What't the deal with ISA slots?

[BMF]

Ok, I'm thinking of getting a SoundBlaster AWE 64. It goes into an ISA slow, and people are saying, "ewww, an ISA slot, it sucks.". Like, what's so bad about ISA?

[apollo11]

Before even mentioning the technical aspects concerning ISA and PCI, if you haven't yet purchased the card, don't - PC99 compliancy doesn't completly remove ISA slots from boards as it is too risky a move for them as many people still have their belved ISA NIC & sound cards. However many anufacturers are making boards without.

For a sound card you wouldn't notice the difference if you have the AWE64 though. /forum/smile.gif

[BMF]

If I wouldn't notice a difference, why shouldn't I buy the card? Plus, it's like 15 bucks cheaper.

[cment]

Correct me if I am wrong, but ISA card are 16 bit slots and pci are 32bit slots. hence faster. granted for a sound card it won't make a noticable diffence for most of us. Just think wisely on what you might want to put in your system that takes up slots. IE, nics, video, scsi, modem, and such. You might want to save the pci slots for later, up to you.

Cment

[nilknarf]

Cheaper is better, right? Wrong!

If you have the available slot, use PCI. It is faster and I have found it to be more reliable and more compatible than ISA cards.

ISA bus = 2.5M/sec & 16bit
PCI bus = 132M/sec & 32bit

I have a Sound Blaster PCI card on my system and it works better than the ISA card. It also works for both Win98 and WinNT (when I bought it, finding sound cards for NT was not easy).

Good Luck! /forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by nilknarf (edited 09-28-99).]

[KillerBug]

GO PCI, ISA is slower (even for a sound card), will have less support in the future (motherobards, and software), it causes the CPU to use up more MHZ to run the device than a PCI card, and if you are buying a 64 bit card, it is bad enough to divide its power by 2 in PCI, to divide its power by four in an ISA is pathetic. If you are concerned about price, get an Azteck sound card, you can get a PCI-128 for less than an SB-64.

[Ed_S]

The AWE 64 is a great card. I've got one and happy with it. Real good sound quality.
How many other ISA cards do you have & do you ever intend to replace mainboard? If no other cards, why waste that slot?
As to the speed difference, the sound card is least affected by this, really it's not a factor.

BTW it's not 64-bit, the "64" stands for number of voices or sounds.

[nilknarf]

Actually, 64 and 128 might very well mean bits. Just because the slot is only capable of 32bit, doesn't mean that the card can't process a larger instruction. More and more expansion cards are processing 64 and 128 bit instructions. Although they are still talking to the CPU in 32 bit. /forum/smile.gif

[BMF]

You see, this is what I mean. . . Mixed responces. Some say it's good others don't.
Ok, is it really worth the extra 20 bucks to get a PCI sound card, rather than an ISA?

[Altima]

Also have you thought about getting a SBLIVE value (PCI)? I just got mine for 50 bucks oem. No problems so far.

[j_k]

The SB AWE is a 16bit card - just an irritating fact but true nonetheless. I've an old 16 value and it never let me down xcept with MP3 - but I do not have the udated drivers -
PCI is better and when I do upg it will be the SB live with SPDIF support

I dont really need all the surround sound or
'voices' or midi or joystick - but heck I need the rest of it so there goes 180 bucks.

[RobRich]

Here's my .02:

If you want another .5 frame per second in your games, get the pci based card. They use less cpu overhead and are not bottlenecked. I also recommend pci if your only running Win9x.

If you run other operating systems, like Linux or O/S-2, then save yourself some trouble and get the AWE 64. It supports sb16 calls directly, meaning minimal compatiblity problems.

I been running an AWE64 for over a year, and I've yet to find a game or program that won't work with it. Using a set of 300 watt desk speakers and a 200 watt 8 inch bandpass tube gives me great sound, with crisp highs and well defined lows. The midi playback it "ok", but I really don't care about midi anyway. Good luck on a choice.

[This message has been edited by RobRich (edited 09-29-99).]