nForce2 MCP-T Onboard audio vs Sblive value?

[Budman]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
Hi Budman.

Sorry for getting to the party so late. As you've already found out, the MCP-T/Soundstorm really kicks @ss. I have a SBLive! MP3 card and I can easily hear the diff b/t the two; the MCP-T being the better of the two.

I'm on my second NF2 board. Currently using an NF7-S, and before that an Epox 8RDA+. It may be my hearing, but the sound on the Abit is slightly better....maybe b/c I had an old version of the 8RDA board?

Ah, who cares!!! I game in surround bliss.

Good luck. :thumbsup:

Thanks MichaelD I soon found out that the onboard sound of this peticular board with MCP-T/Soundstorm really beats my old live card.

I am happy very happy with this board with both onboard goodies & GREAT overclocking abilities.

I think if you're looking for a great mobile Athlon board looking for great overclock ability then it's the best board out there.

Yes it beats the Abit NF7 with no problem,I got my DFI board to 250fsb with no problems at all & if my crucial cas 3 could do better than 250mhz@ 2.8v I would be higher fsb right now.

DFI NFII is the Best Athlon OC boards out there.

I wanted to go A64 but in my area right now it's just not economicaly sound.

For a equaly good/fast A64 right I would have spent 2X the money.

so that's why I got the DFI/Mobile combo & I am very happy even going from a P4 2.4@3ghz on a IC7 .

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
The Realtek ALC650 is just there to provide the circuitry from the MCP-T chip to the audio jacks on the board (aside from the digital of course). The ALC650 does no sound processing other than convert the signal from digital to audio. The MCP-T does all the heavy stuff (3D, dolby, etc...).

I am using the analog out & it does sound good. after years of great service I am able to retire my old Sblive.

 

[Megatomic]

Yeah, when they work they work great. Congrats on being lucky enough to get a working board. :beer:

I'm thinking of getting a mobile barton prior to D3 being hitting the stores. I'll go for 12 x 200MHz @ 1.65Vcore if I get one. That would be pretty sweet.

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Yeah, when they work they work great. Congrats on being lucky enough to get a working board. :beer:

I'm thinking of getting a mobile barton prior to D3 being hitting the stores. I'll go for 12 x 200MHz @ 1.65Vcore if I get one. That would be pretty sweet.

I really think If I had ram being able to do 275mhz this board could do it !!!

the northbridge is cold even at 250mhz & my ram 250mhz at cas3 2.8v. I really love this board. I hope you ca tell.

I loved my IC7 but this one's just better.

 

[Budman]

I had my pc in a sonata case BUT this DFI board has the cpu so close to the end of the board that my power supply & exaust fan was fighting for ventilation. so I took it out & used my senfu tech station & it's runing cool.

senfu tech station.

 

[Mem]

Budman,what about another round IDE cable and spiral wrap to tidy up those cables,that`s what I did with my DFI Infinity Ultra board .


MY DFI pic(low quality due to storage file size). ,type "olympus770" without speechmarks for visitors password.

 

[Jeff7181]

Remember that board has the Nvidia APU so CPU usage is very low even when compared to Audigy cards etc..

True... Tom's Hardware did a test on this a while ago and the nVidia APU used about half the CPU time that the Audigy cards used... I believe that was around the time the Audigy 2 was coming out and CPU usage was still lower than the best Creative could do Although, with high quality speakers you'll probably get better audio with the Audigy 2, plus other things like EAX 3.0 and crap like that.

 

[Zebo]

Good show budman. The DFI kicks ass plain and simple...I have no idea why people like the NF7-S, which I have (mistake), so much. It's been having serious problems reaching even 220 Mhz FSB latly if you digest though hundreds of threads. Add to that it's loud NB HSF which DFI does'nt have I see NO reason to go ABIT considering same price point of these board...

 

[ingenuiti]

analog = sblive, digital = nForce2

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Good show budman. The DFI kicks ass plain and simple...I have no idea why people like the NF7-S, which I have (mistake), so much. It's been having serious problems reaching even 220 Mhz FSB latly if you digest though hundreds of threads. Add to that it's loud NB HSF which DFI does'nt have I see NO reason to go ABIT considering same price point of these board...

