Best Sound Card for Win 2K

[EJ 0]

I am giong to buy a new sound card for my Win 2k box. Any suggestions on the best card to get? Thanks for the help.

[INFERNO2000 0]

SBLive 5.1 is just about your only choice for a high quality card, unless you want to pay overly large amounts(the Turtle card), or have a card that is no longer going to have drivers made(Anything Aureal A3D based).

 

However, as you probably know, SBLive and Win2k CAN be problematic. I personally have no problems whatsoever...

 

Good luck with whateer you pick

[tristan777 0]

yea i thought i read at one point that the static and crap were VIA problems. my old MVP3 based board almost made me go insane because i never did get rid of the noise. but i got a Asus A7V and it's crystal clear now. and both have VIA chipsets.

 

i would definately go with the SB live! everybody knows creative has ****ty suport. lies about their drivers release dates and everything else, but it all seemed to work out for me. and the card is pretty cheap too. alot cheaper than those damn turtle cards.

[franzj 0]

Excuse my language, but you guys are both full of shit. The Santa Cruz is Turtle Beach's most expensive single-piece sound card, and you can find it for $90. The Montego II can be found for below $50. You can't get much cheaper than that. By the way, the Santa Cruz is awesome when it comes to six-speaker playback! Also, it is compatible with all currently releases versions of Windows > Windows 95. Check out compgeeks.com and computershopper.com for prices on TB sound cards.

[STi Sev 0]

Quote:

Originally posted by franzj:
Excuse my language, but you guys are both full of shit. The Santa Cruz is Turtle Beach's most expensive single-piece sound card, and you can find it for . The Montego II can be found for below . You can't get much cheaper than that. By the way, the Santa Cruz is awesome when it comes to six-speaker playback! Also, it is compatible with all currently releases versions of Windows > Windows 95. Check out compgeeks.com and computershopper.com for prices on TB sound cards.

franzj, I dont know if you were bashing SB LIVE 5.1 (too lazy too read whole thing), but it were you need to get a life

SB LIVE 5.1 for $95.00 is the best one rightn ow

or

SB lIVE! VALUE (normal NOT 5.1) $45-$50.00 is the best value.

[Down8 0]

Quote:

Current Email: stisev@aol.com

I think that says it all.

I was looking at the board, and you just ravaged it with tons of extremely opinionated, but totally unsupported advice, all the while belittling those who you gave it to. Great help buddy.

-bZj

[INFERNO2000 0]

I apologize...you're right about the turtles....I got them confused with another card....I have no experience with anything "new" other than my pre-5.1 SBLive and an obsolete when in my new computer Diamond S90 Vortex 1

 

I'd heard that the turtles were expensive...aroudn the 2 to 3 hundred dollar range....That was a different card, but the Turtle was mentioned in that post as well.

SImple mistake

[clutch 1]

Some were pretty expensive at one time. Easy mistake to make.

 

 

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Regards,

 

clutch

[FKTOAST 0]

Both cards that you guys speak of are great, no, awesome sound cards each of which have there advantages. I am a performance freak. I want the best performance possible but if compatibility becomes an issue then performance drop a ton. I think the Sound Blaster Live! series sound card is going to be the most compatible for W2K and all applications, games, DVDs and sound editing for home users.

 

------------------

Frank

A+, Windows 98 and NT MCP

[JediBaron 0]

I disagree strongly with you, FKTOAST. 95% of all Win2k hardware problems currently come from the SB Live cards. They have all kinds of problems, even some that you can only reinstall Win2k to fully fix. They perform like lame dogs - try mixing 16 voices on your Live and then on something like the SB128. You'll see a massive difference.

Sure the SB Live is packed with features and even has a programmable processor, but in Win2k (and many Win98) systems it's just a pain in the butt. Don't mistake the current lack of high-end soundcards as a sign that SB Live is the best. I think you'll find that once someone else comes in with a high end card that it will probably prove to be much better and WAY more compatible than the flakey SB Live's ever were.

 

Certified through practical experience!!

(hehe - sorry, I just HAD to add that )

[clutch 1]

Where do you get that number jedibaron? You have been informative in the past, but I am wondering where you got that from. I have 3 workstations at my office and I know of 4 others that have Win2K and SBLives, and none of them have problems at all (BX, Apollo Pro 133A, and i820) with various programs and DVD Player software. Not to mention the games that have worked on them (OpenGL and D3D). I know that people have had their issues with the Live cards, but I would have to agree with Frank as far as the overall compatability (unless you have a source for this metric).

