Which PCI SoundCard with Marvel400?

[Jkun]

Which PCI soundcard to use for capture along a Marvel G400?

The forum has a lot of reports of problems with the SBLive (it being a PCI bandwidth hog. The suggestion of using a ISA card is problematic: cards are increasingly hard to find and the new generation of mainboards has no ISA slots anymore. Not to mention the use of ISA boards (the busmaster kind) slows down one's PC.

So which PCI soundcards (Terratech, Aureal, Yamaha, Hoontech...) are better, i.e. are not such PCI bandwidth powerusers?

Thanks!

J-kun

[Brian Ellis]

j-kun

FYI, I have no difficulties in running SB Live! with a Marvel G-200. As far as I know, there should be no difference with G-400. As with any PCI sound card, there must be no conflicts and the only thing I did was to disable SB16 emulation (for DOS games).



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Brian (the terrible)

[Frankie G]

I have a cheapo "Golden Melody" PCI soundcard using the Ensoniq
chipset, cost me about US$32 two years ago, now they're
going for about US$28 or so. Excellent quality as far
as I can hear and no capture problems as others describe.
It has a separate TV Tuner input for the BOB.
Rest of my system: Giga-Byte GA6BXE (440BX), PII-400, 128MB Ram,
Adaptec 2940U PCI SCSI, Maxtor 20.4GB (system),
IBM 16.8GB (capture), Plextor CDROM, HP DAT, Ricoh CD-RW.

[Jkun]

Thanks for the replies. I notice both of you don't mention the Promise card.

I assume you're not using it then. Since the problems occur when this PCI bus hog has to work together with another (the SBlive), I'd like to hear from people who use the Promise card with a PCI soundcard.

Also combinations with VIA chipsets as this may also be a cause for PCI problems

J-kun

[CarterTG]

In addition to my current workstation outlined below, here are some of the other systems I've built using the SBLive card:

ASUS P3V4X (VIA 133pro), PentiumIII 667eb, 256megs PC100, SBLive X-Gamer, Matrox Marvel G400-TV, PCI LinkSys Fast Ethernet, 10.2 gig, ATAPI Plextor CDRW, USB SanDisk ImageMate, USB IntelliEye Mouse, Win98SE

ASUS P3V4X (VIA 133pro), PentiumIII 600mhz, 128megs PC133, SBLive X-Gamer, ASUS V6800 Deluxe GeForce, PCI LinkSys Fast Ethernet, 30.7 gig, ATAPI Ricoh DVD/CDRW, Win98SE

ABIT BH6 v1.01 (Intel BX), PentiumIII 650e, 256megs PC100, SBLive MP3+, Matrox Marvel G200, PCI NetGear Fast Ethernet, Promise FastTrack66 RAID, 2x13.5gig, Canopus DV Raptor PCI, ATAPI CDRW/DVD, USB 56k v.90, USB SanDisk ImageMate, USB IntelliEye Mouse, Win98(v1)

Soyo SY-6VBA (VIA 133), Celeron 433, 64megs PC100, SBLive Value, Matrox G200 Millenium, PCI NDC Fast Ethernet, ATAPI 52x CDROM, Win98 (v1)

Soyo 5EMH (??), AMD-K6 450mhz, 64megs, SBLive Value, Diamond Monster Fusion, PCI SohoWare Fast Ethernet, ATAPI 48x CDROM, Win98(v1)

I've had ZERO problems with the Live. The latest LiveWare 3.0 drivers would be installed after display drivers. Chose a CUSTOM install. DESELECT DOS compatibility during this process. Since all incarnations of this card are seen by the computer as one model, software goodies like SoundForge 4.0 (bundled MP3+) is installable on any of the machines. SOME of the ($50) SBLive Value models in the OEM channels have started showing up with the Digital OUT jack just like the pricier versions. IMO, this would make the best Video Editing soundcard if digital speakers were connected. Such a setup would leave both the analog OUT jacks open and available for routing to video equipment. They'd never have to be unplugged to swap something else in. For the extra $25, the Live MP3+ 's bundled SoundForge, Mixman Studio, and Cakewalk 8.0 lite might have some true value for desktop video jockeys.


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Carter
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Tyan Tiger 100 rev.F
Dual PentiumIII 650e CuMine Slot1
Dual 128mb PC100 generic
[C:] 10.2g Seagate ATA66 5400rpm
[D:] 10.1g IBM ATA66 7200rpm
Promise FastTrack66 RAID
[E:] Dual 30.7g Maxtor ATA66 7200rpm DM+
[F:] Ricoh MP9060A DVD/CDRW
Dual SVGA 17" screens
Matrox G400 DualHead AGP 32mb
SBLive PCI
NDC 10/100 PCI
Canopus DV Raptor
USB IntelliEye
FourPoint2000
Windows2000 w/SP1
Canon XL1

[Sciascia]

I am using a Diamond MX300 with a G400 (Marvel) and the Promise Fasttrak 66. Out of all of my problems that I may have had in the past, the SC has never been one of them. I bought it because of price ($75) and because it has 2 stereo outputs with A3D support. Now I never use the A3D, (I never have time for games), but I have it if I want to use it. The only black mark, is there doesn't seem to be a lot of support since S3 and Diamond joined. Of course, the drivers I downloaded for Feb'99 work great.

[Jkun]

Sciascia, what mainboard do you use - Intel or VIA based?

J-kun

[Brian Ellis]

Whoa! A Via chipset with a Pentium II/III is inherently fraught with problems. A BX chipset is 50% faster: I had the opportunity to compare (same processor - PIII 550, basic m/b and BIOS from the same makers - same instruction manual, even!!! ) them a few months back and benchmarking showed this up quite clearly. It is doubtful whether the basic data transfer rate would suffice for video with the Via chipset.

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Brian (the terrible)

[Sciascia]

I am using a Tyan 1830s with a 440BX set. I like it because I hacked up my case for cooling purposes and didn't want to get a new one. It was the only AT Slot1 MB I could find with enough ISA and PCI slots for me. It really is a great board.