The AWE64 doesn't have the 'hanging note' MIDI bug, so if you're running Roland sound modules it's a good choice.

In real world terms a card with a Vibra chip means you loose the ability to adjust treble and Bass on the card itself. Not a problem if you can do this with your speakers. Also can sound a bit cleaner, again doubt you will notice unless you have real good hearing.

So the CT3930 is a SB32 not a AWE32. I've got one myself that haven't gotten round to playing with yet. If you don't use sound fonts really its just going to act as an Vibra 16. Unless you really miss the true OPL chip, I would still rate the AWE64 Value as a better card. (although the SB32 does look cooler)

The PCI Vibra 128 is a "value" SB Live. so you miss out on the fancy EAX stuff
The ES1371 is also known as a SB 64 PCI. Think of it as a slightly less capable version of your Vibra 128

I think you have the pairing pretty much right above.
For PC1. If you like the Vibra128 more then the on board card, swap it, It may be a bit better behaved in Win98? Not sure I've only ever
had creative cards, even on board till more recent PC's

For PC2, I guess a AWE64 gives you the option of playing Dos if you ever do want to. otherwise either of the PCI cards will also do fine as they do have good legacy support for dos games if you stay in Windows.

PC3,4,5 Would be nice to put the SB32 in somewhere just for something different. Maybe your second most used dos PC?

chinny22 wrote:

In real world terms a card with a Vibra chip means you loose the ability to adjust treble and Bass on the card itself. Not a problem if you can do this with your speakers. Also can sound a bit cleaner, again doubt you will notice unless you have real good hearing.

So the CT3930 is a SB32 not a AWE32. I've got one myself that haven't gotten round to playing with yet. If you don't use sound fonts really its just going to act as an Vibra 16. Unless you really miss the true OPL chip, I would still rate the AWE64 Value as a better card.

Did not know that. I do have a real AWE32 in one of my rigs - haven't gotten around to playing with it yet. It's a bit longer, but it doesn't have memory expansion slots.

chinny22 wrote:

(although the SB32 does look cooler)

Yes it does!

chinny22 wrote:

The PCI Vibra 128 is a "value" SB Live. so you miss out on the fancy EAX stuff
The ES1371 is also known as a SB 64 PCI. Think of it as a slightly less capable version of your Vibra 128

Don't have an SB Live card - was planning on buying a couple, but I could never find one at just the right price / distance. I do love the Vibra 128 - no issues with it in any game and it sounds very pleasant. The on board sound card on the ECS P6VXA I use for the P3 V2 SLi rig is horrid. The chip itself is fine - same chip as on the Abit KT133 (and that works pretty well) but ECS didn't bother to build proper supporting circutry for it, and It doesn't even have output filter caps (unlike the Abit) so it sounds like crap - crackling, background noise and interference from the disk drives make it unusable.

Didn't know about the 1371. I'll give it a try.

chinny22 wrote:

I think you have the pairing pretty much right above. For PC1. If you like the Vibra128 more then the on board card, swap it, It […]
Show full quote

I think you have the pairing pretty much right above.
For PC1. If you like the Vibra128 more then the on board card, swap it, It may be a bit better behaved in Win98? Not sure I've only ever
had creative cards, even on board till more recent PC's

For PC2, I guess a AWE64 gives you the option of playing Dos if you ever do want to. otherwise either of the PCI cards will also do fine as they do have good legacy support for dos games if you stay in Windows.

Yeah, win98 drivers for the on-board nvidia card require DX9 witch brakes compatibility with games like Dungeon Keeper II (black screen). I'll probably swap the X800 for my 9800pro and stick the Vibra 128 in there as well.

chinny22 wrote:

PC3,4,5 Would be nice to put the SB32 in somewhere just for something different. Maybe your second most used dos PC?

My second most used dos PC is a Pentium 166 with a Voodoo 1 4MB. It has my only true AWE32 card in it, but it's a version with no memory slots. Is there any point in replacing it with the SB32? I play Uprising, MDK, Duke 3D, Z (Zed) and other goodies on it.

I also have a pentium MMX 233 rig with a Voodoo 2, but I use that mostly for stuff like Age of Empires, Theme Hospital, and alike - not much dos action. It currently has a CT4380 in it.

What should I do with the SB16 value? I have a SB Pro 2.0 witch is missing it's metal i/o plate (I got it that way) in my 386. Would replacing that with the CT2770 make any difference?

I have a Audigy 2 ZS in my Voodoo 3 3500 rig (KT333, 2400+) and it's pretty nice for what it does. No driver issues under win9x either.

The AWE32 does have a real yamaha chip on it - the SB32 however has a "Creative OPL3" or some shit...

Thanks for all the advice - especially regarding the SB Live cards. I'll stick to older cards or Audigy 2 / 4 / SE

System 2 - I have the same setup, and I just used my Awe64 value in that one. Any DOS games will be late ones with native Awe drivers anyway.
System 5 - I have a SB32 CT3930, and I really like it. Just replaced all the capacitors, real OPL, Vibra be damned. Best of both worlds.

Can't find the old article about SBPCI128 & Ensoniq - though I seem to recall the Ensoniq version often had better DAC SNR and was a pretty good card for WAV recording.
Wavetable by system RAM loaded ".ECW" soundfont, with 2MB, 4MB & 8MB (I used the 8MB with mine, only go lower if really short of RAM) - it's more a shared memory hardware wavetable than a software, as the card PCI busmasters the data as required.

Mine was the SBPCI128

1. - Athlon XP 2600+ / Abit NF7-S2G / X800XT 256MB / Win98SE + WinXP - this one is limited to PCI - so the question is - would one of the PCI cards above sound better then the on board nvidia chip? Would there be any reason to use one of the above PCI sound cards in it or should I stick to on-board sound?

The Nvidia Soundstorm is by far one of the best underutilized DSPs in existence. It has great 3D audio provided by Sensaura plus real hardware accelerated OpenAL and Dolby 5.1 out, making it the only hardware accelerated chip for OpenAL besides the X-FI. The only drawback is the Realtek Alc650 codec it uses for output and no Vista+ drivers 🙁
I remember loving it on my NF7-S 2.0 motherboard, there are also some neat control panel hacks to adjust more parameters and load SF2 soundfonts.

If there is an CT2770 among them, then it is the model I used in my DX2-66 back in the mid. 90's.
Decent card for such a system. Not by any chance the greatest. Just an ok card.