Date: November 17th, 2003
Article by: Tristan Kay (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner, Head Editor & Hardware Reviewer)
Product was donated by: Via Technologies
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PRODUCT COMPOSITION

The Aureon 7.1 comes with everything you need to get it installed and running. The manual comes written in six different languages, unlike many hardware manufacturers who usually write their manuals in English and Japanese. The driver CD comes with an excellent software suite including one of the best DVD players on the market Cyberlink PowerDVD. Also included is Wavelab Lite 2.0 an excellent sound editing program, along with MusicMatch Jukebox, an excellent media player. The Card also comes with an optical cable for use with digital devices.

As mentioned earlier, the Aureon 7.1 Space is fueled by VIA's powerful ICEnsemble chipset. This chipset enables users to achieve true 7.1 surround sound at frequencies as high as 192 kHz. It is this chipset that makes the card as impressive as it is. When gaming and listening to music, it is hard to find cards that can achieve the higher frequencies encountered in many games, especially fast paced games like Counter-strike or Quake III; the Aureon 7.1 Space delivers on all frequencies.

The analog inputs on the Aureon 7.1 listed from left to right are CD In 2, CD 1 In, Aux In, CD Digital. With these four inputs, it is possible to turn ones PC into a complete multimedia station.

When connecting to the card, Terratec makes it more or less idiot proof with diagrams on both the card and back of the card, not only that, but on the back of the card they have the name of each 3.5 mm jack lined up with the appropriate jack. The card has jacks for front, rear, side, and centre speakers. It also sports two digital jacks and a mic jack.