MSI Clawhammer Motherboard!

[KvHagedorn]

http://msi.vtion.com/msi/intro.htm

Click on the center hub and then the right-most motherboard.

[Technoid]

Great!
Can't wait!

[Gurm]

WHEN oh WHEN are manufacturers going to realize that we don't WANT shitball onboard audio? WHEN DEAR GOD WHEN!?!?!!??!

- Gurm

[GT98]

Originally posted by Gurm
WHEN oh WHEN are manufacturers going to realize that we don't WANT shitball onboard audio? WHEN DEAR GOD WHEN!?!?!!??!

- Gurm

At least we can kill it if we want to use an add on board...

[ZokesPro]

Originally posted by Gurm
WHEN oh WHEN are manufacturers going to realize that we don't WANT shitball onboard audio? WHEN DEAR GOD WHEN!?!?!!??!

- Gurm

When you ask?
Answer: When people stop buying them with on-board audio! But I'm sure you already know this.

Hearyee Hearyee! Stop buying mobo's with on-board audio, get your own damn sound card instead!

I still have my old SB PCI128 and I'd rather keep it then go with on-board audio.

[borat]

people cant stop buyin boards with audio on board untill manufacturers start making boards without it. this sounds like the chicken and the egg all over again

[Gurm]

SOMEONE convinced manufacturers that people wanted onboard audio. Probably system integrators who were selling people bargain basement sound cards anyway.

It's just disheartening to see an otherwise top-of-the-line board sporting the crappiest piece of onboard kit available for sound. Even the nicest boards out there have it.

Raid-133, Firewire, Infrared... oh, yes - and tin-can AC97 codec included!

- Gurm

[ZokesPro]

I guess the only saving grace for that board is the option to turn it off in the bios. If you were stuck using it, that would truly suck!

[Technoid]

if a bord has onboard VGA, NIC etc etc then I see no harm in a onboard Sound!

But the POS should not be on high end mobo's as Gurm says!

Onboard sound started at the same time as Socket A!!

Never saw a Socket A mobo without....

[High_Jumbllama]

Onboard audio bultin but firewire is optional? Wha-huh?

3PCI,1 CNR and 1 AGP. WHat are the two things above the AGP slot?

[DGhost]

ok... here are some things with onboard audio...

compared to an SB128 in WinXP i have had less problems with Via's integrated audio. in addition to that, the drivers that VIA produces will fit on a floppy disk, something that cannot be said for any soundblaster card. for people who are just looking for a computer that plays sound, it certainly beats buying an external sound card. hell, my school used to put SB AWE32's into systems that had no speakers. they could have saved that money... but, this is a school district that was $6M in debt, so you can't really give any sort of credit to their decision making skills...

also, the integrated sound is already built into the south bridge of pretty much every chipset that is still being produced. all that is needed is the audio codec and the ports.

as far as the trend, it largely comes from system integrators wanting it and the fact it is not only widely supported, but also really cheap to implement.

is the onboard sound ideal for gamers? no, doesn't have a lot of features, but, it works, its basic, and if you don't like it, you can disable it.

Gurm - the place i work at has a system that plays DVD's on a fairly nice set of altecs, i have yet to have someone notice just by listening that it is the integrated sound. ever. no one has yet said "oh man, that sounds like crap" or "dude, my live sounds so much better than that". its not for everyone, but it does the job and it does it fairly well. plus, its cheaper and less of a pain in the ass than throwing a cheap sound card in.

[Gurm]

Some AC97 codecs aren't terrible. In fact Creative makes a couple, that are really the Ensoniq chip.

Doesn't mean they're GOOD.

- Gurm

[Indiana]

I don't really care if the board has onboard sound or not, as long as it can be turned off in the BIOS.
But I'd rather use the onboard sound than any of those Creative PCI hogs that come with a 30+MB virus called Liveware, at least as long as the onboard sound has digital-out.

(As you can probably tell by my post I really don't care for EAX, I just want good-ole plain sound that does work in Win2k, maybe even with functional AC3 out, something which has taken Creative years to get working... )

[ZokesPro]

Originally posted by Technoid
if a bord has onboard VGA, NIC etc etc then I see no harm in a onboard Sound!

But the POS should not be on high end mobo's as Gurm says!

Onboard sound started at the same time as Socket A!!

Never saw a Socket A mobo without....

I've got a socket A without on-board audio, although the audio options are still in the bios I don't physically have the on-board chip soldered to the board.

[KvHagedorn]

I can't believe the discussion here has focused on sound cards.

For a matter of reference, I have used Ensoniqs for 5 years now and have been quite happy with them. The sound quality is good, they are inexpensive, they don't have drivers that crap out or interfere with my busmastering G400 cards, and, conveniently, the last two I have bought were built in to the motherboards. In fact, my current motherboard has a lot of things built in; not only sound, but 10/100 ethernet and dual channel SCSI as well. The only cards plugged into the thing right now are a G400MAX and a modem. Yeah, I probably don't get the same level of awesomeness in sound when I'm playing QuakeIII, but oh well.. all I'm using for speakers right now is a cheap pair of Sony headphones anyhow, since my Nakamichi mini-receiver blew a channel. Why on Earth would you pay $200 for a soundcard, when you just play it over crappy self-powered computer speakers? And don't start anything about "good" computer speakers. They're a joke and they all suck.

Another thing.. I don't collect mp3s. They just don't sound that good, especially when I can pop a CD into my highend CD player here and listen to it through my Headroom Max amp and Sennheiser HD600s. The best speakers in the world don't sound this good. Maybe I'm just spoiled, but I have no expectations of getting good sound from my computer, since I have never heard good sound from anyone's computer. So I spend a total of under $20 (IF I have to buy it seperately) and get an Ensoniq. It's decent, it works, everything supports it, and it doesn't get in the way of anything else I'm trying to do.

Now what about Clawhammer? Here's a board for it in June, and supposedly the chip won't be launched until October? Wonder if AMD will be bumping up the schedule on Hammer..