AN35N Ultra Onboard Audio vs. Santa Cruz

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SEAL62505

Gawd
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Aug 14, 2000
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I finally upgraded to ddr and got a Shuttle AN35N Ultra board (nforce2 - without sound storm audio). I had been using a Santa Cruz. Are they about the same in performace and quality, or should I disable the onboard audio and go with the santa cruz?

Also, should I be installing additional drivers besides the nforce driver? Everything seems to work, but do I need to grab the latest audio drivers or anything?


After playing around with the board, I have found that the onboard audio has a constant hum/hiss/buzz when the computer is idle. When using the Santa cruz, there is the same noise but quieter. A sound blaster live seems to not be affected by this?!? Does anyone know how to get rid of the background noise. I don't know if this helps, but it seems to go away when audio is being played or when the cpu has to do something. Example- doulbe click a folder, and the noise goes away for a very short second or so.
Any ideas on this?

Thanks!
 
Is the onboard audio any good for gaming?
Click to expand...
Realtek ALC650 AC97 2.2 CODEC.
No hardware acceleration whatsoever.
So the answer is "not especially".

You must pay to get a soundstorm board if you wish to reduce the CPU load.
 
The onboard ac97 on my lan party isnt too bad at all. It seems to work well in counterstrike.

Although when I get my rig setup in its final location I will fire up the soundstorm and enjoy some dolby digital action.
 
Well, I have an 8rda+ with soundstorm, but I don't have it hooked up with the SPDIF bracket so it doesn't use soundstorm. Seems to be pretty good in games. Definately better than my old sblive 5.1. I can hear people in raven-shield so far away and pinpoint their location when I'm wearing headphones. Only thing that sucks is that people with crappy sound always accuse me of cheating.
 
The onboard sound on the AN35N Ultra uses 16% of the CPU.

These are my results:

aldamonrightmark2.jpg


This is why I bought a used Audigy 2. What's the point in springing for an nForce2 board if you're going to throw away the performance on sound?

Here's the Audigy2 in action:

aldamonrightmark3.jpg
 
thanks for the info!
as far as gaming goes (and 5.1 surround is all I need) is the audigy about the same as the audigy 2 in performance and quality?
Thanks!
 
Originally posted by RuffRyder1672
thanks for the info!
as far as gaming goes (and 5.1 surround is all I need) is the audigy about the same as the audigy 2 in performance and quality?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

The Audigy will give you similar, but slightly higher CPU utilization than the Audigy 2, but nowhere near the performance hit of onboard audio. The Audigy 2 has better components, so the sound quality will be better too if you have good speakers. Better sound quality only matters if you can actually hear it :) I bought my Audigy 2 OEM for $50 used. I feel it was a good buy.
 
I have the exact board, but I disabled the onboard sound. I use my dsp400s for everything :). The sound isn't bad at all, but could be better. The santa cruz I think would be a bit nicer.
 
How much cpu does the soundstorm use, with ac97 disabled? Thats is what I wanna know!

Does the an35n even have soundstorm?
 
AN35N Ultra. Basic Board, Basic SouthBridge, Basic Sound. Still an excellent board for the money IMO. I had a clinking noise with mine, but that may of been fixed with new drivers. It's been a while since I have used one but I got a new one in the other room to replace an Asus A7N266-VM/AA, just waiting on the video card.
 
Originally posted by RuffRyder1672

After playing around with the board, I have found that the onboard audio has a constant hum/hiss/buzz when the computer is idle.
Click to expand...

I had the opposite experience. Whenever the system was used, a high-pitched noise would be emitted from the speakers. The Audigy 2 does not suffer from this problem.
 
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