Audio
Remember a few pages back (don't worry, I barely remember myself) when I had to make a decision on which board to put in my system and it came down to the layout of the Biostar and Jetway board? The decision is because I wanted to upgrade from the Realtek onboard sound (HDMI audio out is not being used) to something better - mainly for listening to music, but movies and gaming would also get a boost. The Jetway board does include a PCI Express x1 slot but due to the GF8200 heatsink location, it is only good for half-length cards. That knocked what I consider one of the better "value" audio cards out of contention for me on that board.
The audio card I am enamored with is the ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 at a reasonable $89. This card offers every possible option I need in this particular system while offering exceptional sound quality for music and DVD playback. Gaming performance is very good and with the last driver updates, even the EAX 5.0 emulation is coming up to speed quickly in both quality and compatibility with the latest games.
The Xonar DX features ASUS' AV100 audio processor - really just a name change to a large degree from the AV200 used in the D2X card. The DX utilizes a combination of Cirrus Logic CD4398 and CD4362A DACS for analog out duties compared to the Burr Brown PCM1796 DACS in the D2X card. Analog-to-Digital duties on both cards are handled by Cirrus Logic with the DX utilizing the CD5361 and the D2X having the CD5381.
Besides slightly lower signal-to-noise ratings on the DX card, it drops support for DTS interactive encoding, although Dolby Digital Live encoding is still available as is Dolby Headphone and Virtual Speaker. Anyway, the DTS feature is not that important to me as I only have a 2-channel setup on this particular system. About the only problem I have run into is with the microphone settings; at various times I get static or dropout while on Skype that required turning on microphone boost and increasing microphone volume to 85% or more.
For my daughter's system, I chose the Auzentech X-Plosion 7.1 DTS Connect card based on previous experience. In addition, the latest driver release on 5/19 addressed several problems under Vista. Of course, it did not hurt that I picked up an open box return sample with new warranty for $54.99. While my daughter probably could have lived with the onboard audio, her movie, music, and game addiction called for something better. This card offers real-time DTS and Dolby Digital Live encoding via the C-Media CMI8770 chipset along with swappable OPAMPS. Although I prefer the recently canceled X-Meridian card, it was not available at this price point.
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PCMerlin - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
Lightning, looking through the article he mentions Vista drivers, media streaming and other features that one would assume is only available in Vista Ultimate Edition (64-bit, of course with 8GB of RAM). Being that it is not included in the budget, one must also assume that he is transferring the OS from the original PC's, which indicates that he is using the retail, and not the OEM version.Armed with that info, users who want to build a system just like this should add another $269 to the total, based on average retailer figures.
Note: As the cost of the case is note mentioned as well, those trying to replicate the total cost of the system would need to compensate for that as well.
darkmarc - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
Good article, I also went down SFF SG03 route - with Nehalem just around the corner and my ageing amd X2 creeking away, I wanted a system that wouldn't suffer obsolescence to quickly. The SFF is a great intermediate solution, once Nehalem has matured I can then turn it into home server. I went for the Asus P5E-VM mobo with Q6600, 8gb ddr2, 8800GTS (as it runs cooler then the GT) a Creative X-Fi sound card that I canabalised from my old system and two Samsung 1tb hhd's. I kept the stock cooler, went for the 600w Silverstone psu and two Noctua fans keeping it cool at the front. The Asus board lets me run the Q6600 at 3ghz without a problem so with the 8gig of ram it's great for running VM's. I have the LG GGC-H20L drive for all my Blu-ray/HD-dvd needs, hooked up to a Hyundai 24" panel. It is very quiet and has all the power I need and I don't have to worry about upgrading it as it will fulfill a secondary role.Viditor - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
In most all of the build articles I've read, the one thing everyone forgets is to add the price of the OS in. Even though it's the same, many people forget that cost when they plan their next system (leads to disappointment from the unitiated).amphionuk - Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - link
Why pay for your OS?If you don't want to play the latest games, you can install Ubuntu or one of the other Linux distros for free.
drfelip - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
Good article, I think SFF computers are a good option for most users, and I like the small cases a lot, but sometimes it's difficult to find reviews and comparisions of SFF cases micro-ATX boards and barebones. I think this is an area to expand!Visual - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
A very nice looking case recommendation for the next part of your guide: GMC AVC-S7http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=5...">http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=5...
Not for everyone, obviously, with its single PCI card limit. But some people like smaller is better. If you go with integrated video and all you need is a tuner, this is as small as you can get. It's also possible, though more hassle, to get this with a pci-express riser instead of pci riser, so you can have a graphic card.
DXRick - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
The Silverstone SG03 takes micro-ATX mobos. Why limit it to uATX?Visual - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
I'm confused... uATX is micro-ATX. So what are you asking, again?Flunk - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
The official short for for micro-ATX is mATX. Sometimes the greek ltter µ (Mu) is substituted for the word micro, particularly for scientific purposes. Sometimes people use u as a substitute for µ because it doesn't appear on the standard keyboard map. This is confusing (as evidenced above) and inaccurate.DXRick - Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - link
I looked it up on Newegg before replying (try it sometime).Micro-ATX is 9.6 x 9.6.
uATX is 9.6 x 8.4.