Query about Asus A7N8X

[gun]

Hi everyone at IMO,

Im building a new system and im thinking:
AthlonXP 2500+ Barton
2*256 DDR333 (Dunno what brand, prolly Crucial)
prolly a GeForce4 Ti4200-8x 128mb
WD 120gb 7200rpm 8mb buffer HDD

Im kinda baffled about the motherboards however and cant really decide between the Asus board or the Abit... or even the MSI.

The Asus board (non deluxe) doesn't have soundstorm, but it has 6 channel dolby anyways... isn't that powerful enough already? In what way and magnitude is the soundstorm better? I dont really have a need for the 2nd LAN slot nor the firewire, RAID,SATA..

Im confused as to why the A7N8X-X is 150$AU while the A7N8X is 218$AU... doesn't the x-x use version 2 of the chipset and is newer? It looks like it has the same features to me, so why is it so much cheaper?

Please, gimme feedback on my setup... thanks

[jch216]

Check newegg.com for pretty good deals on prices. They have really good product descriptions as well.

Maybe this link can help you a little...
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...cription=a7n8x

I went with the Abit NF7-S board. Haven't recieved it in the mail yet though. I was seriously considering the Asus A7N8X-deluxe. From what I've heard you can't really go wrong with Asus , Abit, or Epox. I don't really know though...just what I've heard.

BTW, Welcome to TechIMO!

[Ry]

I have the same question as gun about the Asus A7N8X audio power and according to their website...

http://usa.asus.com/mb/socketa/a7n8x/overview.htm

The A7N8X has....


"6-Channel Audio

The A7N8X uses an onboard Realtek® ALC650 audio CODEC that lets you enjoy high-quality 6-channel audio without having to buy advanced sound cards. "


And the soundstorm is only available in the A7N8X Deluxe version. So basically how powerful is the integrated sound on the regular Asus A7N8X motherboard? Likewise on the A7N8X Deluxe how powerfull is the soundstorm? Does any intergrated sound rival sounds card like Creative SB Live 5.1 or Audigy etc..??

I'm new to motherboards and just heard about soundstorm recently so i dont know anything. I just wanted to know their sound capability and maybe if could buy a soundstorm or 6-Channel Audio motherboard i could ignore buying Creative's sound cards.

[Ry]

Oops forgot to add this but between the Abit NF7-S and the Asus A7N8X Deluxe or Non Deluxe version MB which one has better sound power?

The Deluxe version has soundstorm technology but so does the Abit NF7-S according to their website?

http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/...ries=1&model=6

"SoundStorm™ Technology
Real-time Dolby Digital 5.1 audio encoding delivering up to 256 simultaneous audio streams"

"6-Channel Audio and Optical S/PDIF Out
Lets you enjoy 6-channel audio without having to buy advanced sound cards"

Or unless im mistaking it and their a little different from one another and it only has some part of soundstorm technology?Because according to neweggs MB specs (even though i live in Canada.) their kind of different.

"Abit NF7-S"
- 6-Channel AC 97 CODEC on board
- Professional digital audio interface supports 24-bit S/PDIF Out
- Supports real time AC-3 Encode by Soundstorm Technology"

"Asus A7N8X Deluxe:
- Realtek ALC650 6CH w/built in HP amplifier
- Integrated APU (Audio Processor Unit)
- SoundStorm / Dolby Digital (AC-3) Encoder"

This motherboard mumbo jumbo stuff is confusing me lol. That's why i never know much about MB's mostly know other components more. Even the names are starting to kill me.

[washe]

I had a machine a P3 800 MHZ with an Asus P3V4X and It was a very good mainboard I didnt have any difficulties or problems since the begging to its end, I have built now a machine similar than yours using another Asus,

AMD 2500+ Barton
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
512 Corsair Memory
ATI 9500 pro

and I used my old computer HD and DVD-Drive, and this config has been running very estable, for your audio question about soundstorm, I read somewhere that It uses less CPU power to process the audio, It get's very near than a normal sound card.

And looking at the HD you are going to buy maybe you can consider on buying a SATA driver and use the extra goods of Deluxe version of the Asus just my 5 cents...

[JPMiller]

well Im no expert on the mainboard/ sound issue, but unless you are getting some damn decent speakers you wont have to worry about the onboard sound of the N-Force boards listed....they all have very good sound for the average user...Power users with $400 and up Speaker systems will opt for a seperate card in most cases due to connectors and compatability.
These have quite good sound do not worry!

[Ry]

How about the SB Live 5.1 vs the soundstorm?

If i plan to upgrade and get an Abit NF7-S motherboard along with the cheaper Logitech Z-640 5.1 speakers (70 watts) or the Logitech Z-540 4.1 (40 watts) speakers which sound device would perform better??

thanks.

EDIT: Oh yeah i forgot to mention i prefer mostly gaming and listening to music. So will the soundstorm be good enough? i read the soundstorm probably won't be too good in games since it doesn't have EAX2.0 or something lol.

I'm so in depth into the on-board soundstorm is because if i could skip buying the Audigy or SB Live 5.1 i can save some $$$ only if the soundstorm is good enough.

[gun]

Thanks for the replies guys (or girls) ^^. Expecially Washe's reply.

The soundstorm uses less cpu power? That's pretty cool. How much less? Do you have any benchmarks or statistics you can show us?

The thing with SATAs is that they're quite abit more expensive..(aren't they?)... and i dunno if i need the speed for good gameplay... since games load up everything into ram anyways (correct?)

And also, i dont think anyone has commented on the A7N8X-X as oppoesed to the A7N8X. This is a pretty big issue for me as the x-x is so much cheaper!! There seem to b not much info on the web about this version of the board...perhaps it might not b as famous over in the US as it is over here... over here the computer markets are full of em... so yeah... important for me to know..

edit: Oh yeah. and i considered hard about getting a 9500 pro too. But then i saw the bench marks and saw that the Ti4200 even outperformed the 9500 pro in tests without AA etc and DX9. I figured that by the time games come out that require that stuff, im gonna need an upgrade beyond the 9500pro anyway. Ao i might as well wait for sumthing like the 9700 to drop in price. Meanwhile the Ti4200 is such great value!!! XD

[dustyrun]

I have the deluxe board w/ altec lancing 4.1's and play music & game on it all the time. Sounds great. Matter of fact, I removed my SB Live 5.1 when I bought this board. also removed my 3com card.. Great board.

Rick

[gun]

Thanks,
There is no doubt that the soundstorm is a great feature for the deluxe. However, what im looking for is a quantitative analysis on how much more performance it has compared to the non-deluxe version.

Yeah! newegg has terrific prices!! Tho im gonna get my parts at a PC market in Taiwan... IMO prolly the cheapest place for hardware on earth.