Is the Aopen AW-850 A lot Better than AC97???? Whats the best el cheapo

[jacktesterson]

I have AC97 sound right now, Logitech Z-340 speakers and I often hook my 4 speaker Stereo to my computer. Its like 200 watts so its not that big. Anyways, I wanna know If buying a AOpen AW-850 5.1 sound card would be a waste of money? Would i notice a good difference?

Thanks

 

[Kingofcomputer]

AC97 is a standard for the codec.

every sound card has codec, either built into the processor chip or separate chips for processor and codec.
every motherboard with onboard sound is just using the same chip from the sound card, so also has codec.
every motherboard with chipset embedded sound has a codec chip, the chipset doesn't contain the codec.
today's codec all are AC97 compliant.

Is the AW-850 better than AC97 (I guess you mean your motherboard's chipset embedded sound or onboard sound)?
for power - depends on the sound processor power on AW-850 versus the motherboard's chipset embedded sound + cpu processing power.
for sound quality - depends on the sound processor's built-in codec on AW-850 versus the codec chip used on the motherboard.

 

[holdencommodore]

I think this is a PCI soundcard based on a C-media 8738 chip, if i recall correctly..... just that Aopen rebadge the chip as a "Aopen AS9600". Being a C-media, it'll have solid drivers, as well as excellent API support through Sensaura (EAX1, 2, A3D, MacroFX, ZoomFX, MultiDrive), and will be much better overall then the AC97. The C-media cards are great value for the price. You could probably get a cheaper card then the Aopen..... probably under the Chaintech AudioExcel range.....exactly the same card.

Cheers

 

[Zepper]

Yeah, CMedia based cards are a great value. Computer Geeks has a 6-channel CMI-8738 based card for $12.50.
.bh.
:Q

 

[Bagheera786]

How does the CMedia 8738 compare with something like an SBLive! 5.1? I'm looking to buy a new motherboard, and MSI has the CMedia 8738 5.1 onboard, others have AC97 codecs. I currently have an SBLive!5.1, but I was wondering whether I should sell it to offset the cost of my new mobo/CPU, or whether I should keep the SBLive!5.1?

thanks,
Bagheera

 

[holdencommodore]

You'll probably find the Live 5.1 to be better all round then the Cmedia..... but then again, the Cmedia chip was never designed to compete with the Live 5.1. It's a low end solution, but excells in it's price/performance ratio..... nothing comes close in offering all that a Cmedia chip has for so few dollars.

The Cmedia 8738 doesn't have Bass/Treb adjustment and will use abit more CPU cycles, but it's better then most brands of AC97 codecs.

You really need to test it yourself to see if you like the sound it produces, it may be all that you require.

Cheers