Asus onboard audio

[Horty]

Hi all-- DISCLAIMER: first-time memebr here and currently a Mac user (read that PC VIRGIN). I'm in need of a PC and will be building one. I came up with this mix and friends have given the thumbs up. Total cost will be a little over $1000.

I noticed late that the new Asus card has onboard 6 channel audio. You'll see I had included an Audigy card. The Asus card without the onboard audio are only $10 cheaper but are also out of stock. So... It's no biggie to disable the onboard audio, right??? <---- my primary question. Some have said stay away from the system-taxing onboard stuff.

How's this set-up look?


Cooler Master ATC-201-SX. 10-Bay. All Aluminum Case. 5.25' Bays x 4. 3.5' Bays x 2. 3.5' Bays(hidden) x 4. 7 Slot. Standard ATX MB, P-4 ready. 4 cooling fans. Slide-Out Chassis. 497mmX196mmX452mm. 2 USB ports. No Power Supply. more info-> N82E16811119001

Asus P4T533 i850E Motherboard for P4 Processors Retail
Specifications:
Supported CPU:Socket 478 for Intel® Pentium® 4
Chipset:Intel® 82850E MCH Intel® 82801 BA ICH2
FSB:533 / 400 MHz
RAM:2 x 232-pin 32-bit RIMM Sockets support max. 2GB PC800 RIMM3200 (800MHz) /PC1066 RIMM4200 (1066MHz) ECC / non-ECC RAMBUS memory.
IDE:2 x UltraDMA RAID 133/ 100 / 66 / 33
Slots:1 x AGP Pro (1.5V only) 6 x PCI
Ports:2xCOM,2xPS2,2xUSB, and Audio Ports
Onboard Audio, C-Media more info-> N82E16813131419

GAINWARD/CARDEXPERT GeForce 3 Ti200 64MB (NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200 GPU), Power Pack Golden Sample, ( 4ns. 64MB DDR. ). TV-Out. GF3TI200 TI450. Overclocking enhanced performance mode. Retail box. Please see images. Mfr's P/N: V87TI200 more info-> N82E16814128111
(**Buying a cheap card now while waiting for the GF5!)

ENERMAX EG301P-VB 300W Power supply for AMD K7 & Pentium4. Meet ATX 2.03 & ATX +12V 1.1 Version. Pentium 4 supported ! Compliant with AMD K7. Model #: EG301P-VB. OEM. Manufacturer 1 year limited warranty. more info-> N82E16817103423

Intel Pentium 4 / 2.26GHz Northwood 512K Socket 478 Processor 533MHz Processor Bus Retail Box
Specifications:
CPU: 2.26 GHz
Type: Pentium4
Cache: 512K
BUS: 533 MHz
Socket: 478 Retail(Boxed with Heatsink and Fan)-(CPU ONLY NO RAMBUS RAM) more info-> N82E16819116141

Samsung Original RIMM 3200 32-Bit 256MB RAMBUS RAM
Samsung Original 232-Pin 32-Bit RIMM3200 PC800 800MHz RAMBUS Memory **Only one is needed to boot up the System** This RAM would only work for ASUS P4T533 Motherboard and it WILL NOT work for other boards
more info-> N82E16820147202

WD WESTERN DIGITAL EIDE HARD DRIVE 80GB 7200RPM MODEL # WD800BB -CAVIAR OEM, DRIVE ONLY
Specifications:
Size: 80 Gigabytes
Interface: IDE ULTRA ATA100
Seek time: 8.9ms
RPM:7200
Cache 2MB
OEM(Drive alone) 3 Year Manufacturer Warranty --* Works With PC & Mac *-- more info-> N82E16822144102

Lite On 40X12X48 CDRW Model: RTL40125S-OEM BLACK Color
Specifications:
Recording 40X(6000KB/sec) Z-CLV (20X, 24X@8min, 32X@18min, 40X@53min)
Re-writing 12X High-Speed (1800KB/sec) CLV
Reading 48Xmax (7200KB/sec) CAV (20X~48X)
Interface : ATAPI-E/IDE, support up to Ultra-DMA Mode2, 33.3MB/sec
Buffer Memory Size: 2MB
Access Time : 80ms (typical)
SMART-BURN® technology Underun protection,
MTBF : 70'000 Power On Hours with 25% Duty
OEM (Full kit with accessories) more info-> N82E16827106181


Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy

[Alaron]

Looks pretty great, only a couple things.

Change out the hard drive to one of the "JB" series or "Special Editon" drives from Western Digital. They have an 8meg cache instead of the 2meg. The performance rivals SCSI, very fast.

The Audigy is an excellent card. If you are a gamer or like listening to music, stick with it, and get a nice set of speakers. If you dont listen to much sounds, the onboard is fine. It is very simple to disable the onboard sound, if you later decide to get the Audigy. It is just a simple "Disable/Enable" option in the BIOS for the sound. Set to Disable and your good to install the card.

HTH

Good Luck on the build!

[Zinedene]

Horty,

Hi there, and welcome. Youll find this forum an excellent place to gain info and learn loads. Thats why im here! im still learning!!

With regards to your first question,
YES, you can disable the onboard audio on mosts mobo's very easily. It will either be a case of going into the BIOS, and disabling, or maybe moving a jumper around on the actual mobo. It should be written in the manual, once you get it..

