Page 2: Testing, Conclusion
<B>Testing</B>:
I tested the card against an onboard sound system and the Santa Cruz PCI card that I mentioned earlier. I did this on two different systems. First of all, the CPU utilization was much better when compared to any onboard sound I was using. The boards I tested it with were the Abit IS7-E, and the Gigabyte 8IPE1000 Pro2. The Envy24HT-S was an improvement in these situations. If you are coming up from integrated audio, you'll be happy with this.
What it failed to win against was against the Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz may not be able to give 7.1, 24-bit sound, but it does have a bunch of hardware buffers. This gives the card an edge, speed-wise, over the Envy24HT-S. The CPU had less work to do in comparison to the VIA-chipped card, but I was still interested in the sound quality as well....
I turned on Doom 3, remembering how immersive the game was with the Santa Cruz. Now, as you know, there aren't any mid-range 7.1 speaker systems yet, so I improvised: I had my Logitech headset plugged in and used them for the center left and center right. Let me say that Doom 3 was better than ever. The positional audio was perfect in every regard. I didn't experience any noticeable slow down in frame-rate by using this sound card. Rest assured, you will get a great audio experience in the latest games using this sound card.
Another aspect of my testing consisted of listen to my favorite stations on Shoutcast. In fact, I'm listening to some ambient trance as I write this...ahh, good stuff! Anyway, Windows plays that audio through a 2.1 type setup. I set the drivers to fake the sound through all the speakers and it was great. I can hear the sound all around me and it was better than the 2.1 setup. The DSP does a good job of positioning the audio over the speakers with only a little bit of data. Pretty impressive in my book.
I also watched some crappy movie that I had around, it sounded fine of course. Doom 3 was better
.
<B>Conclusion</B>:
<a href="http://ase.dealtime.com/dt-app/SE/KW-mad dog entertainer 7.1/FD-0/linkin_id-3002062/NS-1/GS.html">You can pick this card up for $40</a>! The 7.1 24-bit audio, coupled with the very low price of the card (considering all of the features) is too good not to recommend. If you are upgrading from onboard audio, this is one to consider. It's just the ticket for people not willing to spend $200.00 on a sound card, but still want killer 3D audio.
<center><img src="http://images.aselabs.com/awards/recommended.jpg" alt="Recommended"></center>
I'd like to thank <a href="http://www.mdmm.com">Mad Dog</a> and <a href="http://www.via.com.tw">VIA</a> for making this review possible.
I tested the card against an onboard sound system and the Santa Cruz PCI card that I mentioned earlier. I did this on two different systems. First of all, the CPU utilization was much better when compared to any onboard sound I was using. The boards I tested it with were the Abit IS7-E, and the Gigabyte 8IPE1000 Pro2. The Envy24HT-S was an improvement in these situations. If you are coming up from integrated audio, you'll be happy with this.
What it failed to win against was against the Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz may not be able to give 7.1, 24-bit sound, but it does have a bunch of hardware buffers. This gives the card an edge, speed-wise, over the Envy24HT-S. The CPU had less work to do in comparison to the VIA-chipped card, but I was still interested in the sound quality as well....
I turned on Doom 3, remembering how immersive the game was with the Santa Cruz. Now, as you know, there aren't any mid-range 7.1 speaker systems yet, so I improvised: I had my Logitech headset plugged in and used them for the center left and center right. Let me say that Doom 3 was better than ever. The positional audio was perfect in every regard. I didn't experience any noticeable slow down in frame-rate by using this sound card. Rest assured, you will get a great audio experience in the latest games using this sound card.
Another aspect of my testing consisted of listen to my favorite stations on Shoutcast. In fact, I'm listening to some ambient trance as I write this...ahh, good stuff! Anyway, Windows plays that audio through a 2.1 type setup. I set the drivers to fake the sound through all the speakers and it was great. I can hear the sound all around me and it was better than the 2.1 setup. The DSP does a good job of positioning the audio over the speakers with only a little bit of data. Pretty impressive in my book.
I also watched some crappy movie that I had around, it sounded fine of course. Doom 3 was better
.<B>Conclusion</B>:
<a href="http://ase.dealtime.com/dt-app/SE/KW-mad dog entertainer 7.1/FD-0/linkin_id-3002062/NS-1/GS.html">You can pick this card up for $40</a>! The 7.1 24-bit audio, coupled with the very low price of the card (considering all of the features) is too good not to recommend. If you are upgrading from onboard audio, this is one to consider. It's just the ticket for people not willing to spend $200.00 on a sound card, but still want killer 3D audio.
<center><img src="http://images.aselabs.com/awards/recommended.jpg" alt="Recommended"></center>
I'd like to thank <a href="http://www.mdmm.com">Mad Dog</a> and <a href="http://www.via.com.tw">VIA</a> for making this review possible.