the yamaha 744 chip on the Aopen card supports 4 channel surround sound in windows games where as the 724 on the waveforce has only stereo support. I know the waveforce has coaxial SPDIF digital out but i am uncertain if the aopen card has that. there may be other differences but those are the ones that came to mind first

Unlike some other YMF724 cards, the Waveforce doesn't have the option to fit an SPDIF output. The Aopen card has an SPDIF out from the box. Some revisions of the Aopen might require you to solder a pin header for PC/PCI, though.

gdjacobs wrote:

Unlike some other YMF724 cards, the Waveforce doesn't have the option to fit an SPDIF output. The Aopen card has an SPDIF out from the box. Some revisions of the Aopen might require you to solder a pin header for PC/PCI, though.

I stand corrected. i was thinking of an A-trend 724 card i have at home.

my bad

so were leaning towards the aw744l then?

As much as a Yamaha branded Yamaha card is appealing to me the i would say the extra features of the 744 chip are probably worth it.