Can't comment on all these cards but got an Avance Logic ALS4000 myself. Very decent card for DOS if your motherboard chipset supports DDMA or TDMA.

Almoststew1990 wrote on 2022-12-02, 13:52:

I'm building a super cheap fast Windows 98 PC. I've got a nasty 478 board and cooler for £11 and I'm looking for a PCI sound ca […]
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I'm building a super cheap fast Windows 98 PC. I've got a nasty 478 board and cooler for £11 and I'm looking for a PCI sound card to put in it that is acceptable in Windows and can do some basic DOS adlib and sb emulation. My choices are cards based around...

Avance Logic ALS4000
CT4750
CT4810
ES1370
VT1721 0323CD (VIA ICEnsamble Envy 24 HT-S )
CMI8738
Crystal CS4280-CM

These are all available for about £10.

I've already got a Live but I want to use something else for a change. What's least worse, including driver availability?

Avance Logic ALS4000 is soo good that some time i forget is not a ISA card, but you mother must support it. I think have problems with intel 810+

CMI8738 & CS4280-CM garbage

Did not test others, but if you just need basic SB emulation in DOS, why not a Live?

By the way, where you find ALS4000 for £10? i always look for als and never find any here in spain

ALS4000

Almoststew1990 wrote on 2022-12-02, 13:52:

nasty 478 board and cooler for £11

Details? Nasty as in good or like dirty and digusting

Yoghoo wrote on 2022-12-02, 17:09:

Can't comment on all these cards but got an Avance Logic ALS4000 myself. Very decent card for DOS if your motherboard chipset supports DDMA or TDMA.

Yes, with certain chipsets it provides SB16 compatibility without memory-resident software, and without V86 mode.

Unfortunately, the ALS4000 card I tried was pretty noisy, but maybe it's possible to find a better one?

drosse1meyer wrote on 2022-12-02, 17:43:

ALS4000

Almoststew1990 wrote on 2022-12-02, 13:52:

nasty 478 board and cooler for £11

Details? Nasty as in good or like dirty and digusting

Nasty as in an OEM cheapo MS6703. It's from an Advent PC, which is a cheap OEM in the UK from our tech chain Currys PC World. It's got a SIS 648/963 chipset which to be fair I've had positive experiences with for Windows 98 PCs.

Is Nasty = good a young person thing

theelf wrote on 2022-12-02, 17:13:

Avance Logic ALS4000 is soo good that some time i forget is not a ISA card, but you mother must support it. I think have problem […]
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Avance Logic ALS4000 is soo good that some time i forget is not a ISA card, but you mother must support it. I think have problems with intel 810+

CMI8738 & CS4280-CM garbage

Did not test others, but if you just need basic SB emulation in DOS, why not a Live?

By the way, where you find ALS4000 for £10? i always look for als and never find any here in spain

I've used the live for years so I just want to try something else.

There are a couple for around £10 on UK ebay. I just bought this so there is now one left it looks like:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224734341705?hash= … ABk9SR56cgcqaYQ

Avance Logic ALS4000 supports DDMA, but I don't know if their DOS software is capable to enable that mode plus your motherboard chipset has to support DDMA, I guess that means for Socket 478, you need SiS chipset.

Advent, hahah

Far as I know Envy 24 HT-S doesn't do DOS at all. The original Envy24 mentioned DOS in the ICE datatasheet, but I've never seen DOS drivers and the only mention is of it on Vogons is it requiring the companion VIA codec the be present on the card.

I have also not been able to locate VxD drivers. If I go back a few WDM drivers before the earliest available on the VIA official driver website, there are drivers that offer full Sensaura support.

The drivers on the VIA website only offer QSound, which I presume had to be implemented due to the licence expiry from Sensaura.

Overall strictly an XP card.. I put it in the same category as C-Media 8738 with it's patchy DOS support depending on the chip hardware revision. CMI8768 lacks DOS support entirely.

CT4750, CT4810, ES1370 are basically the same based off the Ensoniq AudioPCI 137x chip.
I have a PC with this onboard and in windows it better then AC97 sound , ok MIDI with the 8MB sound font loaded, OPL is emulated and not very well.
DOS drivers are the exact same as the Live! series .

I use it because its already there and like you wanted something different not because it's anything special.
Haven't tried the ALS4000 for myself but for that price just grabbed the 2nd card and will soon fix that, thanks for the link 😀