API Support :DirectSound, DS3D, EAX 1.0, and
A3D 1.0 (by translating to DS3D calls, works with most but not all titles). A3D 1.0 only
supported with the VXD drivers.
Minimum System Requirements:
PCI
Slot on Mother Board
System
Memory - 16MB or above (32MB for Wave table software users )
CPU
- Pentium 133Mhz or higher, need Pentium 166 or higher for software Wavetable
If
you wish to enjoy Dolby Digital 5.1 Channel effect, then you would need to have a Pentium
II 266 CPU or Higher (preferably 400 CPU) installed on your PC’s Motherboard
OS
- Windows 9x, Windows NT 4.0 or MS DOS 6.0 or above
Hard
disk drive : 12MB free on your hard disk
CD-ROM
or DVD-ROM
The
plug of Mini-Din G9 for 5.1 CH. Speakers system or DIY multi-channel speakers
Reviewers PC:
Mark - Win98
- Celeron
333a o/c 416
-
128MB PC100 ram
- Creative TNT
- Creative Voodoo Blaster 12 M
- 6.1 and 13 GIG EIDE HD
- For four speaker testing purpose I hooked the card up to Videologic's
Sirocco Crossfire speaker system using the analog inputs as well as MidiLand S4-7100.
For 6-speaker testing I used the MidiLand S4-7100 and the Abit SP-50. For two speaker
testing purposes I used the same speaker systems but only connecting to the front channels
as well as the Diamond Audio Technology HPM-4100 and for headphones testing I used a set
of Sennheiser HD525s. Digital output was tested with the MidiLand
ADS-2000 as well as the Cambridge
SoundWorks DTT2500 and Creative
DTT3500.
Mikael - Win98
- Celeron
300a o/c 450
-
128MB PC100 ram
-
GeForce DDR
-
6.4 GB Quantum SE
-
For four speaker testing purpose I hooked the card up to Videologic's
Sirocco Crossfire speaker system using the analog inputs and later in testing I used Videologic's
Digi Theatre speaker system for 6-speaker testing. For two speaker testing purposes I
used the VideoLogic Sirocco Pro as well as the same speaker systems but only
connecting to the front channels and for headphones testing I used a set of Sennheiser
HD5570
Specifications
ForteMedia FM801 Sound Chip
Support 5.1 channel Home Theatre
Speaker Output
A3D, DS3D, Q3D and EAX Compatible
Software provide Dolby Digital
DTS,MP3 5.1 Surround
Wavetable Synthesizer: Hardware FM
Synthesizer for Adlib and General MIDI compatibility
Bus Interface: PCI Bus master
compliant with PCI v2.2
Build in power amplifier
DDMA. Serial IRQ and Proprietary
legacy support
Audio Converters: 18-bit Audio CODEC
support
Sampling Rates: up to 48 KHz
Games Compatibility: Compatible with
all standard Windows games and most DOS games (in Real Mode DOS)
Sample Rate Converters:
Hardware-based sample rate converters support 32KHz, 44.1KHz and
48KHz sampling rate
Audio Inputs/Outputs: Microphone
input, Line input, Line output, Aux input on internal header, CD
input on internal header, 1 G9 speaker output, S/PDIF optical
output
IDI Interface: Hardware-based
MPU-401 MIDI UART-compatible interface through joystick connector.
Joystick Interface: provide standard
analog/digital joystick support
Yamaha XG Professional Software
Synthesizer included
Compatibility: Windows
95/98/NT4.0/2000
Introduction:
Abit is a name that should be familiar to many PC users but that's thanks
to their strong line of motherboards and not because of any established
presence in the audio market. However, they have been widening their focus
into the multimedia market with video cards for a little while now. Last
year (2000)they decided to enter the multimedia audio market with a
6 channel sound card and two 5.1 ready speaker systems, the more entry level
SP-51 and the higher end SP-50. In this review we will be looking at the
AU-10 sound card.
In the summer of 2000 just having support for 5.1 output was enough to
get some attention. However, that changed quite rapidly during the fall
(2000) with the introduction of the Santa Cruz/SonicFury, Philips Acoustic
Edge, Hercules Game Theater XP, Creative Labs Live 5.1 cards and several
other FM801 based boards. Just like the first 5.1 soundcards that were
introduced last Abit AU-10 uses the FM801 chip. It’s a newer version,
FM801-AU, compared to the FM801-AS with the most important change being
support for AC-3 pass-thru, a feature that will be handy one Abit releases
their digital bracket board for the AU-10.
To get the attention of buyers Abit has bundled the AU-10 with an IR
remote and a special version of WinDVD 2000 pre-configured to work with the
remote for an impressive list price of just $40-50.
As with other FM801 boards, the AU-10 uses QSound’s Q3D 2.0 engine as
its 3D sound and reverb engine, which includes support for DS3D, A3D 1.0 and
EAX 1.0. A future driver upgrade may add EAX 2.0 support as well. In this
review we will offer an overview of how the card performs for playing music,
games and DVD movies the card only going into more detail where it offers
features not common for all other 5.1 FM801 based boards.
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