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REVIEWS

PCI 338-A3D	MANUFACTURER : Aztech PRICE : $49 US
Requirements: Pen. 100Mhz, 16 MB of RAM, PCI slot Recommend: Windows95, 98 or NT 4.0

Opening up the box of Aztech's PCI 338-A3D, we found the PCI sound card that was strikingly similar to the Montego A3DXstream. Like the A3DXstream, the 338-A3D uses Aureal's AU8820 chipset for an immense 3D sound experience.

PCI sound cards has been overtaking the sound card industry in the past year. So what makes PCI sound card superior to the older ISA standard sound cards? PCI sound card's can offload the CPU for other more intense processing like 3D graphics. An ISA card currently runs at 8 MHz and can transfer 8MB/s, but the more advance PCI cards run at 33 MHz and can transfer up to 133MB/s which means more speed and better sound quality.

Aztech's PCI 338-A3D comes with: 60 page documentation(10 pgs for each language) Warranty card MIDI cable Registration card Quick-Setup card PCI sound card CD with drivers, A3D demos, Voyetra Software Pack

The card has a microphone,line-in, line-out and a MIDI/game port. The gameport is one of the better features. Using the speical gameport driver, games will get an extra boost of performance due to the card's PCI design. On the board itself, there are CDAUDIO(connects with CD-ROM), TAD(connects with modem) and AUX(for radio card) connectors, plus a wavetable connector which can be attached to a compatible Wavetable Daughter Card.

The documention is very language friendly featuring translations for English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Dutch. Each language translations is very thin with only ten pages.

Installation was very brief and easy thanks to Plug' Play. All I had to do was take out my old Yamaha ISA card and slipped the 338-A3D into a free PCI slot. Once I turned on my computer, Windows98 found the card and installed the drivers from the CD. Finally Win98 rebooted and I was up and running with an A3D card.

Because of the Aztech's own design, the card cannot use Aureal's reference drivers. This is not necessarily a bad thing since Aztech releases updated drivers only a couple days after Aureal does. Another plus with the drivers is the ability to support A3D with only a P-100(200MHz for full effect), unlike most A3D sound cards which requires at least a P-200. The drivers come with a Control Panel applet which is very flexible. You can change the quality of the MIDI, disable the A3D splash screen, or change the volume level.

For gamers, the 338-A3D comes with a rather weak software bundle:

• AudioStation
• A3D demos
• VideoStation
• ImageStation
• Audio Calendar
• Voyetra Jukebox
• Sound Check
• Say It!
• Sound Events
• MIDI Screen Saver
• Level Controller
• MIDI Orchestrator
• Sound Script
• Jedi Knight: Ambush at Altyh 5(3 level demo of Mysteries of the Sith)

All of which I found useless except the Jedi Knight demo, but some of you musicians might be interested in the bundle. However, the bundle is missing an important software, an MP3 player.

Here is a list of the 338-A3D's features:

• PCI Bus Specification Version 2.1
• Aureal AU8820 chipset for support of A3D
• Hardware acceleration of DirectSound and DirectSound3D
• 64 voice Wavetable synthesis- 32 Hardware and 32 Software
• Selectable sampling rate of up to 48kHz
• < 93dB Ratio
• SoundBlaster and SoundBlaster Pro emulation - compatibility with Win9x DOS box or real mode DOS

The main reason to buy the 338-A3D is the support of 3D sound. The 338-A3D supports DirectSound, DirectSound3D and most importantly, A3D. For testing, I tried Battlezone, Jedi Knight, Incoming, and Unreal for A3D. The sound quality really depends on how the developers implented A3D into the game. Not all games will have the same A3D effect. In particular, Unreal sounded amazing compared to a game like Battlezone. The overall sound quality was generally well, but without four speaker support, sometimes it was hard to tell whether the sound source was front or back. Also with speakers, I encountered some static once the volume was set on high. It would be wise to invest in high quality headphones to go along with a 3D sound card. With headphones, the sound quality greatly improves and becomes more distinct.

Although the PCI design does make use of faster output, A3D-enabled games will run slower than A3D-disabled games because of the amount of CPU processing the 338-A3D requires. In Battlezone without A3D, I experienced frame rates around 25-40, but with A3D, I got around 10-20 frames per second. I was using a 266MHz K6 with Voodoo2 and 64 MB of SDRAM which means A3D may not be an option for low-end gamers unless you are willing to sacrifice some gameplay.

As for DOS support, the 338-A3D can emulate both SoundBlaster and SoundBlaster Pro. I tried Warcraft 2 in both real time DOS and the DOS window. Both resulted with audio with less static and much clearer than any ISA sound card, the MIDI music was especially improved.

Aztech's PCI 338-A3D is pretty much your average A3D card. Although the new MX300 and SoundBlaster Live! are better in every way, they are also twice the cost. For only $49, the 338-A3D is a great and affordable deal.

Reviewed by Tom C