VOGONS


First post, by AngryByDefault

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Hi there,
so I stumbled with the mentioned card, it's based on the ESS ES1989 Allegro chip and I can't much info about it.
A few months ago a similar one at a better proces escaped me, so it kinda itches me...

I do know it lacks 3D/A3D/gamers features, and I do know PCI cards are from troublesome to useless for DOS.

I'm not sure what hardware of software I would pair it with, I have a range from K6-400 to Socket A Sempron 2400+

It's most interesting feature seems to be the SB-Link header (I think I have a Slot 1 board with that), and it has some big capacitors so it shouldn't be too noisy, right? 😜

It is a bit more pricey than what I would like to pay, but I guess, I'd like it if it requires some tinkering to get a nice sound, but not if it's going to be a nightmare to make it work at all...

I already have 2 SB Live!s, 1 ESS Solo-1 and a couple of ALS4000 (but not time to anything with any of this, 🤣).

What's your take?
Thank you.

(PS: PCI cards other than Live, AudioPCI and CMI8378 are scarce around here)

Reply 2 of 3, by Shponglefan

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The Serpent Rider wrote on 2023-09-29, 13:31:

Allegro FM synth is subpar.

FM's probably not that important though given it's a PCI sound card from 1998.

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 3 of 3, by dionb

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Why a PCI card if you have a motherboard with SBLink - so almost certainly with ISA slots too?

This is a competent card for late DOS or early Windows, but nothing special for either. If you really want it, a mid-range end-1990s system would be the likely pairing, maybe a 1999 P3 system.