Abit NV7-133R nForce Sound Question

[airbus]

Does anyone have any specific experience or knoledge about the sound on the Abit NV7-133R nForce chipset based motherboard?

The board is now being sold at a number of sites (check pricewatch); somebody must have bought it already.

It says on the Abit-USA.com site that it uses the MCP-D audio and the Realtek ALC650 chip via "AC-Link." Does anyone know whether the board actually uses the nForce onboard audio or this Realtek chip's audio. Some more info about the Realtek ALC650 codec chip can be found in the preceding link. One site, ajump.com, actually states (although this could just be their ignorance) under Audio, just the Realtek chip and does not mention the nForce audio.

My theory is that the realtek chip is just being used for 6 channel sound and for its digital/analog converters. Can anybody confirm or clarify this?

Also, the Ajump.com site states that the board comes with the Abit CA-20 panel - which I found somewhere provides provide analog audio output
signals for center channel, subwoofer, rear right
and rear left channel. It also provides S/PDIF
Input / Output connection

Can anybody confirm this?

Once I understand what is going on with the audio, and it fills my needs, I am ready to buy this bad boy - 133 Raid, USB 2 - Sounds great!!!

 

[rei]

I too am waiting with baited breath, though nowhere will ship up to Canada, I have to get a US buddy to possibly order it for me and ship it up himself.

 

[rei]

...also which RAID chipset/model is used on this board?

 

[AGodspeed]

<< ...also which RAID chipset/model is used on this board? >>

It uses the High Point HPT372 IDE RAID Controller. Go here.

 

[elmo99]

couple of interesting links in case anyone missed this review:

http://www.techhard.com/docs/mobo/abitnv7/abitnv7_1.htm
http://www.techhard.com/docs/mobo/a7n266c/a7n266c_1.htm

 

[rei]

the techhard reviews are atrociously written!

 

[elmo99]

Rei, how can you have joined in 1999 and only have 17 posts!?
Maybe you topped out a 9999 and it wrapped back to 0?

Atrociously written!? Maybe...but it's the only review out there
so far.

Any folks here know the scoop on the MSI K7N415?

 

[tboo]

I get my Abit NV7-133R on Thursday. One of my main questions on this board is the onboard sound. I will post my eval of the board & the onboard sound(& how it compares to my audigy) on Fri or Sat.

 

[airbus]

Thanks "tboo"

We are all holding our breath.

When you get it, I would greatly appreciate a description of not only how it sounds, but how it works.

1) What drivers does it use? (nForce or Realtek)
2) How does it show up in the mixer (Audio Control) section of Windows?
3) What physical ins and outs does it have (center channel, subwoofer?)?
4) How does the 6 channel sound work (with DVDs, MP3s, etc.)?
5) How does the AC3 encoding work?
6) Can you tell if the SPDIF goes to the Realtek chip or the nForce?

I know that is a lot, but as much info you could give (of course anything else notable) would be a great help to all interested.

The more I look at this thing, it seems to me that it uses the nForce audio for standard 2 channel (stereo) sound and the realtek for the 6 channel sound. The Abit-USA site says that it supports AC3 encoding - the nForce is the only chip that can do that. The realtek certainly can't.

Also, if anybody can find the manual, provide a link.

Thanks again "tboo"

Anybody else who has experience, please chime in as well.

 

[rei]

sadly, i'm not really a regular, i only post here in emergencies or in short bursts. i'm active elsewhere.

 

[rogo]

It is a great mystery to say the least. Both the MCP-D and the new Realtek 6-channel chip are on board. In addition, the Realtek Ethernet chip is on the board. I have not fired it all up yet (and won't for several days alas). The installer, however, installs nVidia audio and Ethernet drivers (I just did this on my Dell, which was probably a terrible idea). Oh, there are no Realtek drivers on the CD.

That said, the manual says it uses the Realtek to support legacy audio and refers to the MCP-D supporting AC-3 encoding.

The manual shows it using the nVidia MCP Networking Adapter

Why would anyone build a motherboard with two sound controllers and two Ethernet controllers?

 

[BIGGDOG]

for the Sound go to www.amdmb.com and click on forums and then ABIT boards I just read about it this morning.

 

[rogo]

The amdbd.com discussion is as useless in answering the quesiton as the manual.

Mark

 

[airbus]

I read on the amdmb.com forum that the nForce audio drivers are bundled with it.

The more I look at this thing, I come to believe that the realtek chip is just digital/analog converters to get the digital audio out of the MCP-D and into our speakers.

"AC-Link" might be "Analog Conversion Link" - it is very possible that the realtek chip has an input so it just uses the chip's converters.

I still want to know more, so anybody with some info - looks like people are getting these boards slowly - please post a note.

