Sound card for a dual CPU system

[imported_BikeDude]

I'm about to replace my "old" nForce2 system with a Tyan K8WE motherboard and dual Opterons at the end of this month. (actually ASAP, but the K8WE is hard to come by over here)

This leaves me stranded without nVidia's excellent SoundStorm technology. Yes, I'm a SoundStorm ("SS"?) fanboy. I have it hooked up to a Logitech 5.1 speaker system, the Z-680 with optical SPDIF inputs (which I use).

So... Ideally I'd like something that can encode Dolby. That is not going to happen for a while. Next best thing (I guess) is SPDIF when playing DVD movies and the three analog connectors for games.

But then I face the problem of sound card drivers. A few years back several SMP owners complained about crashing drivers from Creative Labs. I hope those problems have been duly addressed since, but I don't really know if that is the case? And what about XP-64 drivers?

So, what is the sound card of choice for gamers, and will it (or rather its drivers) work properly in a dual-CPU system? Any PCI Express sound cards on the way? (that will fit in a PCI-E X16 slot, for I have no plans to go SLI any time soon)

 

[ribbon13]

Great choice. I have a K8WE myself. Great board.

Dolby encoding + gaming isn't going to happen with one card. I don't know how an Audigy will tolerate an Opteron system. I hate Creative.

I use a Juli@ in mine, but I'm not a gamer.

I'm gonna get one of these soon I think.

 

[SynthDude2001]

There is one sound card now that can encode Dolby Digital. (And I'm probably going to buy it myself, once I finally upgrade from this nForce2 to an A64 system. I too am a self-proclaimed Soundstorm fanboy )

It's the Hitec HDA X-Mystique 7.1, and initial reports have been quite good over on AVS Forum. It's still a bit expensive, since there are not yet any distributors in the US.

Take a look at the thread on AVS Forum (it's pretty long), there are lots of experiences and impressions from users there. I haven't completely read it through yet, so I don't know how SMP support is. But it's definitely worth taking a look at.

Edit: Damn you ribbon!

 

[AristoV300]

Wow looks like a sweet card, but ouch on the price.

 

[imported_BikeDude]

Wow, that looks like an exciting product!

The thread you linked to mentions http://www.hidiaudio.com/ as the official site. However, all I get is Chinese characters... (at work anyway -- at home I got ascii gibberish since I don't have the correct font installed)

Ribbon: I too dislike Creative. I bought their original SoundBlaster, then the SB Pro, the SB AWE64, SB Live! and finally the Audigy. Initially their ISA products performed just fine, but IMO their PCI products have struggled with the design of the PCI bus (and various implementations thereof) and incredibly poor Windows driver quality. In particular their SBLive! drivers were incredibly bad around 1999/2000 when Windows 2000 was launched. I was impressed that they finally started releasing beta drivers during the 64-bit Windows beta, but for me it was too little too late. There's room for someone to replace CL as the major sound card manufacturer.

Oh well... Time to hunt down the Hitec cards and an European distributor. I don't think $100 is too much for a sound card as I'm prepared to pay double that if it gets me anywhere near to where I am today with SoundStorm. I guess we'll see a nVidia graphics card with integrated sound one of these days, but until then... Thanks for the tip!

 

[UNCjigga]

Why not get the generic version of that HDA X-Mystique with all the features for $25? Uses the same CMI8768+ audio chip. Honestly I don't know why mobo makers aren't using this chip on their Nforce4 boards.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: UNCjigga
Why not get the generic version of that HDA X-Mystique with all the features for $25? Uses the same CMI8768 audio chip. Honestly I don't know why mobo makers aren't using this chip on their Nforce4 boards.

My understanding is that the X-Mystique card uses the CMI8768+ instead of the regular CMI8768 (which does not have Dolby Digital encoding support). That's basically what Soundstorm addicts are looking for in a sound card upgrade.

 

[UNCjigga]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: UNCjigga
Why not get the generic version of that HDA X-Mystique with all the features for $25? Uses the same CMI8768 audio chip. Honestly I don't know why mobo makers aren't using this chip on their Nforce4 boards.

My understanding is that the X-Mystique card uses the CMI8768+ instead of the regular CMI8768 (which does not have Dolby Digital encoding support). That's basically what Soundstorm addicts are looking for in a sound card upgrade.

Oops, forgot to add the "+". Check the specs on that card I linked--it DOES have the + chip and does mention "real-time DVD Digital Live 7.1" output which I think implies Dolby Digital Live support. Of course, the card is out of stock...

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: UNCjigga

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: UNCjigga
Why not get the generic version of that HDA X-Mystique with all the features for $25? Uses the same CMI8768 audio chip. Honestly I don't know why mobo makers aren't using this chip on their Nforce4 boards.

My understanding is that the X-Mystique card uses the CMI8768+ instead of the regular CMI8768 (which does not have Dolby Digital encoding support). That's basically what Soundstorm addicts are looking for in a sound card upgrade.

Oops, forgot to add the "+". Check the specs on that card I linked--it DOES have the + chip and does mention "real-time DVD Digital Live 7.1" output which I think implies Dolby Digital Live support. Of course, the card is out of stock...

