Asus P4B and basic AC’97 audio question

[AESmith]

Hi,

I am looking at upgrading my mother board rather than the whole system and I am a little new to some of the terminology. I was wondering if some one(s) could help me out with a couple of questions.

1.
The Asus P4B is offered as a bundle deal on the eyo products site with intel cpus 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7 GHz. Ignoring cost :) does this board support an Intel 2 Ghz? It would appear so. If it does then I assume I don't have to use a Pentium 4 power supply.... yes?

2.
I was wondering if someone could provide a link or explanation about onboard sound (ie AC'97) on the Asus P4B mother board. What I want to know in particular is whether my Sound Blaster Live! card is superior (this card is the older base live card bought about a year and a half ago).



Thanks

Andrew:)

[brad]

Yes it will support a 2 Ghz chip. Not sure about the power supply (special or additional connectors?) but you may have problems if it isn't at least 300 watts, 350 watts would be better but it depends on what goodies you plan on installing. You may get by with 300 but I wouldn't count on it.

AC97 audio is the 1997 Audio Codec standard, a largly software driven (and cpu intensive) audio solution. It is ok for very casual stuff like internet voice chat but rest asured your SB card will sound utterly superior for everything else, especially midi.

Brad

[nsu]

There is no need for a Pentium 4 power supply for the Asus P4B motherboard.

This particular motherboard can take the standard Pentium 4 four pin plug as well as a molex connector. The molex connector is the power plug used for the hard drives, CDROM drives etc.

Another feature this motherboard has is that it can be installed into a normal ATX case instead of a Pentium 4 case as it comes a mounting plate.