1. Without a mobile Barton, FSB settings above 220MHz are largely useless. And the mobile Bartons have not been around near as long as the NF7-S has. Therefore the NF7-S had a large fanbase of completely satisfied customers before extreme high FSB became an issue. And it's not like people aren't getting high CPU clocks with the NF7-S.

2. A Zalman ZM-NB47J cost me $9.90 shipped. It's better than the stock NB cooler on the Infinity. Don't like the buzzing, replace the cooler.

3. Abit NF7-S has no reported cases (that I've seen) of warped ZIF sockets. The Infinity boards were plagued with them.

4. Abit NF7-S has had regular BIOS updates. None since last Nov. for the DFI boards.

5. Abit NF7-S have very few reported cases of cold boot and warm reboot problems. The DFI boards have big trouble here.

I'm not sure but I think that might be enough to account for the popularity of the Abit NF7-S. But like I said earlier, if you are lucky enough to get a working board then you are set to have a nice system.

 

[RanDum72]

Shame they dont use better DACs like creative cards do, then it would totally eliminate the Audigy.

Well, if you think about it, the cost of an Nforce mobo is about the same as the price of an Audigy2 ZS so what you get is a really good bargain.

 

[Mem]

2. A Zalman ZM-NB47J cost me $9.90 shipped. It's better than the stock NB cooler on the Infinity. Don't like the buzzing, replace the cooler.

3. Abit NF7-S has no reported cases (that I've seen) of warped ZIF sockets. The Infinity boards were plagued with them.

4. Abit NF7-S has had regular BIOS updates. None since last Nov. for the DFI boards.

5. Abit NF7-S have very few reported cases of cold boot and warm reboot problems. The DFI boards have big trouble here.

I'm not sure but I think that might be enough to account for the popularity of the Abit NF7-S. But like I said earlier, if you are lucky enough to get a working board then you are set to have a nice system.

No.3 not a well known problem far as I know.

No.4 well you only need BIOS updates if you have bugs or known problems that a bios update would fix,if it`s not broken don`t fix it and I`ve yet to have any problems that a BIOS update could fix.Regular bios updates you can look at both ways,if a board is near perfect or has few bugs then not many bios updates would be needed.

No.5 never had that problem and I use my DFI everyday.
We all know ABIT is perfect .

Not having a go at you Megatomic,I think we should just agree and say both boards are very good and in the end you`ll get many happy owners from both .

 

[Megatomic]

If you go to AMDMB forums you'll see what I talked about. They have a dedicated DFI section that used to be supported by a DFI employee. Well, he took so much crap over there that he wound up leaving. :Q

Yes, all those problems I listed are real problems, not fairy tales that I dreamed up. But I'm sure that somewhere people are badmouthing the NF7-S, too. My only reason for posting that list above was to counter Zebo's post. It is in direct oppositon to my experience with both boards, of which I've had 2 of each.

Cheers, Mem. I agree with your resolution.

 

[txxxx]

Originally posted by: RanDum72

Shame they dont use better DACs like creative cards do, then it would totally eliminate the Audigy.

Well, if you think about it, the cost of an Nforce mobo is about the same as the price of an Audigy2 ZS so what you get is a really good bargain.

True, its not all lost. Some speakers with TOS link support will do the job.

 

[Mem]

My only reason for posting that list above was to counter Zebo's post. It is in direct oppositon to my experience with both boards, of which I've had 2 of each.

Cheers, Mem. I agree with your resolution.

Megatomic that`s my point ,if we read all the too many problem threads then we would end up not buying any board,in the end there`s too many factors involved,also if you look hard enough you`ll always find good and bad owners of any brand/model.

I had to reply because no DFI owner was bad mouthing Abit here,infact I think it`s only Budman and I that have the DFI boards in this thread(I know you had two bad ones but it happens, no motherboard company can guarantee all their motherboards will be in 100% working order in the owners hands).I`ve had a few faulty AMD cpus but still use and like AMD.

I still think it`s those un-official drivers you keep trying (Joke)...

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: Mem
I still think it`s those un-official drivers you keep trying (Joke)...

No way man, my remix is really, really sweet. You *ought* to give it a shot.

 

[Mem]

No way man, my remix is really, really sweet. You *ought* to give it a shot

When it`s no.1 in the charts let me know .