Sound quality should be just as any other ALC650 based board, i.e. just about ok. The Intel 915 GAV and the MSI K8N Neo4 platinum use the 850 codec. The ALC850 codec is a definate improvement over the ALC650 but again cannot be considered as really good sound quality. (The K8N Neo4 platinum doesnt have onboard graphics either)
What 5.1 system do you have right now?
The cheapest sound card right now with substantially better sound quality is the SB Live! 24-bit. Should be about 2K.
I was shopping for a pc with integrated mobo with some sort of onboard graphics ( me not a gamer at all,never play games!). Won’t buy a graphics card seperately instead use that money for a Samusung 913N 19" LCD!
From what i have gathered there seems to be only 1 mobo with onboard graphics in AMD 939 socket series i.e MSI rs480M2..
So i’m gonna have to take:
An AMD 6400 3.2 with RS480M2 + 2k Creative Sound blaster Live
Or
P4 540 3.2 GHZ HT + Intel D915GAV mobo..
I really used to think that the Azalia HD audio by intel on it’s 915 Chipset was good. They make such a big deal of it on their website!
On paper Intel’s HD Audio (Azalia) looks very very impressive - 32Bit/192Khz! It is definately a significant upgrade to the AC97 spec, But then again its left to people like Realtek, C-Media, Analog Devices to come up with the necessary codecs for the board. And in Realtek’s case their codec is below the specification, so even though it may tout Intel HD audio blah blah, its still sub-par.
Unfortunately yes, at the moment its the only Socket939 board with onboard graphics. Many might argue that its not a true PCI-Express board, as it has only a single PCI-Ex 16x graphics slot, no additional PCI Express slots, and 3 PCI slots. Please be sure you get the SB Live **24-bit **, not the standard SB Live.
nVidia is releasing nForce4 boards with integrated graphics, but no idea when it will actually make its way down here to India. If you could wait till then, that would be even better
I wouldnt recommend the P4 solution at all, as the current Prescott cores are pathetic.
Don’t even think of the intel config unless you’re ready to cry for heating problems everyday. I’m yet to meet a guy (other than rave ) who doesn’t have thermal issues with prescott chips.
What’s so bad about the prescott’s. I’m not very well versed technically, but from what i gathered(from people and the net) the intel Prescott’s are very good for Multitasking and stuff like DVD-divx ripping etc etc.. People always tell me that non gamers shd go for intel..
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Didn’t know it was that big a prob! That can be a pain: oh well,maybe it will have to be an Athlon 64 3200 then..
Well divx encoding is the only thing in which a prescott is better than an A64. However in the dual core cpus, the A64 X2 beats the Pentium D/XE. Since you’re buying a high end LCD, why reduce the image quality by strapping it to VGA. Get a good video card with DVI or else image sharpness will suffer dramatically. Also its better to go for a high end 17" panel rather than a lowend 19" panel. I’d prefer a 173p to a 913N.
Chaos is right the MSI board does not have a DVI output. Get a cheap Radeon with a DVI output, if you are keen on a PCI express solution then I believe 6200 TC has a DVI output.
Dude, 913N is NOT( not by a long shot) a Low end panel. It’s based on the latest TN panel with a 8ms response time , 800:1 contrast. It literally rocks. It’s the father of the 710N (without DVI) and 710T(with DVI). Both these monitors have been consistently rated as the best in tomshardware, pc world etc etc.. In fact i am having to spend a fortune on the 913 N. The cheaper low end 19" are Viewsonic Va912 , BENQ fp91G and the Philips 190s5 etc..
I’ll probably get a video card at a later stage. But just for the record these latest panels do not have a significant difference with the VGA and the DVI i/p. All the new gaming LCD panels with a response time at 8 ms or less from samsung do not have a DVI I/p. They are built that way..to perform well even with the VGA i/p..
Hmmm…thanks for everyone for their advice. I had almost opted for an intel system before i posted here..
BTW if i only use a Altec 5.1 system , will there be discernible difference in the sound quality of the MSI RS480M2 mobo’s ACL 650 5.1 audio and the 8 channel ACL 850 of the newer mobos.
I’m planning to defer the purchase of the Sound blaster live…the system is already exceeding the budgeted limit
Its the cheapest 19" samsung panel for sure. So I’d term it low end. TN = 6bit not 8bit so it’ll be using dithering for many colors. Here’s what the only review I found says for it.
theres quite a lot of difference beween dvi and analog inputs. after using dvi my analog lg looks washed out and the text looks all blurry ! maybe if you haven’t used dvi you may not see any difference but after using dvi for so long theres definitely a diff looking at an analog display
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