Soundstorm

[Trickle]

I think theres normally a bigger price difference than that m8. So far the nforce boards haven't been niggle either have they? So some might prefer a board with no onboard sound and a dedicated sound card. I don't see what Intel has to do with it you can get AMD boards without onboard sound.

Dont understand your point here. I bought a non Deluxe A7N8X with what turned out to be shocking realtech onboard sound. I later bought an NF7s with the Nividia sound enabled.

Manufacturers make different revisions of NF2 boards, but they tend to have more differences than just the realtech vs nvidia sound alone. My guestimate of £5 was my take on how much you pay extra for the better Nvidia sound enabled.

This is not a Intel Vs AMD discussion this is a SoundStorm vs Hercules GameSurround Fortissimo II discussion. No?

Thats me going off topic, but what level of sound you want is something that every Intel purchaser has to decide, where as with AMD people the choice is alot clearer as high performance low cpu 5 channel gaming sound comes almost for free. Buy an NF2 board with the mcpt (sp?) sound and dont waste cash on the audigy unless you are an audiophile or musician. If you are a standard gamer with a standard sound system then you arnt going to be bothered about the minor difference in quality from the analogue input discussed above.

[sparky191]

Well like you said generally when you buy a Soundforce board they come with a lot of other extras, like the onboard VGA etc. So the price difference can be €100 - £50 between a soundforce board and a plain (nothing onboard), board. But I doubt £5 is even the difference in cost of manufacturing, even when manufactured in great volume.

Having the onboard 5 digital channel gaming sounds great, but in practise how many users have a 5 speaker set up around their PC? Only the hardcore I reckon. For me personally I couldn't stand all the wires that are involved, and I simply don't have the space to position the speakers to do them justice. I have my own office aswell. Personally I use the analog a lot more than the digital, and I'd be more concerned with my audio than the sounds in my games. Then theres the fact that I use headphones a lot. (Can you get digital earphones?)

I have had lots of minor niggles with having lots of onboard stuff on a motherboard in the past. These days on PC's that I don't want to have to tweak and tweak to get working I go for plain jane components as I find they are pretty bullet proof stability wise. The Intel solutions are generally better in this regard, though I also have AMD rigs that have been very stable too.

But for a gamers rig and for one that you want a lot of integrated stuff on it, the AMD soundstorm can't be beat especially if you are price sensitive at all. For 90% of scenerios the audio of the SoundStorm is as good as you want or need for anything.

So in answer to the original question "Will the onboard SoundStorm on the Asus A7N8X Deluxe be as good/worse/better in terms of quality than a Hercules GameSurround Fortissimo II soundcard?" I'd say its as good if not better for most things. Unless you an audiophile with a lot of analog gear. Even then only a really top end Audio card would have any advantages and it would be rubbish at gaming them. If I was buying a new AMD motherboard now it would be one with SoundStorm definately.

[digitalis]

For gaming / dvd / movie playback / etc. the soundstorm is better, and has a more "immersive" sound.
For working with the audio - i.e. recording/mixing/etc, the Hercules is better.
I've got both, and switch between the two, depending on what I'm doing.

S.

[shiato storm]

i have the a7n8x dlx and it seems to work pretty well, no complaints really...

[sparky191]

Originally posted by digitalis
For gaming / dvd / movie playback / etc. the soundstorm is better, and has a more "immersive" sound.
For working with the audio - i.e. recording/mixing/etc, the Hercules is better.
I've got both, and switch between the two, depending on what I'm doing.

S.

What speakers are you running them through?

[digitalis]

What speakers are you running them through?

Headphones. (just a standard Sony pair, if that makes any difference.)

S.

[sparky191]

Originally posted by digitalis
Headphones. (just a standard Sony pair, if that makes any difference.)

S.

Speaker and headphones make a huge difference to the subjective quality of the sound. I was just curious thats all. I see that you can get a pair of surround sound speakers now.

http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/ZM-RS6F.htm

That looks kinda interesting no? OcUK are selling them.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal..._headsets.html

[bluephi1914]

how can i take advantage of the digital sound.. my Abit nf7-s doesnt play when i have the digital option checked.. but it plays when i have analog checked

[Enverex]

Originally posted by bluephi1914
how can i take advantage of the digital sound.. my Abit nf7-s doesnt play when i have the digital option checked.. but it plays when i have analog checked

You need to have a Digital Reciever hooked up to the digital port on the sound card.

NS

[bluephi1914]

and how much do those revievers cost..

and wich one would you recomend.... i have never looked into using the dital option of my sound card... is the sound that much better... even with on board sound like my abit board ?

[Stoo]

I've seen some nice speaker/receiver/amp packages around the £300 mark, it should be a fair bit cheaper than that over in the US though..

[bluephi1914]

and they have to specify digital right ???

[sparky191]

Originally posted by NightShade737
You need to have a Digital Reciever hooked up to the digital port on the sound card.

NS

Lots of cheap digital speakers would work too right?

[Enverex]

Depends. If the speakers have a Digital Coaxial or Digital Optical (TOSLINK) input then yes, but cheap speakers normally don't have digital inputs.

NS

[Howard]

I want an optical to coax converter for my PC spekaers but I don't feel disposed to spend £20 on one

[Enverex]

The VideoLogic DigiTheatre DTS system is a nice system with Analog, Digital and Optical Digital Inputs, and the Logitech Z680 system also has Digital and Digital Optical inputs, and it also has 6 analog inputs for 5.1 in games.

For normal purposes, especially on PC systems, digital would probably make no difference at all. The only reason it is actually ever NEEDed is if you want to use the speakers as a Dolby or DTS decoder for watching DVD's and such.

NS