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Thinking about getting Epox 8RDA (non-plus)

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matt6961

Registered
Joined
Jan 30, 2003
Location
Rhode Island
I am thinking about RMAing my kt400 Abit KD7 and getting an Nforce2 and from what i read it looks like Epox is the best one if i plan to OC. So I was reading a review on Newegg about the 8RDA (non-plus) because I am on a pretty tight budget and would rather just get the 8RDA instead of the 8RDA+, but i saw this in a Newegg review of the 8RDA that someone posted where they quoted something:
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"The MCP has no hardware support for audio of any kind, period. Windows and the CPU do all the audio work on that part and there is absolutely no DSP, NVIDIA or otherwise, in that chip to help out. Try to do EAX, any kind of reverb or chorus, or a music preset on those boards and you'll see the CPU usage climb. Ditto if you add more voices to the mix: CPU usage goes up.

The MCP-T has a full hardware audio DSP, hardware acceleration for 2D and 3D streams, and Dolby Digital encode support. EQs, HRTFs, and all environmental settings are exposed and modifiable by the user. None of this is available on the soft solutions due to the heavy hit on the CPU if they were enabled.

Short of that, you can try to use the ASIO or OpenAL drivers. You'll find that neither will work on the MCP because there is no supporting hardware for them. In short, there is no way to coax an MCP to be an APU capable part, the support simply isn't in the chip."
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I am wondering what exactly this means? Does the above only apply to people wanting to use the Onboard sound?
As you can tell I don't know much about sound stuff so, i mostly just want to know, is the 8RDA just as good as the 8RDA+ if I am going to use a sound card rather than onboard sound?

Thanks for any info
 
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The 8RDA+ model has integrated sound storm audio. Which simply means its got built on audio about the same quality as a Sound Blaster Audigy. The none-plus model does not, meaning their sound isn’t that great. In either case if you choose to use your own sound card you won’t be using the boards audio so it won’t matter.

So basically, if you already own a sound card of audigy quality or better your fine with a none-plus model. If not, in my opinion the plus model is worth the extra just for the Sound.
 
Just ordered my epox 8rda, geforce4 ti4200, antec 430 true, and slk800 from newegg hope i dont have any problems with the bios or with putting in the geforce 4 card. EluSiOn I read your sticky and went to 8rda.com and there was alot of good info and some bad but from what ive read i hope all turns out ok and i install everything ok.


XP2100tbred'b 302 waiting to be installed!
 
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