mobo with onborard SPDIF- any good??

Looking at an upgrade.
Currently have a 1 gig duron and an audigy player.
If I bought the
Abit NF7 - nForce2 - USB2+A133+Dual DDR400+AGP8x
That has spdif out -would it be as good, not as good or better than the Audigy?

Ta

Chris

 

Haven't heard an Audigy but I have the Abit NF7-S and it sounds OK to me out of the spdif.
Also if you intend watching any WMV HD titles like "Coral Reef" the nForce2 can convert the WMAPro soundtrack to DD5.1 which can also then be output via the spdif.

 

Good point. It would need to output DD and DTS though. My Amp decodes both signals.
How many titles are there in HD format? And do you really need a 3Gig processor??


Cheers

Chris

 

Hi Baggy

This ablilty to convert WMAPro to 5.1 is totally news to me and sounds very interesting. I know nothing about Socket A processors. Perhaps someone could give the name of a good socket A processor that is 3Ghz or more

If that is a really stupid question...sorry


Conor

 

As I understand it the spdif is just a digital connection and will pass the soundsteam through to your amp for decoding be it DD or DTS.
The interesting bit for the new WMV titles ( if I've understood correctly) is that they have WMA Pro soundtrack instead of DD or DTS and there aren't many amps that can decode that.The nforce2 (Sound Storm boards) converts it on the fly into DD for your amp to decode.
The alternative being to output the sound via 6 interconnects to your amp.
Do a search on this and AVS forum and you should get more info.

 

the digital output on these boards are great. they do the job nicely. Dolby digital upmixing is only really for gaming and the odd movie as explained above. For music i dont let my board output in dd, only PCM.

 

There's lots out there. NForce2 mobos tend to be very good, and Socket A processors go upto XP 3200+ with a 400mhz FSB, AMD don't tend to play on the GHz thing, but I can play them no probs on an XP2800+ with 333MHz FSB and matching memory no probs

Incidentally if anyone wants the SPDIF in/out module, they're a fiver from Asus UK !!

 

My answer to your thread on the 9th?!?

 

yes it was, don't know how I missed that.

I have a socket 478 mainboard and it would be a waste not to use that. I also have a cheap sound card with 5.1 analogue outputs. I might try that next and take it from there.

Thanks for all the help

 

I agree it would be waste to splash out if you already have a perfectly decent motherboard just to get 5.1 out of a few titles over s/pdif. Although depending where your htpc is in the room, it might cost you just as much in cabling to connect it up via analogue to your amp!

 

Ok, I have just bought the board.
I did notice that it has an optical out?? Is this correct and is this better then the S/P Dif?
Dou you have to get an extra card to get the SP DIF out?

Cheers

Chris

 

optical IS sp/dif out. You want co-ax sp/dif though, not optical - so you'll have to buy a bracket with co-ax spdif connectors if you want co-ax.

 

Oh Bugger.
Where do I get one form and how much...should have added it to the SCAN order

 

are you sure you HAVE to use co-ax? is optical not an option?

 

yeah, I suppose it is, just being dim
I'm sure it will be fine either way.

Cheers

Chris

 

Chris,

Have a look at http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/barebone/minipc.php3

I got one of thir Athlon cases / mobo combo's. They are excellent, very quiet (almost silent) and have front and back S/PDIF along with built in 5.1 sound. Graphics is built in but I'd get a decent card for that - you may already have one.

As far as I know these are only sold through dabs in the UK but Evesham base some of their PC's on these tiny cases.

Worth a look. I can't complain about mine.