Hey there. I recently won a Sound Blaster AWE64 ISA (CT4520) on eBay. I believe it's the AWE64 Value model.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/180808026633?ssPageNam … 984.m1439.l2649

It cost me 11$ shipped, so I'm not out much if it doesn't work. I wanted one for the collection anyway. Hopefully someone can tell me if I made a good choice or I wasted my money.

While I've always wanted an AWE, at the time they were popular, I was using a Bravo Sound 16(Opti82C930+OPL3), and Sound Blaster AWE's were prohibitively expensive. By the time I could afford one, SB Live was out, and got one of those instead. So when it comes to AWE32/64, I don't know much about them other than they're supposed to be AWEsome.

I can't seem to find much information on them online (other than the not-so-detailed Wikipedia article), plus I would imagine that lots here would know plenty about these cards anyway.

So my big questions are:

- What's the deal with the CT4520 anyway? I've seen other similar cards numbered CT4380, CT4500.. are there any notable differences across each model? Capability, Compatibility, sound quality, etc...

- Is the AWE64 compatible with games with AWE32 sound modes on DOS games? (provided the driver is loaded in DOS)

- I don't see any reference to the card using a Yamaha OPL3 for FM and I believe the card is from the timeframe when Creative began using their in-house substandard-sounding clone on the Vibra16's. Is the OPL3 support (ie: AdLib sound reproduction) on the AWE64 any good?

- How is the AWE64's game compatibilty in DOS? Are there any major DOS games out there that aren't compatible with the AWE64?

- Is the sound quality any good? I know it's not the Gold version, but is this card still any better than the average SB16/Vibra16, and would it be better in DOS games sound quality-wise than an SBPro2?

Just curious to what people say. Thanks in advance!