Aureal Vortex2 SuperQuad : $30.95
- Thread starter zeroidea
- Start date
That Axiontech price is for resellers only...and even so, you can match that price on Pricewatch, so it's not a terribly hot deal. Also, Aureal went bankrupt (which is probably needless for me to state).
If you guys are sure that you won't need any updated driver, then this is a good deal.
Be warned again, no update for the driver......and that means you will likely get some conflicts with some combination in your system as that happen to my cusl2 board.
Be warned again, no update for the driver......and that means you will likely get some conflicts with some combination in your system as that happen to my cusl2 board.
This is an excellent soundcard. nothing beats A3D2 w/ heaphones. Too bad they went bust but maybe Creative will implement the best features of A3D on the next get EAX.
If you go to aureal.com, there is a notice that creative is taking over the company. I bet you the creative will implement the A3D technology and give us Vortex2 owners some updated drivers. I've used the creative soundblaster live and the Vortex2 chipsets, and the Vortex2 beats the creative chipsets hands down.
For the record, an OEM SBLive card can be found starting at $36 on Pricewatch. If there is a driver update that will be the result of the Aureal/Creative union, it will likely be the incorporation of A3D 2.0/3.0 into EAX, as well as the implementation of Aureal's HRTF's for headphone/2-channel listening. In other words, buying a SBLive gets you the most widely supported card now, and likely all of the benefits of Aureal's technology down the road.
The odds of Aureal cards getting a further driver update (such as Win2K drivers, not exactly an unimportant issue) are pretty slim.
I agree that Aureal's implementation of headphone sound is unmatched--until the next version of EAX, that is.
The odds of Aureal cards getting a further driver update (such as Win2K drivers, not exactly an unimportant issue) are pretty slim.
I agree that Aureal's implementation of headphone sound is unmatched--until the next version of EAX, that is.
Who knows, creative is buying aureal and their intellectual properties, so maybe they'll repackage the vortex sound cards and update their drivers
I don't think it is just for resellers only at Axion. I bought one of the Superquads a couple of days ago for 30.95 from them.
Considering Creative sued Aureal out of business, I just can't force myself to buy any Creative products. I have had really good luck with my Aureal SQ2500 and the 2048 drivers for WIN 98SE. The EAX support has worked in all the games I've tried so far (Thief, System Shock 2, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Planescape Torment, other?), and I haven't noticed any huge slow down that others have reported.
Da Yooper
I have a Diamond Monster MX300 (Vortex2) card. I never installed the drivers which came with it. Rather, on recommendation, I downloaded the "latest" Aureal drivers as of last June from their website, and installed those instead. What about those Aureal SQ2500 drivers... would those work with my card, and are they more recent?
I've noticed that there is some kind of EAX support implemented in the driver set, but in Baldurs Gate 2, the option is grayed out. I know Diamond was promising EAX drivers for the MX300 card, but they never came through. But the Aureal drivers did impliment it, but doesn't seem to work. I'm wondering if the drivers you have are the same as mine, or if they are newer.
I have a Diamond Monster MX300 (Vortex2) card. I never installed the drivers which came with it. Rather, on recommendation, I downloaded the "latest" Aureal drivers as of last June from their website, and installed those instead. What about those Aureal SQ2500 drivers... would those work with my card, and are they more recent?
I've noticed that there is some kind of EAX support implemented in the driver set, but in Baldurs Gate 2, the option is grayed out. I know Diamond was promising EAX drivers for the MX300 card, but they never came through. But the Aureal drivers did impliment it, but doesn't seem to work. I'm wondering if the drivers you have are the same as mine, or if they are newer.
I believe the MX300 is a Vortex 1 chip. I own one and when I look at the board, it shows a Vortex 1 chipset. As for the Turtle Beach soundcard at Compgeeks for $19, a better deal is to buy them at Overstock (brand new) and use a coupon. If you buy 2 for $26 each = $52 - $20 coupon = $32 ($16 each) and you get free shipping which Compgeeks doesn't offer.
