5.1 in GA-7VR? need help fast

[intelbugger]

This is what the board spec says :

AC97 codec with 6 channel (Realtek ALC650)

So, does this support 5.1 speakers. But what the connectors section of specs says is :

2 x USB 1.1 ports
2 x COM ports; 1x LPT port
Audio (1 x Line-in / 1 x Line-out / 1 x MIC) connector
2 x COM ports; 1x LPT port
1 x Game port

So, if there are only 3 connectors in all , how do i put in the 5.1. The board is a KT 333 and I'm buying it for my client who insists on 5.1 sound at low cost.

The board is also available at a dealer's nearby..so if this one supports, I'm getting a sale in 2 days...Anybody who can help me ..?

Thanks in advance

 

[mechBgon]

Looking real quick at the manual (PDF is here), it apparently uses the driver/software to switch the Line-In and Microphone jacks to be speaker jacks instead, as needed.

Incidentally, I am listening to CD's on an A7N266-VM here and this is pretty durn good audio. I'm not an audiophile, but I would say this is noticably better than my Sony 5-CD changer (which kicked the bucket recently ). If your client would be ok with onboard video and network, and a microATX board, it might be another board to look at.

 

[mechBgon]

By the way, if you're considering the A7N266-VM, let me know and I'll make sure it really can do 5.1. I've never used a 5.1 system, just headphones, so I wouldn't want to mislead you.

 

[intelbugger]

The VM was our option, to begin with. It turned out it has only SPDIF and optical outputs for 5.1. The speakers in consideration takes only analog input....?

IF there's anyway to make the vm give analog output...no i'm not considering buying a philips dolby decoder....let me know

 

[intelbugger]

Something else that turns my client down is the reputation of the VM carrying a 220/D chipset instead of a 420/D and thus lesser performance. When Sis 745, KT 266A and KT 333 are available, except for lesser 5.1 expense, there's no other reason for me to suggest 266-vm for him

 

[mechBgon]

Good point about the S/PDIF. I can assure you the performance of 220D is not low compared to KT333, however... let me cut & paste my comments from another thread... Of course, KT333 will probably support Bartons with 333MHz bus, a point in its favor.

I may post this in a separate thread for those interested, but I've been doing some experimentation with an A7N266-VM as compared to a K7S5A and an A7V333-RAID.

The A7V333-R is my own computer that I use at work. It has an Adaptec 19160 Ultra160 SCSI card and a 15000rpm Seagate Cheetah X15-36LP hard drive... yummy! However, using Adaptec EZ-SCSI's SCSIBench, the same-sector transfer rate from the hard drive is being bottlenecked at 72Mb/sec. If I enable the onboard VIA USB 2.0 controller, that drops to about 50Mb/sec, which is ridiculous for a drive whose SUSTAINED transfer rate is just below 60Mb/sec. :|

I stuck my 19160 and Cheetah in my K7S5A to see how the performance compared. Same-sector transfer rates jumped to 101Mb/sec! :Q Then I dumped 'em into an A7V266-VM system and got almost 105Mb/sec! :Q:Q Those rates are at 64kb block size and I boosted it to 256kb and the rate exceeds 121Mb/sec. Daaaang... nVidia is laying the smax0r down on VIA in terms of PCI bus efficiency here. And who knows what's up with that wacky USB 2.0 controller issue...

If the A7N266-VM gives up anything in memory performance compared to the KT333 or KT266A chipsets, it looks like it gives it back in spades with SCSI. Burst-rate improvements of 35Mb/sec to 50Mb/sec are righteous!