Audio Card Evaluation |
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Audio Card Evaluation |
 Feb 7 2008, 08:00 PM
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#1
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 Will Fold 4 Food  Posts: 6,106 Joined: 10-May 04 From: Franklin, TN Member No.: 10,039  |
Check it out: http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/diamond_xs51/
-------------------- P4 3.0C/Abit IC7-G/Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2PRO LED/Hitachi 2 x 80 GB SATA RAID 0/Hitachi 120GB SATA/Sapphire HD 3850 512MB /Raidmax Scorpio 868/Vantec Aeroflow/XP Pro SP 2
"however, i cannot claim to be such a fish as i am not a fish at all..." - hardnrg,Jul 4 2005, 02:49 PM   |
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Feb 7 2008, 11:17 PM
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#2
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 Folding is good :)  Posts: 4,344 Joined: 21-June 04 From: NC (USA) Member No.: 10,771 |
I actually have what would appear to be the exact card with antoher brand name on it in my "HTPC" atm. And ill agree 100% with the review, it isnt anything worth having for the newer onboard sound options, however the old AC97 based audio most boards from two years go have is far worse.
Though if i was buying a sound card for the purpose i would likely go with something better if moving beyond even older onboard. (I got mine for free, so what can i say 
--------------------  My FoldingQ6600 @3.6+/EVGA 122-CK-NF68-T1/8GB PC2-8000/1TB 7200.11/500GB 7200.11/GTX 260 SLI/Silverstone OP650(Main rig) Phenom 9550 X4 @ 2.5/Crosshair II Formula/2GB Ballistix PC2-6400/250GB/3x9600GSO/CMPSU-650TX (F@H Rig) Opteron 165 @2.7+ghz/EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra/2GB G.Skill PC3200(2x1GB)/320GBx2 RAID 1/500GBx2 RAID 1/40GBx2/8800GT/500w (server) E8400 @4.0+/GA-EP45-UD3P/2GB Ballistix PC2-5300/250GB/4870 512MB/500w (work rig) T9300 2.5/4GB PC2-5300/2x320GB RAID 0/8800M GTS 512MB (Laptop, Gateway P-6860FX) T6400 2.0/4GB PC2-6400/250GB/9300M 512MB (Laptop, ASUS X83V) Atom 330/D945GCLF2/2GB PC2-5300 KVR/160GB/90w picoPSU |
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Feb 7 2008, 11:21 PM
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#3
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 Audio Nut Posts: 6,680 Joined: 14-February 04 From: Clemson U. Member No.: 8,484 |
I just got the XS 7.1 version of this card...beware if you have Vista. There are NO official drivers for the card for 32 or 64 bit Vista from CMedia. The drivers that automatically install are passable, but you can't use any of the advanced features on the card. 5.1 is useless because it swaps the side and rear speaker outputs and the center/sub outputs.
 I ended up using my onboard sound for 5.1 (ALC850) headphone and the 7.1 card for the headset mic input only.  Did the 5.1 card have any of the same issues? -------------------- Desktop: | Q6600 @ 3.2 GHz | 128 GB GSkill Falcon | 8 GB WinTec AmpX | Sapphire 4870 X2 | DFI P35-T2RL | PCP&C Silencer 610 | W7 x64 | HTPC: | X3 720 BE @ 3.4 GHz | 4.5 TB Storage | 8 GB GeIL Black Dragon | PowerColor 4830 | ECS A-780GM-A | ATI Theater 650 Pro | OCZ Fatal1ty 550 | W7 x64 | Router/VPN/Compiling: | Opteron 175 | 4 GB DDR 500 | S3 Trio PCI VGA | Asus A8N-SLI SE | SinTek 500SLI | XP Pro | Office: | Dell Precision 390 | Core 2 Duo E6320 | 2 GB DDR2 667 | XFX 7800GT | Fedora 10 / Windows 7 RC | NetBook: | Asus EeePC 900A | 1.6 GHz Atom | 32 GB SSD | 2 GB DDR2 667 | Intel Integrated | W7 x86 | |
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Feb 8 2008, 06:00 AM
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#4
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 NJ's one and only Porkchop Posts: 152 Joined: 28-August 07 From: N.C. (orig NJ) Member No.: 24,287 |
QUOTE (Thewacokid @ Feb 8 2008, 02:21 AM)  I just got the XS 7.1 version of this card...beware if you have Vista. There are NO official drivers for the card for 32 or 64 bit Vista from CMedia. The drivers that automatically install are passable, but you can't use any of the advanced features on the card. 5.1 is useless because it swaps the side and rear speaker outputs and the center/sub outputs. I ended up using my onboard sound for 5.1 (ALC850) headphone and the 7.1 card for the headset mic input only. Did the 5.1 card have any of the same issues? sorry you are having issues with the card, we reviewed the 7.1 here, but it was on XP MCE 2005. I also tested in XP (moving to Vista with the next review). I see that there has been no support for Vista, but if you go to Cmedia's website here, you can grab Vista drivers for the c-media chip to see if they are any better than the VIsta drivers. there are also some discussions on the c-media forums about VIsta support for the 8768 chipset here good luck. |
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Feb 8 2008, 07:47 AM
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#5
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 Member Posts: 267 Joined: 28-November 07 From: Orlando, FL Member No.: 28,519 |
Cool, glad you reviewed this. The one thing I didn't care for on it was I would lose the ability to use the front headphone and mic inputs on my case. Guess I'm better off all around using the onboard.
