Intel boards that support DD live/DTS connect on board?

[thedarkwolf]

I want a motherboard with built in audio that I can hook to my receiver and get 5.1 sound in games either coaxial or optical. I know I can just buy a turtle beach sound card to do it for $60 but if I can score a whole motherboard for around $100 that would allow me to upgrade another computer at the same time. SLI or Cross-fire would be a nice bonus but I probably won't use it.

 

[bob4432]

damn, the last i heard that would encode it on the fly was nforce 2, w/ the exception of a couple audio cards.

but i have been out of this portion of hardware for some time, so tagged to see if anything will do this.....

 

[renethx]

There is no sub-$100 ATX mb that supports DDL or DTSI. The cheapest ATX mb is GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P (DDL).

As for mATX,

- Intel DG33TL (DDL)
- Intel DG45ID (DDL)
- GIGABYTE GA-EG45M-DS2H (DDL),

none of which is good for a gaming machine.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: renethx

- Intel DG33TL (DDL)
- Intel DG45ID (DDL)
- GIGABYTE GA-EG45M-DS2H (DDL)

none of which is good for a gaming machine.

Gaming machine = graphics card, CPU, RAM, HDD, CD/DVD

Both Intel boards support up to Q9650 and E8600, 8GB DDR2-800, SATA 3.0Gb/s, and PCI Express x16, the G45 being PCI-E 2.0. I don't see why either of them would not be good for a gaming machine, unless graphics cards run slower on smaller boards?

The Gigabyte board may not be a good choice, since the PCI Express x16 slot is actually limited to 4x mode, and PCI-E 1.x at that. Instead of using the G45's PEG x16 2.0 interface, Gigabyte took four PCI-E lanes from the ICH10 to create the PEG x16 slot in order to support concurrent PEG + IGP use.

What else am I missing? Fancy neon lights don't work on mATX boards?

 

[thedarkwolf]

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R
I think that will do what I want, has cross-fire, and is pretty cheap. Had to pay $300 to the vet yesterday though so my motherboard buying has been put on hold for a while.

 

[renethx]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
Both Intel boards support up to Q9650 and E8600, 8GB DDR2-800, SATA 3.0Gb/s, and PCI Express x16, the G45 being PCI-E 2.0. I don't see why either of them would not be good for a gaming machine, unless graphics cards run slower on smaller boards?

I thought of overclocking. These Intel mbs lack any kind of overclocking options and even memory voltage adjustment (Intel changed the policy of no mem voltage adjustment with DG45ID?). If you are not interested in OC, they are fine as a gaming mb.

 

[yehuda]

Another candidate would be the upcoming Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H mATX board that supports DDL and has a full PCI-E x16 2.0 interface for graphics expansion.