Contemplating A7VA..any thoughts

[Ping]

  Is the onboard Audio worth getting, or is it better to go with a seperate sound card?
 I do have a SB Live That I would throw in otherwise.

 Also...I am running a Viper 770 TnT2 as a video..Will that be a bottleneck, and, or should I wait for Skuzzy to finish his Benchmarking of Vid cards?
 Recommendations?

 Ping

[TheWobble]

what is processor speed??
if its over 600mhz the vid card will prolly be the b-neck,
I would get a v5 5500, or GE-force, I prefer the V5 for various reasons though, what resolutions ya going to want to run things in? want to make use of FSAA? all these are critical factors you need to look at? but the 2 bad boys right now are the Voodoo5 5500 and the Ge-Force2

[This message has been edited by TheWobble (edited 01-30-2001).]

[bloom25]

Onboard audio is never worth getting.  If you have a seperate soundcard, by all means use it.



------------------
bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[Ping]

 Thnx guys...Thinking of the Tbird 1 or 1.2
 Vid card is kinda up in the air as I await skuzzy's benchmarks  

 Rgr that on the onboard audio..I will look at either staying with my SB live or something better.
 Ping

[Skuzzy]

Speaking of which, I am almost done with the ATI Radeon card and have started to work on the graphs.
The GeForce cards(s) have been ordered and I should have them tested by the end of next week.
Shortly afterward I will be putting up a WEB page, as I have an enormous amount of data to post.
One of the interesting things that is showing up, is the speed of the CPU versus the speed of the video card and where they cancel each other out (i.e. when is the CPU fast enough and when does it not matter at all).
I am finding my way into the area of "galloping elegance"  .  

------------------
Roy "Skuzzy" Neese
President, AppLink Corp.
http://www.applink.net
skuzzy@applink.net

[Ping]

 Go Skuzzy Go  

[Animal]

Go with the AV7, unless you REALLY need ISA slots. I LOVE the motherboard, but I miss ISA slots for my hardware modem and gameport card.

Other than that, the motherboard is super stable. I am running a Duron 700 at 1Ghz. Smooth.

I recomend you get a PCI Sound Blaster Live! Value, its cheap and very good.

[TheWobble]

Yup, ive got the Live Value PCI, it rocks. ESPECALLY on headphones.

[WpnX]

Ping,
I have an K7V with an Athlon 700, SBLive and Leadtek GeForce2 64mb DDR card. You should definitely go with the SBLive card, especially if you already have one. Also, upgrade to the GeForce2 card. Look at the Leadtek card as it has 5.5ns ram=faster(tweak3d.net did a review of this card and rated it 9.4 out of 10). I upgraded from a TNT2 card and it made a huge difference. Got mine from newegg.com for $250 shipping included (think frosty recommended that place, Thanks whoever that was). You can get the 32mb version for $173. Also, the 6.50 detonator drivers seem to work best for most people (I'm running dx7.0a with these)
Wpn-x-




[This message has been edited by WpnX (edited 01-31-2001).]

[Ping]

 Animal: I currently have the PCI SBlive value, I will stay with that  
 WpnX: Is there any conflicts or oddities with the GeForce 2 when playing AH? Or was that with the GeForce1 ?

 All input is much appreciated   Thnx Guys.

Ping

[MrSiD]

I own Geforce 256 SDR (Geforce 1)

I get an average FPS of 50 at 1024x768 and 32bit color. Looking at sky or high alt it goes up to 90-98 fps. I'm running v-sync on and monitor refresh at 100hz. I'm quite satisfied with the performance of the card, only visible slowdowns come close to smoke and even then its totally playable throughout. So I'd say no problems there..

Aside that, I'd say the earlier tips are correct, avoid ANYTHING built-in stuff like videocard or soundcard.. theyre a pain in the bellybutton in the long run.

If you consider upgrading, read up on a couple web sites and see some reviews, theyre the best way to get up to speed with current hardware development.

My favourite site http://www.hardocp.com/  contains links to several high quality articles around the net, and does so with a relaxed attitude.

[TheWobble]

<thinks about beignning a Voodoo gospel, but decides not to>

[WpnX]

Ping,
I've been using the card for about 2 weeks now and haven't had a single problem.


 

Originally posted by Ping:
WpnX: Is there any conflicts or oddities with the GeForce 2 when playing AH? Or was that with the GeForce1 ?

 All input is much appreciated   (Image removed from quote.) Thnx Guys.

Ping[/B]