Ewwww, that's not good
Ain't that the truth. I even looked up the specs on the Agere FireWire hoping to confirm it wasn't a PCI controller, but it was. I don't know if that's worse than dumping the MCP-T's 3Com NIC for a Realtek which has throughput up to 35% lower than either of the MCP-T's NICs. I assumed Epox was going to use the FIC AU13 as the basis for the 8RDA3+ (the same way the FIC AU11 is the 8RDA+'s twin). The AU13 uses the MCP-T and adds optional SerialATA, a 4-pin 12v connector plus a header for an optional audio bracket to add the rear, center/sub and S/PDIF outs without jack sharing. The AU13 even has the pads for installing Epox' debug LED which FIC never uses. I was waiting for Epox' version of this board until I saw the preproduction version of the 8RDA3+. Those prelim specs were enough to push me toward the Abit NF-7S 2.0.
Considering the new versions of both the NF-7S and Leadtek boards are hitting 230-240MHz FSBs, unless Epox can hit 250MHz there won't be anything special about the 8RDA3+ unless they make it very inexpensive. Even then, if you consider the price/value of Abit's bundled Serillel SATA-to-Parallel ATA adapter (which usually goes for ~$25), the actual price of the NF7-S 2.0 is less than $100.
I'm a little disappointed in the MPC particularly because of THW's recent article Sound can be hazardous to games.
For the lack of a better word, that review is one of the suckiest sound card reviews I've ever seen. That article was SO bad I'd assume it's the author's first article, and he clearly doesn't have a clue. The Realtelk ALC650 isn't an audio controller it's a codec which depends on an audio controller that's somewhere else - in 99% of the boards out there, this controller is in the chipset's southbridge. IOW, his performance numbers are based on his testbed's onboard audio controller. Guess what - HE NEVER SAYS WHICH SYSTEM BOARD (and chipset) HE USES FOR THE REVIEW! That's like posting a bunch of results from a SoundBlaster and not bothering to mention whether it's a SB 64, SB 128PCI, SB Live!, SB Audigy or SB Audigy 2. Even worse, if the nForce2 MCP-T test bed wasn't an Asus it also used the Realtek ALC650. An interesting test would have been the nForce2 6-channel MCP-T audio vs regular MCP audio, both with the ALC650.