nForce2 sound

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: sandorski
Make sure the mobo you get uses Soundstorm and not Realtek for onboard sound. The Realtek onboard sound is crap(tried it out on my MSI K7n2-L, blech).

*sigh* how many times are we going to have to go through this? The Realtek codec is used on every nForce2 board on the market except the CHaintech, which doesn't use the APU at all.

 

[EdipisReks]

Originally posted by: RanDum72

any board that has soundstorm should have optical out.

Not necessarily optical. Most have coax digital outs. But as long as its got a digital out, its labeled 'SoundStorm'.

ah, gotcha.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: jaeger66

Originally posted by: sandorski
Make sure the mobo you get uses Soundstorm and not Realtek for onboard sound. The Realtek onboard sound is crap(tried it out on my MSI K7n2-L, blech).

*sigh* how many times are we going to have to go through this? The Realtek codec is used on every nForce2 board on the market except the CHaintech, which doesn't use the APU at all.

Not completely true. My MSI K7N2-L does not use Soundstorm either, it uses a Realtek soundchip(I know the difference between a soundchip and the use of a Realtek codec on Soundstorm). The onboard Audio on the K7N2-L sucks major ass! If the mobo doesn't use "Soundstorm", it is to be avoided, if good onboard sound is required. There are, unfortunetly, quite a number of NForce2 mobos that don't use Soundstorm.

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: sandorski


Not completely true. My MSI K7N2-L does not use Soundstorm either, it uses a Realtek soundchip(I know the difference between a soundchip and the use of a Realtek codec on Soundstorm). The onboard Audio on the K7N2-L sucks major ass! If the mobo doesn't use "Soundstorm", it is to be avoided, if good onboard sound is required. There are, unfortunetly, quite a number of NForce2 mobos that don't use Soundstorm.

Whether the board uses the Realtek codec or not has no bearing on the SS specification. And according to every piece of documentation on The MSI, it uses the nVidia APU for audio. The nForce has 3 choices:

APU-no SS.
APU-SS
Some other audio chip altogether-like the Chaintech.

SS only specifies I/O flexibility, not any level of sound quality or performance. All a board needs to have to meet SS is:

6 channel analog output

microphone input

line input

S/PDIF out

 

[Fingolfin269]

Perhaps I missed it while reading the thread but what one thing is the Epox missing to keep it from being SS certified? Is it the 6 channel outputs? I only use a 2.1 speaker system so I'm assuming that it would be in my best interest to get the Epox hands down as I'll be using the on board sound and could care less about 5.1 or 6.1 sound.

 

[mechBgon]

The EPoX doesn't include an S/PDIF-out of any kind, although you can buy one separately from EPoX. If it included that then it would be a SS board.

 

[EdipisReks]

the S/PDIF out costs $18 direct from EPoX.

 

[Snoop]

Originally posted by: jaeger66

Originally posted by: sandorski


Not completely true. My MSI K7N2-L does not use Soundstorm either, it uses a Realtek soundchip(I know the difference between a soundchip and the use of a Realtek codec on Soundstorm). The onboard Audio on the K7N2-L sucks major ass! If the mobo doesn't use "Soundstorm", it is to be avoided, if good onboard sound is required. There are, unfortunetly, quite a number of NForce2 mobos that don't use Soundstorm.

Whether the board uses the Realtek codec or not has no bearing on the SS specification. And according to every piece of documentation on The MSI, it uses the nVidia APU for audio. The nForce has 3 choices:

APU-no SS.
APU-SS
Some other audio chip altogether-like the Chaintech.

SS only specifies I/O flexibility, not any level of sound quality or performance. All a board needs to have to meet SS is:

6 channel analog output

microphone input

line input

S/PDIF out

The only problem with your logic is that the MSI K7NG-L uses the MCP southbridge which doesnt contain the audio implementation as the MCP-T does. MSI has another version of the -L coming out (K7N2G-ILSR) which does utilize the MCP-T and Nforce audio.
Look here.
and here.

