DublinGunner said:

Ah.. sorry. I read that wrong. :s

I've read somewhere that Barcelona only has (had) problems @ 3.0 GHz when in a P2 or more setup. When run on a single desktop setup, it runs great at 3.0 GHz+

AMD Barcelona performance promises revealed
$800 CPU paper promises to slay the competition
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40749

Well, we shall see in August if their is any truth to this.

S_U_P_E_R X_P said:
Lol. Wrong "their" again Super.

I'll do a quick run down for ya.

There - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/there

Their - http://www.meriam-webster.com/dictionary/their

They're - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/they're

Edited to hopefully fix link.

Hope that clears it up.

Edit 2: Guess not. When you click on the last link, make sure it says "they're" with no quotes.

hehe XD

Mark Allen said:
Change the ' to %27:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/they%27re

DublinGunner said:

It's not the fact that it was just one bad experience. It was a really bad experience. Coupled with a lot of frustration, unresolved issues and some seriously disgusting drivers to top it all off. As a matter of fact, it was all because of ATi's drivers/software solutions. Besides, that TV Tuner/Capture Card I was using from them (based on the Theatre 550Pro) wasn't even that good anyway. Picture was excellent, but the sound quality/capture was garbage.

oh ok i see the problem the Rage theater 200 apparently was the better chip, just they tried a new one which didnt fair well.

I also had the Theater 550 Pro, the drivers were O.K. but I had a much better experience with Leadek WinFast TV2000 XP Deluxe. The 550 Pro had better image quality, but the sound was just a tad weak on it IMO.

TV Wonder 650 is a different story. HD sounds awesome.

Well, I don't really care much for HD sound. I'm sure it's nice, but I couldn't be bothered. I might as well go with a company that actually specializes in (only) TV Tuner/Capture cards next time. Such as Hauppauge for example.

Chris McGee said:

No it isn't.
E6750 £125
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-157-IN...subcat=793

6000+ £109.26
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-192-AM...subcat=803

6000+ £105
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=535755
E6750 £118.66
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=632054

It was last week on ebuyer.co.uk. Price difference is now only about £4 there anyway so there's not much difference.

edit to add:

At those prices the 6750 is a much better buy aswell.

Chris McGee said:

That I do agree with. It totally outperforms the 6000+ across the board.

Mike L said:
U will probably not hear a difference with integrated sound, but using an external sound card like the XFi series, HD just sounds crisper IMO.

But sound is sound, and the non HD sounds good enough, HD video is a different story.

The reason for getting a card over on board is to take the audio load off of the processor. If it's more complex stuff like EAX, the amount of benefit increases. Cards also carry higher fidelity into higher and lower ranges. Beyond that, it's really up to the speakers.

HD sound varies significantly from one motherboard manufacturer to another IMO.

I've got a 500w RMS Cambridge Soundworks 5.1 with 10" subwoofer sound system on my puter. This is what I use to listen to music everyday, and occasionally to watch a DVD and play games. My car stereo is better, but then it cost more than my PC too, so I guess it should.

I have an X-Fi sound card presently collecting dust because Gigabyte's onboard HD audio is just as good IMO.

I think Intel's onboard sound is just about as good too, but suffers some at higher volume.

However on ASUS boards, I've always found the onboard HD sound to be terrible, and that's when the X-Fi gets used instead.

These are the only 3 MB manufacuters that we've used lately, so I can't comment on others.

Just one more thing that I keep in mind when putting my own systems together though.

I know this is going to sound funny, but the Realtek ALC850 soundcard on my S478 motherboard owns. It'd be pretty bold of me to say that the soundcard that came with my motherboard is just as good as the ones you see on motherboards today; but it is. I'm not saying it's better, I'm saying it's just as good.

Doesn't surprise me a bit. I've been saying the same thing about ALC8*** for a couple years now.

Onboard has a much lower Single to Noise Ratio (SNR) than quality audio cards have. Most onboard (including Realtek) are around 90dB SNR. Most decent audio cards have SNR > 100 dB. About the best onboard audio SNR is 100 dB coming from Creative hardware-rendered audio. Obviously, if you don't have speakers that can pull 90dB+ without distortion, in most cases, onboard will be fine for you. There are people though that can pick up on the slightest of flaws so the fidelity of a high end card is worth it.

Plus....

I can't see a single chip on the motherboard doing the same work and sound quality of a dedicated sound card that has its own processor and filtering system. I sure hope all those resistors, capacitors, and inductors that is all over the add-in card is not there just being pretty.

So a single itty bitty, 1/2inch square doing the same job as a X-FI dedicated sound card... NO freakin way...

if you are going to spend 100 bucks or more for a X-FI.... those little capacitors, resistors, and inductors better be doing something to make the audio sound its best.

G. G. said:

You'll probably find that the quality of the op amps has a greater effect on the sound quality