[tattootearz]

Happy friday!


Well I am excited to inform that I have just completed the build of my new dedicated HTPC. I dont have any plans for Blu-Ray or HD-DVD playback on it but. It will primarily be used as a Media playback machine... (Apple Trailers, HD H264 Files, Divx & so forth)....



My Configuration is as follows:


- Biostar 6100-939 (350W PSU)

- AMD Athlon 64 3400 2.2Ghz.... overclocked to 2.64Ghz

- 1GB DDR400 RAM

- Asus EN7300LE NVidia GPU w/ 93.71 Forceware Drivers

- REALTEK AC97 Onboard Audio

- MCE 2005


I am feeding my HD70 via HDMI & my Yamaha RX-V1200 via Coax Digital.


MY pc is configured with the "Basic" FFDSHOW configuration... (considering trying out intermediate)


Ok, so I have configured FFDSHOW, Reclock & MPC to output 5.1 via Spdif... and it seems to be working well.


I have an unused Soundblaster Audigy Z2 card and I was wondering if you guys thought there would be any real quantifiable improvement with using that instead of the onboard audio. I used to use the SB to mixdown my music but I've since moved on to an Audiophile M-Audio card.


The cool thing about the SB card is that it has built in Firewire interface so by adding it I would also be adding a Firewire port to my HTPC. However, it's been some time since the Audigy Z2 was a hot item and by now I am thinking that onboard Audio is probably on par with it or maybe even better.... but I could be wrong.


Are there any quantifiable benefits to using the Audigy card over the onboard Realtek?

 

[tuskenraider]

That mobo uses an Realte ACL655 audio chip = doodoo, like most onboard audio. You'll get much better sound quality and options out of the your A2.