Yeah, I noticed that too, and I'm really not sure what to make of it. My line of thinking is just that it would be kind of hard for me to believe that there may be a second card out there that can do realtime Dolby Digital encoding that no one has really noticed yet.. (Or maybe this is something that just came out?)

Edit: Hmm...all the other pages/stores I can find that list that card, also show it as out of stock...very strange.

Edit2: The other thing that makes me question the validity of the specs is that "real-time DVD Digital Live 7.1" thing - as far as I know, real-time encoding is still limited to 5.1. And why would they mention DVD if this particular feature would be for encoding audio like games...?

 

[imported_BikeDude]

But "Supports real-time DVD Digital Live 7.1 output" is kind of ambiguous, isn't it? Even the Audigy support that, assuming you feed it with output from a DVD?

Add to that, Dolby encoding still requires a license from the Dolby guys? Thus I'd expect most of those $25 would have to be paid to Dolby, thus leaving little to cover the cost of a driver CD, let alone the hardware components themselves.

It is good to see there are alternatives, I just wish it didn't look as if it was too good to be true...

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: BikeDude
But "Supports real-time DVD Digital Live 7.1 output" is kind of ambiguous, isn't it? Even the Audigy support that, assuming you feed it with output from a DVD?

Add to that, Dolby encoding still requires a license from the Dolby guys? Thus I'd expect most of those $25 would have to be paid to Dolby, thus leaving little to cover the cost of a driver CD, let alone the hardware components themselves.

It is good to see there are alternatives, I just wish it didn't look as if it was too good to be true...

Yeah...that wording is quite vague. I imagine the Dolby license can't be that expensive, because I paid $115 for my brand new NF7-S in 2003 (with Soundstorm of course), and that was pretty much the going price for a mid- to high-end motherboard, Soundstorm or not (if I remember correctly).

It would be nice if that cheap card did DD encoding, but I wouldn't count on it. At this point I think I still want the X-Mystique - after the price comes down, of course. I'm not planning on upgrading to an A64 system for another month or two though.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Did everyone decide to get an X-Mystique in the last couple days just like me?

I hope it comes to the US and the price becomes more reasonable soon.

To tide you over in the meantime if you just want some optical out (but not live encoding), the Chaintech AV-710 is a nice one. It's only $25 so not much is lost if you end up not using it.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Did everyone decide to get an X-Mystique in the last couple days just like me?

I hope it comes to the US and the price becomes more reasonable soon.

To tide you over in the meantime if you just want some optical out (but not live encoding), the Chaintech AV-710 is a nice one. It's only $25 so not much is lost if you end up not using it.

I've been planning on getting one since I first heard of it a few months ago. We're not trying to imitate your decision (or at least, I'm not).

I'm going to do a major upgrade (Athlon 64 Venice + motherboard + new video card when they come out + new hard drives + possibly add a second gigabyte of RAM) in a few months, and I don't want to downgrade as far as audio capabilities go.

 

[imported_BikeDude]

But I guess no-one has tried this card with 64-bit XP yet?

In any case, I've e-mailed them and asked about a distributor closer to me, and a 64-bit driver...

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: BikeDude
But I guess no-one has tried this card with 64-bit XP yet?

In any case, I've e-mailed them and asked about a distributor closer to me, and a 64-bit driver...

Cool, let us know what you find out. I'll be using the card in an A64 system at some point, but I'm not sure when there will be drivers for my HDTV tuner, so I may delay my own OS upgrade by a little bit.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Did everyone decide to get an X-Mystique in the last couple days just like me?

I hope it comes to the US and the price becomes more reasonable soon.

To tide you over in the meantime if you just want some optical out (but not live encoding), the Chaintech AV-710 is a nice one. It's only $25 so not much is lost if you end up not using it.

I've been planning on getting one since I first heard of it a few months ago. We're not trying to imitate your decision (or at least, I'm not).

I'm going to do a major upgrade (Athlon 64 Venice + motherboard + new video card when they come out + new hard drives + possibly add a second gigabyte of RAM) in a few months, and I don't want to downgrade as far as audio capabilities go.

Heh, I didn't think you were imitating me, it's just that I hadn't heard about it until a couple days ago, and now two of the people I know best here just said that they were planning on getting one down the road, just like I decided a day or so ago.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Did everyone decide to get an X-Mystique in the last couple days just like me?

I hope it comes to the US and the price becomes more reasonable soon.

To tide you over in the meantime if you just want some optical out (but not live encoding), the Chaintech AV-710 is a nice one. It's only $25 so not much is lost if you end up not using it.

I've been planning on getting one since I first heard of it a few months ago. We're not trying to imitate your decision (or at least, I'm not).

I'm going to do a major upgrade (Athlon 64 Venice + motherboard + new video card when they come out + new hard drives + possibly add a second gigabyte of RAM) in a few months, and I don't want to downgrade as far as audio capabilities go.

Heh, I didn't think you were imitating me, it's just that I hadn't heard about it until a couple days ago, and now two of the people I know best here just said that they were planning on getting one down the road, just like I decided a day or so ago.

:beer:

I :heart: my Soundstorm, and it's part of the reason it's taken me so long to finally upgrade from my Athlon XP.