AWE64 doesn't have a CD-ROM header. The headers on the board are for a RAM upgrade and are not supposed to have a plastic shroud on them.

I say keep it for the DOS games that support AWE32/64 directly and for General MIDI in Windows.

You will also have better DOS compatibility than most PCI cards.

Final Fantasy VII 😜

cyclone3d wrote:

AWE64 doesn't have a CD-ROM header. The headers on the board are for a RAM upgrade and are not supposed to have a plastic shroud on them.

I say keep it for the DOS games that support AWE32/64 directly and for General MIDI in Windows.

You will also have better DOS compatibility than most PCI cards.

They have cdrom audio headers not cdrom ide headers; I believe he is referring to the former.

appiah4 wrote:

cyclone3d wrote:

AWE64 doesn't have a CD-ROM header. The headers on the board are for a RAM upgrade and are not supposed to have a plastic shroud on them.

I say keep it for the DOS games that support AWE32/64 directly and for General MIDI in Windows.

You will also have better DOS compatibility than most PCI cards.

They have cdrom audio headers not cdrom ide headers; I believe he is referring to the former.

Now that you mention it... that makes sense. 😊

Yeah, I refered to CD Audio connector.

For DOS games I have a bunch of other Creative cards - AWE32, three AWE64s Value, SB16 Value and MT-32. Sadly none of them is 100% Legacy ISA, still SB16 works fine in my 286. I've always been curious about the "Gold" edition I know It has 4MB of memory installed still I'm quite not sure what so special about it other than gold plated connectors and RCAs instead of TRS.

Also I never had any problems with my ESS Maestro-1 PCI card in DOS mode, as far as I remember YMF 7x4-s work fine as well of course midi quality isn't as good as on AWE32...

The main difference between the 64 gold and 64 value is the gold connectors should have a cleaner output.
most of your PCI cards will still be better though.

I think the fact its the top model of the final Creative ISA card is what makes it so special more then any features it has over the other AWE's
If your happy enough with the value card, I would go ahead and sell it

The 4MB onboard RAM enables loading some very useful soundfonts, there are some very decent <4MB soundfonts that rather accurately mimic SCC-1 and Yamaha XG soundsets, the ESS 3MB and Creative 4MB soundfonts are also fairly decent, so if you want to use your card for General MIDI and don't have a SIMMCON or an external MIDI module I would keep the Gold.