 

[tboo]

OK, I have had the board since Thurs & posted my 1st impressions here . It has now been a few days & here is some more info. The audio had 2 parts 1. the nvidia sound processor & 2. the realtek AC-3 link(whatever that is). Like I said in my 1st post I disabled the onboard sound after I discovered I cant adjust the bass & treble with the provided drivers. The drivers that install are Nvidia drivers & not realtek sothe realtek part must have some supporting role. There is NO spdif connector on the board so you cant connect the spdif of you dvdrom/cdrom to the onboard sound. You get line in/line out, mic & a midi port on the actual board & the add on card has: rear, center/sub, optical in/out, & 2 USB ports. The i/o layout is different than most mobos, but Abit was kind enough to provide an i/o shield of their own(Soyo take note!). You also getan additional bracket with 2 usb ports so you get 6 usb ports total(2 on board, 2 on sound card bracket & the 2 on seperate bracket) You get 2 USB 2.0 connectors towards the rear of the board(for the sound card bracket & the other bracket) & 1 usb 1.0 connector at the front of the board(I assume for those with usb ports on the front of thier computer). I personally cant get USB 2.0 to work. I install the drivers but WinXP says it cant start this device. IT has the 12v(P4) connector, but my PS doesnt have one so mine isnt connected & the borad seems to run fine with it so far without it. IT really doesnt have an overclockers bios. In SoftBios II you get few options: 1 CPU Ext. CLK(CPU/AGP), 12 options 100,133,102,103,105,138,142,146,149,152,153,157
2. FSB Ratio(CPU/AGP)2 options 3:2>3:1.5(when cpu fsb is 100-132) or 4:2>4:1.5(when cpu fsb is 133 or higher)
3. Memory Frequency, 2 options 3:4>1:1(when fsb is 100>132) & 1:1>4:3(when fsb is 133 or greater)
4 CPU Vcore adjustment. 2 options std. Vcore or Raising(raises is 3% over standard)

Thats is for SoftBios II

The memory tweaking options are CAS latency(auto, 2.5, 2) & Memory timings(optimal or agressive)-currently my Scisoft memory scores are low compared to the reference 420 board-more investigating needed here.

I like the highpoint controller. My last board was a Soyo Dragon & it had the promise controller-I hated it-it took FOREVER to detect my harddrives on bootup-the highpoint doesnt. Onboard LAN is also working great-I didnt run into any problems setting it up. Overall I like this board. It is new & things will get ironed out over time. I really like the fact that Im not dealing with a VIA product for once(Actuallly the USB controller is VIA & as I mentioned above I cant get it wroking so that figures). Hope this info helps

 

[elmo99]

did you just say there's no connector to attach CD audio?

 

[zzzz]

he said no spdif. I assume the analogue connectors are still there. Anyway, haven't used those cables since long time..

 

[tboo]

There are 2 4 pin analog connectors(main & aux), but no 2 pin spdif connector. I also just cut off the end of an ATX power connector & made a 12v adapter(other end plugs into a 4 pin power connector-like for a hard drive)-so far adding the 12v plug has made no difference in the power readings-it must come into play with the higher speed cpus or in overclocking.

 

[rogo]

Well, if SPDI/F is technically the coax connector, it's true you don't get one.

But ironically they label the TOSlink input and output as SPDI/F.

Certainly, the board provides digital sound output via this.

I can't build mine until Thursday or say as I'm waiting on a bunch of parts.

Mine will be used primarily to play DVDs, music and to scael HD video.

 

[bdsmjam]

so does that mean that whatever board is using the nforce chipset, the onboard sound will be the same for all the mfg's?

 

[airbus]

tboo -

Thanks for that thorough desciption of the NV7-133R; very much appreciated.

It isn't widely distributed yet, and people are just getting the first boards; things should iron out over time (it is pretty suspicious, however, that the abit.com.tw site has been down all weekend - they are probably rushing to fix the BIOS). I am still excitied about this board.

Keep us posed as to the memory issue (if you find out anything else about why your memory scores are so low).


rogo -

Tell us how your build goes - hopefully one of the smoother stories.
To answer your question from a few days ago, I believe that both realtek chips, the LAN and the Audio, are used as the physical connections for the MCP-D's features. You need to get the analog audio and the LAN signal into the nForce chip for processing, and the realtek chips probably just provide the means to interface with the MCP-D

 

[tboo]

I got the USB 2.0 to work-I just installed the latest drivers from VIA

 

[tboo]

I also fixed the low SANDRA memory scores-it was just an adjustment in the softbios of setting the memory frequency to 1:1 rather than 4:3. This board is turning out to be pretty nice!

 

[rei]

so the realtek aclink is a non-issue? and the via usb header is a non-issue? via and realtek both worry me, but it seems to be a sweet board.

 

[tboo]

From what I can tell this board has 2 USB controllers. The 2 that are part of the I/O ports on the back are through the Nforce chipset. Then, the board has 3 seperate connectors on the mobo(2 for USB 2.0 & 1 for USB 1.1) that use the VIA chipset. I have disabled the nforce ones & am using the USB 2.0