System looks well impressive to me,
Im sure more people with pentiums will be able to guide you regarding the set up and if its ok....

Good luck with your build

Zinedene

[Horty]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Alaron56- TY! for the heads-up about the SE version of the HD-- I checked and it's on sale FOR ONLY $10 more than the same drive with 2mb cache. w00t!


Looks like this is it!

[Horty]

Whoops... another question:

The WD 8mb cache drives are only ATA100 but my mobo supports ATA133...

which is better/more important? Price is comparable for a Maxtor ATA133 vs a WD 8mb cache at ATA100.


??

[GreyFalcon]

Who makes the onboard audio? The onboard audio on my son's Dragon board sounded better than my Audigy. Maxtors have been pretty good for a long time. I know recently WD and IBM have had a rash of bad drives.

[Horty]

The audio is a chip made by an Asian company "C-Media"

It's not so much audio quality as the issue, so I'm told, but the burden it puts on the mobo plus the potential for conflicts... ??? Several persons have recommended going with offboard audio for the "burden" reason...

[xopo]

..>which is better/more important? Price is comparable for a Maxtor >>>ATA133 vs a WD 8mb cache at ATA100.

the people who know will say go with the wd .
There was a link in a different thread--(do a search) that had the wd w buffer actually faster than a 133 drive

[Horty]

Thanks gang-

looks like I'll pull the trigger on this baby soon.

[GreyFalcon]

I believe that was the onboard sound on my son's board. There is no reason onboard sound would be any more prone to conflicts, unless you don't read the motherboard manual and find out what PCI slot it shares with. It's power consumption is exactly the same as a PCI sound card would be. Onboard sound has been terrible in most cases, but that is not the case with C-Media. Our local shop stopped carrying WD because of bad drives. Before that , they only used WD. I hope they have ironed out their problems.

[glc]

The JB series WD drives seem to be reliable and quiet - and they are the fastest IDE drives out there.

[piasabird]

I think the P4T533C has 4 slots for Rimms as opposed to 2. Since you have to add Memory in Pairs, if you only have 2 Rimm Slots you would have to get it right the first time. This is something to keep in mind.

[Furius92]

What do you mean "Get it right the first time" ? I'm rather confused by that

The P4T533 uses 32-bit PC1066 RDRAM while the P4T533-C uses 16-bit PC1066 RDRAM, or 16-bit PC800 RDRAM. With the 32-bit RDRAM you only need one stick, but having two will allow interleaving (good). With 16-bit RDRAM you need at least two sticks, but four will allow interleaving. I'm not sure which one is better, although I'd have to guess the 32-bit RDRAM for a few reasons.

One, it is less material, so therefore it will create less heat, and RIMMs do get hot. Second, it will cost less to buy one 32-bit RIMM than it will to bu two 16-bit RIMMs, or 2 32-bit RIMMs than 4 16-bit RIMMs. I think those are two pretty good reasons. Anyone care to disagree?

Edit: Wait a second, that board doesn't support USB 2.0 or anything like that. If you think you might want it, and you will want it, I'd say get the Asus P4S8X. It supports PC3200 DDR SDRAM (not officially, but it will work if you buy PC3200 DDR RAM). It also has integrated USB 2.0, Firewire ports, as well as optional serial ATA. Just something to consider if you haven't already ordered. It will perform ALMOST as well as the Asus P4T533, but will probably cost less and will have many more extras with it, like the USB 2.0 and serial ATA.

[Tuf]

I'd go with the WD drive. Their problems were years ago. If you want something faster you'll have to go SCSI. Which isn't worth the cost in a setup like this. Looks like it will be very nice!

[Horty]

Just ordered! Thanks for the help. The board does support USB, BTW, two ports.

Now... I can't wait for the GeForce 5 to come out and compare it to the Radeon 9700...


BTW... I ordered from www.newegg.com and have had an excellent experience so far. I'd recommend them if you're looking.

[Furius92]

There will be no Geforce 5. They are going to have a new name for the NV30 generation cards.

[Alaron]

Tell us how the build goes when you finish it. It should be a smoking system.

Furious92, heres the link to the board. http://usa.asus.com/mb/socket478/p4t533/overview.htm You may have been thinking of the P4S533, not having USB 2.0 . http://usa.asus.com/mb/socket478/p4s533/overview.htm

Newegg is great, highly recommended around here.

I cant wait to see what nVIDIA has up their sleeves with the NV30 too. I wonder if it will trounce ATIs R300 core or be similar to it.

[Furius92]

No, it's not that. I saw the southbridge chipset on the P4T533 and noticed it was not the one that supports integrated USB 2.0. USB 2.0 is optional, so I think they give you some sort of card or something that gives you USB 2.0.

The USB ports integrated on the P4T533 are NOT USB 2.0 ports, don't forget that.

[Horty]

Originally posted by Furius92 The USB ports integrated on the P4T533 are NOT USB 2.0 ports, don't forget that.

Ahhh. Got it.

By the way... I have since discovered that the onboard stuff (PS2 and Audio) are all readily turned off via BIOS.

[LawyerRon]

Looks like a very nice system. All parts are top quality.