SB Live! Value or Nforce2 MCP - Which is better audio?

[OCNewbie]

Pretty soon I'm probably gonna be buying the Biostar M7NCG 400 Link from Newegg. It has the MCP southbridge, which has the inferior onboard sound than the MCP-T has. I was just wondering if anybody could say whether I should bother installing my old SB Live! Value PCI card on that mobo, or just use the onboard sound? I just have a 2.1 speaker setup so nothing fancy.

Few questions -

I'm buying this mobo cuz I'm on a minimal budget, and I was gonna use the onboard video for now. I only really play Quake 2 and Everquest as of right now so I think it should suffice. I plan to buy a retail 2500+ Barton CPU and OC to 3200+ speeds (11 x 200Mhz). I was wondering if I opt to buy a couple sticks of 512 DDR, and run them in dual-channel at 400FSB (will give the onboard video a nice boost) would the onboard graphics have any troubles running at that? A few people in the newegg "reviews" section for the M7NCG mobo I'm getting said it (the onboard graphics)wouldn't work at 400 FSB in dual-channel, but some appear to say it will.

I'm gonna buy the retail version of the 2500+ since it comes with a hs/f for only $5.00 more and I'm assuming should be sufficient for running at 3200+ speeds. I have some Artic Silver 5 paste.... would it be to my advantage to remove the retail HS/F that comes with this CPU, and remove the existing pad/paste and put on the AS5?

Also, is there any difference between these 2 Power Supplies? I heard Fortron & Sparkle are one in the same - Fortron 350W - Link or this one - Sparkle 350W - Link. The Sparkle has $1 less shipping is the only thing I noticed.

Many thanks =)

 

[Ionizer86]

Before considering the Biostar, also make sure you get some reviews on the Shuttle nForce 2 board as it's very cheap as well.

If you get dual channel, the only thing that will really speed up is the video. Your system will only be about 3% faster, so it depends on how good you want your video to be. Personally I'd rather not pay ~$70 more to improve my integrated video, so I'd go single channel.

For the sound, I'd listen to the MCP first before deciding to keep the live or not. My guess is the Live will probably be better.

It would definitely help to remove the pad on the heatsink and put on AS5. Your temps should go down a good amount (at least 5 degrees).

The user reviews at Newegg seem to indicate the Fortron is a bit quieter and the sparkle is a tad louder. These are excellent prices for 350W good brand PSUs

 

[JBT]

I don't know anything about the motherboard. But I'm willing to bet since most people who do the reviews on newegg are idiots the motherboard will probably be able to run 200 FSB dual channel no gaurentees though.

As for the Heat sink I would scrap the regular crap off and put in AS5 which should be a good improvement The stock cooler should be fine for 3200+ speeds.

I would personally go to for the Fortron PSU only because it states it has better efficiency I don't know if it was just not entered on the Sparkle specs or not but either way I would go fortron.

As for the sound try the onboard out first listen for a bit install the sound blaster listen for a bit and see what you like better, I don't think we are going to be able to tell from here.

 

[OCNewbie]

Thanks for the responses, anybody else have any input?

 

[helloguy]

do u consider urself an audiophile ? if no, then i'd say stick to soundstorm and will serve u well..,if yes, u might wanna opt for a separate sound card. yea, and 1 more thing, if u opt for a good sound card, u'll then need to fork out some $$ for a good pair of spks else ur good sound card will be wasted.

 

[thorin]

nForece audio is definately superior to SB Live Value's. Especially with regards to CPU utilization.

Thorin

 

[Kingofcomputer]

SB Live is more than 4 years old.
Try something newer.

 

[Zelmo3]

I'm going to contradict Thorin here. On your motherboard, the Live will free up a significant amount of CPU cycles. The difference is big enough that when I finally put my Live card into my NF7 (also with nVidia MCP), Battlefield 1942 changed from being annoyingly choppy to being very smooth.

 

[Auxano]

I like my nForce sound over my SB live card's output .

To me it sound much better.

 

[nycdude]

Is the nforce sound as good or better than the Audigy 1 since we are on the subject????

LMK
Thx

 

[AMB]

Originally posted by: nycdude
Is the nforce sound as good or better than the Audigy 1 since we are on the subject????

LMK
Thx

I'd say it wasnt as good but that's just my personal opinion from listening to both