 

MCSE, MCP+I, and certi-fried thru experience

 

 

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Regards,

 

clutch

[STi Sev 0]

Quote:

Originally posted by Down8:

Quote:

Current Email: stisev@aol.com

I think that says it all.

I was looking at the board, and you just ravaged it with tons of extremely opinionated, but totally unsupported advice, all the while belittling those who you gave it to. Great help buddy.

-bZj

You are the biggest moron I've seen in my life; that's just the email I use for misc. (bb's, signing up for tripod for example.. etc)

my real email is stisev@Home.com. I've been on a real ISP for the last 7 years, and most indefinately can wup your sorry ass in that and everything else.
Dumbass

[STi Sev 0]

Quote:

Originally posted by STi Sev:
You are waaay off buddy; that's just the email I use for misc. (bb's, signing up for tripod for example.. etc)

my real email is stisev@Home.com. I've been on a real ISP for the last 7 years. hehe Dumb***.

The only thing that was "unsupported" btw was the 3dmark score.

[Down8 0]

 

 

-bZj

[JediBaron 0]

That number has tracked true with all the medium to high performance system with a Live card that has come through my office. I myself spent 3 months with my own system trying to get my SB Live to stop malfunctioning because I hate to give up. After all the rinstalls, beta drivers, registry hacks, and hardware configs nothing was able to fix mine. I finally traded my $100 Live card for a $25 card which worked without a hitch.

While I've been able to get most other systems working right eventually. Mainly through hardware reconfigs and reinstalls with the last thing being the SB Live software. Some have worked good as long as you just use the WDM drivers, but that kind of defeats the purpose. Win9x machines mess up a lot with them too, but I've been always able to fix all of them (at least in the short run till they mess up again). Sometimes all I can do is simply reinstall and I don't like that one bit. And on Win2k, it is the only piece of hardware that has ever caused a problem for me that required a reinstall to fix. Every other problem with hardware in Win2k has been fixable.

I don't know who you work for, but think of all the hardware config problems caused by cards (not m/b's) that you've ever seen in Win2k machines(serious ones, not just updated drivers or something). Every time I have a Win2k machine with some kind of unusual hardware config problem it's always got a Live in it, so for me that percentage is actually 100% . But I'm sure I'll come across something else in the future that causes a problem too.

[EJ 0]

Well I just wanted to say that I got a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and so far I have had no problems with it.

[clutch 1]

Damn Jedi, that sucks. The main problems that I have had with any of the NT based systems have been communication problems (being saddled with a cheap NIC that I am told HAS to work, or some weak-*** winmodem). I know how frustrating it gets when you point out that a simple $25 hardware swap would fix the problem, but some bean counter "scored a great deal" on a dozen of these wonderful pieces of art.

 

I am curious, have you found a pattern in what attached hardware has the most h***le (mobo chipset, video card, etc)?

 

------------------

Regards,

 

clutch

[JediBaron 0]

hehe - it filtered out the @ss is h@ssle - that's funny, took me a min to figure out what you asked

 

As far as any normal components that I've had bad times with, I'd have to rate the worst as FIC's 503+ m/b and to a lesser extent their 2013 m/b. Those boards have such a m***ively flawed MVP3 implimentation that they make it near impossible to get everything working exactly right. And the old AGP voltage fluctuations like to toast the nice expensive video cards. My personal favorite is if you try to load up Via's UDMA driver in Win9x for the 503+. You will be instantly treated to the slowest harddrive access ever recorded Take's like 5-10 mins just to get into windows, then every step to the uninstall takes an eternity - hehe

I've found many m/b's that impliment the MVP3 chipset to run beautifully though like DFI's K6XV3 +/66 (my favorite of the socket 7 boards)

 

The AMD chipset timing problem with the A3D sound card and then the company closing up was a nice one too I've heard that there are now new drivers that may fix it, but haven't tried them. Of course now that Creative owns them we can look forward to stealing the fixed drivers that they'll probably make for some other company that they deal with like Intel or Dell- hehe

 

All-in-all, most of the newer chipsets have worked pretty well. Only those damn bios's are the probs. That's why I'm only sticking to m/b manufacturers with lots of continuing support like ASUS, ABIT, and DFI for all my new systems.

 

Boy this post is getting long . . .

