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In Reply to: RE: * Update * Core i3-530 32nm + Kingston HyperX DDR3-1375 1GB + GA-H55M-UD2H posted by cics on May 11, 2010 at 11:45:23
After cics reported dull veiled sound with his Core i3 combo, I performed some listen test (again) bewteen my "GA-H55M-UD2H+Core i3-530 32nm+Kingston Value Ram DDR3-1333 1GB" and "GA-G31M-S2C+E7500+ADATA Vitesta Extreme Edition1GB". I have learned and benifited a lot from cics' contribution as well as this forum, therefore I feel obliged to share my findings and experience here.
Test Conditions
Bypass capactors were added to almost each and every Cap. underneath both MBs(this offerred good SQ improvement). I am using a DIY USB DAC (battery drived) and there is no issue with PCI interface. The same HDD and PS (a 90W pico ATX ps and a pure battery + regulator power supply) were used for the listening tests. The rest of the system is all DIY. Bios setting on the MBs are similar to those used cics. The Windows XP Pro SP2 is fully optimized as per the instruction on this Homepage.
Results
After listening to the two MB combos for a few times, a couple of friends and myself unequivocally considered that the Core i3 530 combo sounded better all round. With the Core i3, the imaging is better and the sound stage is deeper and more three dimensional. The piano and vocal sounded more natural and real, highs are more detailed and lows are more clear and authoritative. There are more ambience Power consumtion appeared lower by a margin as reflected by the temperature of the power supplies.
I don't know what is the cause of the difference in SQ between my combo and that of cics, perhap I didn't use any PCI slot, but according I what I've heard in the tests, the Core i3 combo does sound better than the G31+E7500. The diffence is more than marginal, I feel like listen to two systems, one with good sound quality and the other very good.
One thing I experienced with the Core i3 combo is that it has better rejection to poor power supply quality, perhaps due its sophisticated onboard swithcihng supply circuit and a lots of Oscon capacitors on the MB. When I first fire it up, no bypass capacitors were added to the MB but it already out did the G31+E7500 combo. However, when battery power was suppled to the two MB combos, there is more improvement with the SQ of the G31+7500 than the Core i3, although the latter still won.
Hope someone can do more tests on the Core i3 and other MB.
Follow Ups:
When I say dull / veiled SQ, take this into context of my 45nm setup. Another way of describing this sound is analytical and uninvolving. Overall there's the same amount of detail but it lacks that finer resolution and impact.
The key issue is PCI slots which are wired differently (more complex) and perhaps the *-S2H option does not suffer from this problem. Your experience using USB will be different.
Anyway, I'm planning to try another mobo which may offer improvement. Core i3 + DDR3 is a big step forward especially ito power consumption (7x24 playing temps were 34°C vs 45nm setup at 45°C). The mobo choice remains a challenge for now...
I had J&W Boards in the past for oc and was really stunned about the build quality, especially their phase design and current stability when overclocking. The mini itx board of this brand called mini x was the best build itx board i´ve seen, unfortunately it is AMD only. But... they will release a Intel G45 mini itx board soon, this could be a killer mobo. Like DFI they offer lots of bios options for fine tuning in bios.
It looks pretty good. Atom 330 Minix is very well built and I definitely like the P4 connector - it's a must as most vendors drop this. Current Intel boards offer Atom 230 & 330 using the horrible 945 chipset.
I'll definitely try their Atom D510 option which is likely to be built (not yet available).
Hi cics
Afaik it´s a small company, the board designers were working for Abit before wch is legendary for its quality. I think that we may could take some influence to some bios options wich we need for cMP². I could ask the german guy who´s in charge of the distribution over here, he´s in tight contact with the asians and possibly can tell if it´s possible or not.
Would be in his interest beeing the exclusive seller over here for J&W, with the Klang & Ton cMP² series in mind this could create a win win situation.
I'd love to see 2 options: H55 (supporting core i3) and NM10 (for Intel's new Atom processors). In both cases all unused devices including onboard soundcard must be removed, we need flexibility on powering options (e.g. jumper to supply PCI slot with external 5V supply, etc.) and only 1 DRAM slot. I'm sure we can list more 'must haves'.
I'd pay 2-3 times the price of a OC capable mobo as long as quality and minimalism is maintained.
How about the existing 1156 itx boards? They (afaik) only come with one pcie slot, however, so the "mainstream" cmp cards can no longer be used.
"We should no more let numbers define audio quality than we would let chemical analysis be the arbiter of fine wines." N.P.
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