Asus Xonar Essence ST : is it worth waiting for ??

Well the PC which I have near my stereo unit is old and only has PCI slot. I am wondering if it can be used as a good music pc. Asus xonar essence st fits bill perfectly but it is not available locally. That is why I am looking for a converter so that I can use the STX card (Which is readily available)in the pci slot.
 
Well the PC which I have near my stereo unit is old and only has PCI slot. I am wondering if it can be used as a good music pc. Asus xonar essence st fits bill perfectly but it is not available locally. That is why I am looking for a converter so that I can use the STX card (Which is readily available)in the pci slot.

Could you not get the ST imported - if you are that particular about PCI slots that is.

I am not sure that a converter being used may be the best thing for sound quality. One more component introduced in most cases is not the best thing.
 
the converter costs 50$
thats 2.5 k rs !

you might as well pay the premium for an ST card that directly uses PCI

using the converter may have issues
specially if you have a PCI 1.1 or 2.0 slot

the STX will work only if your clot is PCI 2.2

ANd yes its possible to get that card locally in Inida
i think a guy i know is charging a cool 12k for it (ill have to dig up his details though!)
but as i said its better paying the premium rather than using the converter

but please check you PCI slot version before you take any step
 
Hi guys,
after giving much thought about it I came to the conclusion that I want to upgrade the motherboard and processor of my old pc and include the ASUX xonar essence STX sound card. Now searching an old thread I came to know about this AMD 7750 +M M3n78EM combination of motherboard and processor. I am actually modifying Dell dimension 4600 pc Documentation which I bought in 2004.
I guess if I change the mother board , and processor and add some 2 gb ram I should be ok. I only want to use this pc as a music source and nothing much. If I spend around 10,000 what is the best possibilities out there I mean to say motherboard , processor and RAM. Is intel pentium better than AMD in this case if so please suggest which pentium processor. MY experience with AMD not very good I have one compaq laptop bought in 2002 with AMD athelon and it made my life miserable. Since then I have stayed out of AMD with every subsequent purchase of desktop and laptop.Does AMD still have heating problems?
Thanks,
Mahiruha.
 
The AMD solution for a music PC hands down, Mahiruha. And no, as an old user of AMD processors and compatible motherboards, they dont have any heating issues as of now.

The AMD 785 chipset is amazing in its versatility and includes a fairly powerful onbaoard graphics solution. A processor such as the X2 550 BE would be right up your alley. With a Gigabyte motherboard, you could unlock all four cores of this processor. That is, in my opinion, an unbeatable solution when compared to comparable Intel solutions.

However, if you are looking for a pure musical application, you may not want to unlock the cores thereby reducing overall heat/noise factors within your cabinet.
 
Hi Vortex,
thanks for the info. Let me check the if they available hopefully they don't have any liquidity issues.:)
Thanks.
 
You need to wait a few weeks for a phenom II 500e or 600e rated at 45W TDP and with HT3.0 to arrive in Indian market and pair with the 785G.

This will more than double the HyperTransport link bandwidth from the existing HT2.0 specs. which is what you really need for HD playback. Windows drivers like CoreAVC will utilize all 3 or 4 cores to playback HD with ultra low cpu utilization.

I have under-volted my BE-2350 to 0.8volts at 1.2ghz and checked the temp during HD playback, it never went above 37celcius. Playback is mostly smooth on my 1080p monitor (i suspect issues with the Dell more than anything). The 500e and 600e should also make it feasible to undervolt to 0.8 volts and underclocked to 1.2ghz. This way you can use a heatsink like Scythe Ninja Mini Rev B without fan for silent computing. I would not run a small HTPC heatsink like the recommended Shuriken fanless but this one is a good bet.

PS: This is going to be the spec of my new HTPC I will build around April. :)

HTH
Regards
 
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Update-
Got the Asus Xonar Essence STX @Rs 8000/- +Vat(5%)
from Eplanet,101, Red Rose Bldg, Nehru Place N.Delhi.
Owner-Deepak Aggarwal mob-9818554400.
He also ships outside Delhi.
 
Get the Wharfedale EVO 4.2 3-Way Standmount Speakers at a Special Offer Price.
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