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Feb 10 2008, 03:23 PM
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#6
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Audio Nut Posts: 6,680 Joined: 14-February 04 From: Clemson U. Member No.: 8,484 |
QUOTE (cygnus_x_1 @ Feb 8 2008, 02:00 PM) sorry you are having issues with the card, we reviewed the 7.1 here, but it was on XP MCE 2005. I also tested in XP (moving to Vista with the next review). I see that there has been no support for Vista, but if you go to Cmedia's website here, you can grab Vista drivers for the c-media chip to see if they are any better than the VIsta drivers. I tried the beta drivers and they were worse than the Vista-supplied drivers. Some manufacturers are just waaay behind the times when it comes to Vista support. CMedia is one of them. -------------------- Desktop: | Q6600 @ 3.2 GHz | 128 GB GSkill Falcon | 8 GB WinTec AmpX | Sapphire 4870 X2 | DFI P35-T2RL | PCP&C Silencer 610 | W7 x64 | HTPC: | X3 720 BE @ 3.4 GHz | 4.5 TB Storage | 8 GB GeIL Black Dragon | PowerColor 4830 | ECS A-780GM-A | ATI Theater 650 Pro | OCZ Fatal1ty 550 | W7 x64 | Router/VPN/Compiling: | Opteron 175 | 4 GB DDR 500 | S3 Trio PCI VGA | Asus A8N-SLI SE | SinTek 500SLI | XP Pro | Office: | Dell Precision 390 | Core 2 Duo E6320 | 2 GB DDR2 667 | XFX 7800GT | Fedora 10 / Windows 7 RC | NetBook: | Asus EeePC 900A | 1.6 GHz Atom | 32 GB SSD | 2 GB DDR2 667 | Intel Integrated | W7 x86 | |
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Feb 10 2008, 04:29 PM
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#7
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 e = MC Hammer Posts: 5,897 Joined: 21-February 04 From: Southampton, UK Member No.: 8,605 |
The way Vista deals with sound is different, which means most Vista sound drivers suck balls unfortunately.
--------------------   Recommended Power Supplies List E8400 @ 3.6GHz - DFI Blood Iron P35-T2RL - 4GB Patriot Viper Fin - HD 4850 512MB - X-Fi Xtreme Music |
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Feb 10 2008, 05:05 PM
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#8
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Audio Nut Posts: 6,680 Joined: 14-February 04 From: Clemson U. Member No.: 8,484 |
QUOTE (jammin @ Feb 11 2008, 12:29 AM) The way Vista deals with sound is different, which means most Vista sound drivers suck balls unfortunately. The Realtek drivers are pretty good from what I've seen on the computers I've used it on. The Creative drivers for my old Audigy 2 suck in Vista though, the output levels about about 20 dB lower than they should be which is why I moved back to the onboard sound. -------------------- Desktop: | Q6600 @ 3.2 GHz | 128 GB GSkill Falcon | 8 GB WinTec AmpX | Sapphire 4870 X2 | DFI P35-T2RL | PCP&C Silencer 610 | W7 x64 | HTPC: | X3 720 BE @ 3.4 GHz | 4.5 TB Storage | 8 GB GeIL Black Dragon | PowerColor 4830 | ECS A-780GM-A | ATI Theater 650 Pro | OCZ Fatal1ty 550 | W7 x64 | Router/VPN/Compiling: | Opteron 175 | 4 GB DDR 500 | S3 Trio PCI VGA | Asus A8N-SLI SE | SinTek 500SLI | XP Pro | Office: | Dell Precision 390 | Core 2 Duo E6320 | 2 GB DDR2 667 | XFX 7800GT | Fedora 10 / Windows 7 RC | NetBook: | Asus EeePC 900A | 1.6 GHz Atom | 32 GB SSD | 2 GB DDR2 667 | Intel Integrated | W7 x86 | |
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 21st November 2009 - 10:58 PM |
