What Sound Card is Happy With OC'd PCI Bus?

[Brian R.]

Need to buy a new sound card. My Diamond MX300 bit the dust owing to ocing. Diamond tech support says they will send me a new one, but I don't want a card that is unhappy when oc'd. Suggestions please, from experience.

Brian

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Win98SE, 600 PIII @672 MHz (@2.40 V) w/Alpha P3-125 heatsink/fan, ABIT BX6-2 MB, 128 MB Siemens PC100 SDRAM, G400 MAX, Diamond V2 SLI, Diamond MX300 with Senheiser HD-600 headphones, Sennheiser DSP360 Dolby processor, and Shure FP22 headphone amplifier, Adaptec AHA2940 w/uw SCSI, IBM 9ZX 9.1GB 10K UW SCSI HD, WDE 4360 4.3GB 7.2k UW SCSI HD, Pioneer 303s SCSI DVD, modified Supermicro SC750A case with PCP&C Silencer 275W PS, and a partridge in a pear tree.

[Guru]

The SoundBlaster Live works with the BX6-2 at bus speeds of 124 and 129MHz in my system.

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PIII450@558, ABIT BX6-2, 256RAM, G400MAX, SBLIVE

[Brian R.]

Guru - Actually, that high of a bus speed is not the problem since you had the 4/1 PCI divider, the PCI bus was actually under clocked. I am looking for oc'd PCI bus.

[Johnny Ray]

I've had good luck with modest overclocking with Vortex-based cards. Currently my P2B is at 112 MHz with my Vortex SQ2500. The PCI bus is only at 37 MHz, but no problems.

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PIII450 => 504 MHz, Asus P2B, G400MAX, PowerDesk 5.30, Aureal SQ 2500 (Vortex2), Klipsch Promedia V2.400 speakers, DirectX 7.0, Adaptec AHA-2940U2W and Fireport40 Dual UW SCSI controllers, Quantum Atlas 10K and WD Enterprise HDs, Plextor UtraPlex Wide, S&F 4012 CDR, the last ISA modem, etc.

[Marshmallowman]

I know someone running a celery at 504
PCI=37=112/3 with a sound blaster live(value)
for months.

But if your keen a judicously place heatink may be good cheap insurance.

[Mark F]

Ran my MX300 for over a year at 124 (1/3), with out problems. Now have a SQ2500. But I do have a CARDCOOLER, keeping it, my NIC, my G400, and system cool.

Mark F.

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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a CD

[Guru]

But im not using the 4/1 PCI divider and the only reason why i don't overclock higher then 558MHz is becouse of my ram confgiuration 1X128MB 7ns and 2X64MB 8ns witch maks my system unstabel at 580 & 600MHz!

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PIII450@558, ABIT BX6-2, 256RAM, G400MAX, SBLIVE

[Brian R.]

Johnny Ray - Is there a difference between the SQ2500 and the Diamond MX300, other than the default drivers and software? (the last ISA modem?)

Guru - In the BX6-2 BIOS versions I'm familiar with, you have no choice but to default to 4:1 fsb:PCI at both 124 and 129 MHz fsb.

[This message has been edited by Brian R. (edited 09 December 1999).]

[Mark F]

Brian R - Is there a difference between the SQ2500 and the Diamond MX300, other than the default drivers and software?

The chipset is supposed to be an advanced version of the VORTEX2, there is continued driver improvement, and best of all a built in S/PDIF

Mark F.

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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a CD

[Johnny Ray]

Brian R.

........and supposedly Aureal will not make their optimized Vortex 2 to others such as Diamond. I seem to recall that the SQ2500 also has a slightly better S/N. Also I remember seeing at a web site a comparison of CPU overhead of the SQ2500 Vortex 2 and a vanilla Vortex 2. The SQ2500 was clearly lower.

I REALLY like the card. Has a great game bundle too. And as Mark F points out indirectly, Diamond "legacy-izes" it's products too quickly for me, which should never be a problem with a card from Aureal.

John

[chihuang]

Hey.......I am considering get a new soundcard too (Aureal is preferred), but I know that the new Aureal SQ3500 will be out this coming spring. My question is: Should I just go ahead get a SQ2500 now or wait until SQ3500 is out? BTW, I only play games and listen to musics (I am sensitive to musics though). Any suggestions?

[Mark F]

The AUREALs are exellent cards now. The 3500 might (well OK will) be even better. However the sound quality, especially from music shouldn't change as it will use the 2500 board and add a daughter card with the DSP, for games (harware A3D 3.0). We with the 2500s will be able to do 3.0 without as much hardware exelleration, and little to no noticable diference in A3D and A3D 2.0 or music. Also there are 'roumers', that the daughter board will be available as an upgrade, but I wouldn't buy a card based on 'roumers'.
If you need a card now, you will hardly be disapointed in a SQ2500 now. Come on in the waters fine.

Mark F.

PS -If you have a SQ2500 contact AUREAL (write {best}/E-Mail {OK}/call{not as good}) and let them know you want the daughter card to be made available as an upgrade. While they are thinking about it, good consumer responce/demand will help make their disission.
GO GET 'EM!!!

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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a CD

[This message has been edited by Mark F (edited 10 December 1999).]