries the AV-710 and WILL ship to Australia

 

[primus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Radar www.compgeeks.com carries the AV-710 and WILL ship to Australia

But will this card be better than the SoundStorm onboard sound that I use? Can anyone speak from experience with both? I take it this card is great for gaming as well as music?


Thanks

 

[Mr.Radar]

For a mini-comparison of the NF7-S onboard audio (SoundStorm is only the name of the digital output processor (which is very nice), it really uses the crappy Realtek ALC650 AC'97 CODEC for analog output), see my "AV-710 first impressions" thread. In short: the AV-710 has more clearity, wayyy better highs, and it could be the placebo effect, but I believe the bass has a stronger punch and overall the AV-710 seems more dynamic.

 

[primus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Radar For a mini-comparison of the NF7-S onboard audio (SoundStorm is only the name of the digital output processor (which is very nice), it really uses the crappy Realtek ALC650 AC'97 CODEC for analog output), see my "AV-710 first impressions" thread. In short: the AV-710 has more clearity, wayyy better highs, and it could be the placebo effect, but I believe the bass has a stronger punch and overall the AV-710 seems more dynamic.

Thanks mate. That's almost enough for me. SO basically the chaintech card is the best value for money by a long way? How much
better would these more expensive alternatives be? (eg. the aureon series, the M-audio card in this range, maybe even the sonic fury santa cruz or whatever that newer model which is available is called)

And is the Chaintech's gaming performance pretty decent as well? Thanks!

 

[james__bean]

I use the Chaintech AV-710 in games and it runs fine for me. But then again, I only use it with headphones. The one thing that I think you get by going with the M-Audio Revolution, Audiotrack Prodigy, or the Aurean Sky is that they have better dacs on all of the speaker outputs. With the Chaintech you have to use the Hi-Res mode to use the quality dacs. The sound quality between all of these cards is going to be pretty similar since they all use the 24-HT chip. (Chaintech uses the the 24-HT-s though)

 

[james__bean]

Oh, and the Chaintech definitely sounds better than Soundstorm with the digital output. I've A/B compared them myself and the Chaintech definitely wins. If you're using the analog output on your onboard sound, the difference will be even greater. If you want to see some rightmark analysis between soundstorm and the chaintech you can find them here. I hope Iron-Dreamer doesn't mind that I linked to it.

 

[halcyon]

If you play games with DirectSound3D streams, 3D positioning, want EAX or use multiple speakers, then don't get a non-gamers card (e.g. EMU 1212M, RME, etc) which don't support DirectSound3D streams.

If all you want from games is "sound" and don't matter about environmental effects, amount of streams, cpu hit or 3d positioning accuracy, then I'd suggest considering Chaintec AV or EMU as recommended above.

If you want to learn more about 3D sound in games, go to www.3dss.com and read a few reviews there. They are somewhat old, but the information hasn't gotten out of date for most part.