Recent content by pamewan

I previously had the Audigy 2 ZA Platinum, but it had enough of a delay in the decoding that it was essentially worthless, at least for movies and games. The annoying thing is that spec sheets rarely reveal whether a chipset can decode DTS over SPDIF-in. Thanks for the tips on Auzentech / Asus...

So I wrote to Realtek, and here is their response. I am going to stop chasing this particular rainbow, suck it up, and buy a receiver. (or... the <a href="http://www.silentpcreview.com/AMD_Maui">AMD Maui</a>) Dear Sir, ALC889 can not decode AC3 stream. You need an AMP/receiver/AC3 decoder...

Looks like you're asking a similar question as I am, http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/264445-28-using-onboard-soundcard-decode-xbox-spdif and yes right now I'm only getting stereo as well. Just to clarify, you are using the receiver to decode to 5.1? I believe I've read elsewhere that the...

I've seen variants on this question but I don't think I've seen this exact one so apologies if I'm repeating. I'm trying to use my computer as a 5.1 receiver, mostly because a long time ago I bought an analog 5.1 Soundworks speaker system that doesn't accept digital-in (so only computers can...

I did buy this bracket off Ebay thinking I'd be able to turn my desktop into a 5.1 Dolby receiver. On Windows 7, however, so far I can only achieve stereo using optical-in. If anyone knows whether this is a limitation of the chipset, driver, or software, please reply and message me. I hope it...

The hierarchy chart is very helpful; I wish you'd offered it earlier, as it really helps with card comparisons and decision-making. Still, even tho I now know that my new 7600GS is 2 tiers better than my old 9800 Pro, I can't tell how much better. Nonetheless, very helpful; thanks!

FYI everyone my PSU is a Seasonic Super Silencer 300; it's over 2 years old; and I plugged in the 7600GS (passive cooling) and so far the system's running great. We'll see what happens when I start throwing something more serious than Civ4 at it, but right now, I'm happy and the system is...

Thanks, Pauldh I've been shopping this choice for, like, 4 months now so I'm not going in completely uninformed. The problem with all the charts and graphs is, as I explained, that nothing out there compares MY card with the NEW card. I have to make guesses. For example, for a while I thought...

Man, what a difference between "6" and "7". Anyway, I have the Gigabyte 7600GS on order, I know it'll raise hell in my box (passive cooling) tho to be honest I'm kinda looking forward to finding out how well the heatsink works and how good the ventilation turns out to be in there (Antec SLK3700...

This may seem unbelievable, but I got XP running on a =http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:600EThinkpad 600E, I believe it's a PII 366 / 288 MB RAM? It actually runs faster and better than on a new Thinkpad X41 Pentium M 1.5GHz / 256 MB (tho I'm adding another GB shortly). It is, I admit, the...

typo ! typo! Gigabyte 7600GS :oops: I'm glad I'm at least amusing you :) mock the n00b! :) :)

Uh oh. Are you saying that the 6600GS isn't even better than a 9800 Pro? I guess that was the question I led off with... Argh. Except for that first AGP card analysis, I haven't been able to compare apples with oranges -- the 9800 Pro is such an old card that the VGA charts don't allow me to...

Hey all, I love being the "client" here and getting all of your professional advice :) Castigate me all you want, but ultimately I went for the Gigabyte 6600GS because (1) it was a few bucks cheaper; (2) it uses a lot less energy; and (3) I don't want to feel back chucking it later. I might...

luv the PSU calculator, it's fun and gives the illusion of precision :). It recommended under 300 W. But one thing I hadn't realized is that PSU's lose power capacity over time. Mine is > 2 yrs old? Oy. Thanks everyone!

Thanks for that link to the power consumption charts, Pauldh. I'm glad to know the information is out there. As someone who tries to conserve power, this entire thing is giving me pause... I especially don't like knowing that a GPU upgrade will cause my idling power consumption to go up...