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: Snoop

The only problem with your logic is that the MSI K7NG-L uses the MCP southbridge which doesnt contain the audio implementation as the MCP-T does.
Look here.
and here.

OK, but even the MCP only boards use the south bridge as the host adapter for audio. It just doesn't have the advanced APU functions. You can confirm this by noting which drivers are required:

Here

The APU is still used.

It's a confusing situation made worse by nVidia's intentional vagueness and mobo makers without the slightest interest in clarification.

 

[Snoop]

 

[Fingolfin269]

I have a question about the soundstorm vs. non-soundstorm nforce 2's. If you order an Epox S/PDIF card will it suffer a performance hit compared to the a7n8x deluxe?

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
I have a question about the soundstorm vs. non-soundstorm nforce 2's. If you order an Epox S/PDIF card will it suffer a performance hit compared to the a7n8x deluxe?

No.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Well what I'm wondering is why does the nvidia website show that the boards that are not soundstorm certified and only sport the nvidia apu have no ability to h/w dolby digital encode? If you buy the S/PDIF for the epox do you have that ability?

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
Well what I'm wondering is why does the nvidia website show that the boards that are not soundstorm certified and only sport the nvidia apu have no ability to h/w dolby digital encode? If you buy the S/PDIF for the epox do you have that ability?

First, understand that the DD encoding is a very limited feature. It's only use is sending an AC-3 encoded stream through the digital out. So unless you plan on adding an external decoder, or have speakers with no analog inputs, it's sort of useless.

Now then, the only reason the Epox isn't SS certified is that they don't throw the digital bracket in the box. If they did, you'd have SS. So buy buying the bracket after, you're SS compliant.

 

[paralazarguer]

besides, nVIdia said they may give the nforce APU EAX HD in the future, as it is capable of it in hardware.

Where did you hear that? Got a source? I don't believe it.

 

[Fingolfin269]

So the Epox does have the ability to encode once it has that bracket right? I'm in sort of a friendly argument with someone about this and am using all of the stuff in this thread as my semi-ammo.

Basically his argument is that even with that bracket it won't be able to encode. According to nvidia's site that is one of the characteristics of soundstorm, 'H/W Dolby Digital Encoding'.

Thanks for anymore info you can give and sorry for beating this subject to death.

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
So the Epox does have the ability to encode once it has that bracket right?

Yes.

 

[yhelothar]

you could make the bracket yourself.. not too hard.. i made one for my abit, cuz i needed coaxial!!

yes the 8rda+ has soundstorm.. yes it's better than audigy...
audigy has eax3.0, that no games support, and soundstorm has dolby digital 5.1 encoding...

 

[iZero]

Originally posted by: EdipisReks

Originally posted by: AtomicDude512

Dont replace it! If you game the Audigy1 supports EAX 3.0, nForce dosent.

the Audigy also gives me crappy stuff like skips in mp3's and the occasional error. i'll give up EAX 3.0 for problem free mp3's any day of the week. the Mp3 skips decreased when i went to win2k from XP, but they are still there. besides, nVIdia said they may give the nforce APU EAX HD in the future, as it is capable of it in hardware.

The drivers released last year fixed MP3 skipping problems. Do you have the newest drivers installed? I've had no issues with my Audigy since those drivers came out.

 

[Accord99]

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
you could make the bracket yourself.. not too hard.. i made one for my abit, cuz i needed coaxial!!

yes the 8rda+ has soundstorm.. yes it's better than audigy...

audigy has eax3.0, that no games support,

UT2003, Soldier of Fortune 2, Jedi Knight 2, etc.

and soundstorm has dolby digital 5.1 encoding...

Which is useless unless you want to connect to a receiver using one cable to get multichannel audio in PC games.

 

[EdipisReks]

Originally posted by: iZero
The drivers released last year fixed MP3 skipping problems. Do you have the newest drivers installed? I've had no issues with my Audigy since those drivers came out.

yes i have the newest one installed, and no, it didn't fix my problems.

Originally posted by: paralazarguer
Where did you hear that? Got a source? I don't believe it.

it was alluded to in the 3dsoundsurge review of the nForce2 APU.