Test Systems
As a sound card we need to test both the sound quality and the performance of this card, so before we look at the results let us first see the system setup for the tests.
Computer
| CPU: |
AMD Athlon 1.27GHz |
| Motherboard: |
Epox 8K3A+ (BIOS: 3/28/2002)
|
| Memory: |
256MB PC2100 @ 2-2-2 1T |
| Hard Drives (In Order: Top-Bottom): |
40GB Maxtor 5400RPM (VL 40), 8.4GB Quantum CR 5400RPM, 20GB Quantum LM 7200RPM, 40GB Maxtor 7200RPM (D740X)
|
| Video Card: |
Hercules Prophet 4500 (Kyro II) (190/190MHz) |
| Operating System: |
Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 2 |
| Front Side Bus |
133MHz (266MHz DDR) |
| Other Cards: |
ATi TV Wonder, D-Link 538TX NIC |
| Coolers/Fans: |
Alpha PAL-8045T (37CFM TT Fan), 36CFM Sunon, Generic "Quiet Fan" |
| Cases: |
InWin Q500 |
| Power Supply: |
Enermax EG365P-VE 350Watts |
| Sound Cards (driver): |
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live 5.1 (SBLW-WDMDR-1-US), SoundBlaster Audigy (5.12.01.0129), Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (4162s) |
Audio System
| Receiver: |
|
| Front Speakers: |
Generic 20 year old tower speakers Model 655 (30W @ 8ohms) |
| Center Speakers: |
Quest Q3.4C (15-70W @ 6ohms) |
| Rear Speakers: |
|
| Subwoofer: |
|
| DVD Player: |
Zenith DVC2200 |
The DVD tests we done using the following scenes: in Star Wars Ep. 1 chapter 39 was used; and in The Matrix chapter 15 was used. For the DVD tests the Zenith DVD player was used as the standard for the other cards to compare to, thus on a scale of 1 - 10 it receives a 5. All cards/players used the digital out functions of the respective equipment.
For the other audio tests the SoundBlaster Live 5.1 was the standard used for comparison, thus it was given a 5 in both MP3 and CD Audio tests. The MP3's used were of a wide variety, from hard rock to classical music to allow for a full range of sound to be heard. The CD audio tracks used were classical music that tested the range and quality of the sound cards.
Game performance was tested using Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast with the latest patch, which supports EAX HD (or 3.0). The following video settings were used: 640X480, 16 bit color, 16 bit textures, Dynamic Lights = off, Anisotropic filtering = off, Detailed Shadows = off, Wall Marks = off, Graphics Detail = medium, Texture detail = medium, Bilinear filtering. The demo was run a minimum of three times with the closest three scores being averaged together. Sound performance was tested using EAX (HD), No EAX, and low settings with no sound.
Previous Page - The Versa Jack/Outputs
Next Page - Audio Quality Tests - Subjective
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