 

Of course everyone knows the Nvidia cards have had lots of probs, but I love the 'leaked' driver thing. With Nvidia there is so many different driver bases and bios's that problem solving is a easy, if not time consuming process It's the price we pay for performance, with Voodoo not even coming close to keeping up, Nvidia is the logical (and only) choice for all high-end graphics.

 

let see . . . what else?

 

Oh yeah, that whole HP CD Writer causing all other cd drives to disappear sucked the bag. And HP didn't post the answer to the problem until a month after the first time it happened to me

 

Ok - my fingers hurt now - hehe

 

Let me just say that the best cheap hardware config is probably close to the one I have now, I love it. If money's no object a P3 815 board is probably the best compatible newer board (but who wants to help out Chipzilla, especially nowadays). All I need now is a Geforce 3 (is that what they're going to call the NV20?). Damn am I a greedy bastard

 

Till my next insanely long raving post ,

JediBaron

 

Operating System: Windows 2000 Pro sp1 (running fully PNP w/ ACPI)

Processor: AMD K7 T-Bird 800@900(1.88V,+4degC) w/ 256 Megs PC133

Motherboard: Asus A7V (1005.03e BIOS) w/ the newest Via 4 in 1, ASUS Promise 100 drivers b25

Hard Drive: Maxtor 1536H2 on the Promise 100

Video: Asus 6600 SGRAM w/ Asus sba bios (AGP Geforce 256,32meg - Nvidia drivers v6.47)

Sound: SB 128 PCI (1373 chip w/ 5.12.01.4035 WDM drivers - certified)

Modem: USR 56K PCI

Network: NETGEAR FA310TX Fast Ethernet Adapter (PCI 10/100 card)

SCSI: PCI Advansys SCSI Host Adapter

CD Burner: Smart&Friendly 4x SCSI

Printer: Epson Stylus 740 (USB)

Scanner: UMAX Astra 1220U (USB)

Misc: Creative PC-DVD 5X drive, USB Intellimouse Optical w/ intellipoint 3.2 (ver. 3.20.0.484), Gravis Xterminator gamepad with 4.2.0.3 (beta test ver dated 11/28/00)

DirectX: 8.0 (4.08.00.0400)

 

 

[This message has been edited by JediBaron (edited 30 November 2000).]

[APV_SAV 0]

If SBLIVE is giving you problem try Aopen AW744 Pro, it is based on the Yamaha 744 chipset not as good as sblive but work perfertly with W2K and it cost only US$30

[Gambler FEX online 0]

But what about A3D? Is A3D 1.0 accelleration enough for quake 3?

 

That's what I wanto, play quake 3 with surrounnd in windows 2000. I currently have a SB Live and it crackles heavily with my SMP system.

[GHackmann 0]

Quote:

Originally posted by Gambler FEX online:
But what about A3D? Is A3D 1.0 accelleration enough for quake 3?

That's what I wanto, play quake 3 with surrounnd in windows 2000. I currently have a SB Live and it crackles heavily with my SMP system.

You don't need A3D acceleration at all. Shortly before their demise, A3D released A2D, which is a A3D-to-DirectSound 3D wrapper that works much better than what Creative supplies. Better yet, it works with non-CL cards.

I haven't tried it personally with Q3A (don't like it, bought UT instead) but I've heard good things about it.

You can get it here: http://downloads.aureal.com/pub/Public/Drivers/A3D/a2ddrivers312.exe

[Gambler FEX online 0]

I have already tried that one, and it works in quake 3. But it isn't so goot, sounds are muffed and the CPU load is incredible. And I cant run in SMP because of the SB Live!

 

A3D and 5.1 output, that'll do it.

[stephendhill 0]

Quote:

Originally posted by EJ:
I am giong to buy a new sound card for my Win 2k box. Any suggestions on the best card to get? Thanks for the help.

Creative's drivers for the SBLive! are terribly buggy!
The latest (12/07/00) drivers can cause BSOD's under Win2000!
Just try running this screensaver: http://reallyslick.demonews.com/savers/flocks.zip if you have a SBLive! card and Win2k!

Workaround is to remove devldr32.exe from your system to get rid of the crashes!

[Down8 0]

Check out this Philips card: http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/acousticedge_psc706/

 

It looks pretty nice. Now, if I could only find someplace ot buy it.

 

-bZj

[Yearout 0]

Same here Down8. I contacted Philips and they said its at Compusa LOL. I guess they did'nt tell Compusa yet. If I here I let you know..