Just installed one for a friend and everything went way smoothly. I used to have a Soundblaster AWE and then I switched to Vortex chips. Now all of my computers have Vortex driven soundcards...
Just installed one for a friend and everything went way smoothly. I used to have a Soundblaster AWE and then I switched to Vortex chips. Now all of my computers have Vortex driven soundcards...
Thats strange...i just got an MX300 from Lawton here and the card had the vortex2 chip on it...
i'll see if i can a picture or something...
sam out
i'll see if i can a picture or something...
sam out
Here is the site I found the information on the Aureal 2048 drivers at:
http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/drivers/a3d.html
The drivers themselves are still on an Aureal FTP servers, so I don't know how long they will remain there. To get them to work I had to copy the orginal drivers from the CD that came with the SQ2500 to a temp directory, and then copy the 2048 driver files to the same directory overwriting any files of the same name. I then used that directory for updating the drivers. I couldn't get the 2048 drivers to work by just installing them alone. There is also a .exe file that updates the .DLL's for A3D in windows.
Once you have the new drivers working, there is a new option that allows EAX to be enabled for the Aureal cards. If you turn it on, you can then check those boxes in games like Baulder's Gate, Thief, etc. That's a good way to tell if the new drivers are working ok on your system. If the boxes are still grayed out, the EAX functions of the new drivers are not working.
One thing to note: The 2048 drivers don't have a checkbox for enabling digital out like the 2040 drivers do. I don't know if that means that the digital out is enabled all the time, or not at all. I don't have anything connected to my digital out so I can't test it.
http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/drivers/a3d.html
The drivers themselves are still on an Aureal FTP servers, so I don't know how long they will remain there. To get them to work I had to copy the orginal drivers from the CD that came with the SQ2500 to a temp directory, and then copy the 2048 driver files to the same directory overwriting any files of the same name. I then used that directory for updating the drivers. I couldn't get the 2048 drivers to work by just installing them alone. There is also a .exe file that updates the .DLL's for A3D in windows.
Once you have the new drivers working, there is a new option that allows EAX to be enabled for the Aureal cards. If you turn it on, you can then check those boxes in games like Baulder's Gate, Thief, etc. That's a good way to tell if the new drivers are working ok on your system. If the boxes are still grayed out, the EAX functions of the new drivers are not working.
One thing to note: The 2048 drivers don't have a checkbox for enabling digital out like the 2040 drivers do. I don't know if that means that the digital out is enabled all the time, or not at all. I don't have anything connected to my digital out so I can't test it.
just noticed that compgeeks has montego IIs for $19.95 They're vortex2 based so you get A3D2.
A better deal I think.
A better deal I think.
Montego-II's aren't necessarily Quad, however (I think..)
FWIW I've never had any problems with Vortex-based sound cards. I have three of them right now (2 Vortex1's, One SQ2500-Quad); several more are in computers I gave to friends.
Win2000 recognizes them off the bat. I'm not sure what the beta Aureal drivers deliver; they seem to work when I've bothered to install them.
Disclaimer: I don't play games, so cpu utilization (and 3D sound, for that matter) isn't something I've paid attention to.
FWIW I've never had any problems with Vortex-based sound cards. I have three of them right now (2 Vortex1's, One SQ2500-Quad); several more are in computers I gave to friends.
Win2000 recognizes them off the bat. I'm not sure what the beta Aureal drivers deliver; they seem to work when I've bothered to install them.
Disclaimer: I don't play games, so cpu utilization (and 3D sound, for that matter) isn't something I've paid attention to.
It's a timing problem not memory problem between the Vortex and KT133 chips, and the 2048 reference drivers fix it in Win98 (not sure about Win2K). I'm running a MX300 on an Abit KT7 with no problems whatsoever, and there are lots of others out there running the Vortex 2 on the KT133 just fine. Most problems are caused by not completely uninstalling OEM drivers before installing the Aureal reference drivers.
If you visit the vortexofsound link I listed above, it lists problems with the KX133 chipset, and says that it is unknown if there are similar problems with the KT133. I'm running a Diamond MX300 with reference drivers on an Abit KT7Raid with no problems.
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