Final decision .. [?] ..

[Cosmin]

An upgrade nearly coming and will pick' one or two these components ..



1- Sound Blaster Live 5.1! 31$
2- Sound Blaster Audigy Player 75$
3- Amd Athlon XP 2000+ 83$



And there are some minor difficulties in my mind refering to :
1 . should I take the 5.1! Live & 256 DDR PQI
or
2 . Only the processor ( will run on my mobo ECS K7S5A2 - Sis735? )
3 . Only Sound Blaster Audigy Player

Current spec : Athlon 1.1 - 128 SDR ( Ac'97 onboard ) .
__________________________________________
I would like also to find out the differences between 5.1! Live & Audigy Player : - in fact this is my major problem ..

Any quick replies will be aprecciated

 

[rettahc]

I would not buy anything less than an audigy from sound blaster

 

[RagnaroK]

Me, not being much of a sound freak (I just want sound! ), IMHO, I would keep the AC'97 for now, and get the processor and/or RAM. Whether the processor would run, better check your mobo's manual.

Best of luck to ya.
-RaG

 

[ignipotentis]

none.

This question really depends on speakers. A higher proc will help you, but not by much considering you only have 128 meg memory. The page file can make up for this but only if you have a fast hdd. If you don't have a 5.1 speaker set up, it won't matter which card you go with. The extra memory will probably do you the most good. Honestly though, i'd save and not worry about it, as you aren't going to significantly improve anything other than paper figures.

 

[Zedric]

Originally posted by Cosmin
256 DDR PQI

[...]

Current spec : Athlon 1.1 - 128 SDR ( Ac'97 onboard ) .

If you run SDR now you can't buy DDR unless the mobo happens to support both.

 

[Cosmin]

Supports Both .. I thought also at an upgrade to MOBO with sound on 6channels .. especially Epox . what will be recommended ?
Thanks for answers that already came ..

 

[Taurus]

go for an nforce2 mobo. one like the Abit NF7 can be found for $99 online. mine's on the way.

the nforce2 chipset is the best option for amd processors right now. REALLY good onboard sound, too... you won't need a sound card, trust me.

[edit] other under-$100 nforce2 boards:

Epox 8RDA
Leadtek K7NCR18D
MSI K7N2-L

 

[Nick M]

MSI board mentioned

Get that. Really, it's a really good looking mobo, and all I've had by MSI, I was really happy with

 

[Bretenn]

dont take live 5.1..... damn i hate it!
if u really choose a soundcard, better take audigy or turtlebeach but say no to live 5.1
if mobo, how bout gigabyte board....
i got epox board running on 10 of my pc. 4 down

 

[Nick M]

I've got the 5.1 card, it's not that bad you know, it works, supports 5.1, and well, sound quality is just fine.

 

[Yharn]

2 . Only the processor ( will run on my mobo ECS K7S5A2 - Sis735? )

upgrade to newest BIOS and it will handle it just fine.