NF7-S sound

[Cheesehead]

Just wondering how good is the onboard sound on the NF7-S board? IS it comparable to SB live 5.1? Better? Maybe an Audigy product?

Thanks

 

[folken]

If you have a 5.1 surround system you won't notice a drastic improvement in quality until you get an audigy sound card. The Live 5.1 will be better in the sense that it uses less cpu time to run but its sound quality isn't that much higher than the onboard on an NF7-S. Once you get to audigy though you have Dolby Digital EX, DTS ES, and EAX 4 (on the ZS cards). That dramatically improves sound quality in movies and games making them much more realistic. The CMSS 3D for those cards makes music sound much more impressive. Of course the specs on the audigy are much better than the other cards so you have to expect better quality on everything

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[Crashman]

If you get it set up right it should sound great, the NF7-S has a more powerful sound processor than the SB Live and comparable to the Audigy2. Of course the codecs aren't the best, so you may want to bypass them by using the digital output.

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[Crashman]

NF7-S does have that nice nForce APU DSP.

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[folken]

I used onboard sound for the longest time and it was good. When I got my Audigy 2 ZS Plat it was like I'd never heard any of my music, movies, and games before lol. I'm never going back to onboard
I noticed a big diff w/ my klipsch/bookshelf speaker system, I don't know how big a diff it would be on a lower end sound system.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

 

[Crashman]

Ah, but the nForce APU is a very nice DSP. To compare standard onboard sound (via only a codec) to the nForce APU is an apples to oranges comparison. While the Audigy2 likely uses better DACs (digital-analog converters) than most nForce APU equiped motherboards, bypassing the DACs via digital output eliminates that concern.

I connected a K7N2G Delta-ILSR to my friends digital system, and it sounded impressive, even compared to his Audigy2 ZS.

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[folken]

I guess all the motherboards I've had sucked all around. Not only wouldn't they run at stock speeds their audio sucked too, lol. I have the absolute worste luck with hardware. I guess I wouldn't learn anything if everything I had worked perfectly, just one working comp would be nice though....

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

 

[Crashman]

Some boards used to have PCI soundchips on them! I've had some nice stereo chips (ESS, Creative SB128, Yamaha), and even one with the SB Live 5.1 (came with a case that had a built-in Live Drive.

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[folken]

I wish I could have been so fortunate

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

 

[Cheesehead]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll stick to the onboard for now and use the digital output. If it sounds good I'll keep that config but if I'm not satisfied I'll spring for an Audigy 2.

Thanks again

 

[Titanion]

I am lost when it comes to configuring sound on these ABIT boards... I may just be lost when it comes to sound all together... how would one go about changing to digital and getting it to work...

<font color=red><b>NF7-S/MBarton 2500+
210x11.5 1.82v SP-97
GB Corsair XMS PC3200
BBA 9800 Pro 423/369</font color=red><font color=black>
NF7-S/MBarton 2600+
210x11.5 1.76v
512MB CVR PC3200
Sapphire 9500@9700