Creative Audigy 2 hits the motherboards

JUST AS we were asking ourselves whether motherboard makers should take the plunge and implement more advanced audio on their offerings, thus killing the add-on card market, we've got info that at least two of them will upgrade their sound subsystem with Creative based products.

After the successful, but overcrowded K8N (AMD based) and P4N (Intel based) Diamond motherboards, MSI has launched a new revision of its AMD board, dubbed K8N Diamond Plus. Although "Plus" isn't saying something special, we're talking about fully-fledged nForce4-SLI x16 motherboard. The K8N Diamond Plus features Audigy2 sound chip (named Audigy SE), a welcome improvement over already good SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit 7.1. The new board also sports Dolby Digital certification.

Second manufacturer which will add the Audigy 2 chip is GigaByte, with several of their cream-of-the-crop products for Yuletide.

However, many engineers are coming back to us and saying that putting more advanced audio chips will only work if a motherboard company deploys either Abit's or DFI's sound subsystem concept - add on cards, attaching to the PCB- since interference on the motherboard has grown to a severe status. The problem with bundling add-on boards, of course, is the additional cost. µ

L'INQ
K8N Diamond Plus PR spin