Integrated Audio & Video

[944 Man]

Integrated audio and video have come a LONG way since they first appeared: at least, video has. What about audio though? I have a few days off and one of the things that I am doing is clearing out a lot of hoarded computer kit. I have a number of Creative Labs PCI SoundBlaster cards, and my Dell Workstation has a single legacy PCI slot...

I like the idea of S/PDIF out and theoretical better sound (and I do use a HiFi amplifier and reasonable speakers too), but will it really be better and will it be worth effort to set up?

[944 Man]

I'm assuming that MS will have supported SB cards in 64bit versions on Win7/8/10, but this might be foolish of me.

[donkmeister]

I have asked the very same question of the PC builders of Reddit ... No response.

What I learned after was that most just use Bluetooth headsets these days. The few that use speakers use USB audio devices, e.g. an amplifier with a USB input, or a USB sound blaster.

They don't know their born, kids these days. Slicing your fingers on cheap pressed tin to install a soundblaster and then the 5 1/4 breakout bay meant you earned your good sounds.

[Sporky]

My PC is optical to the amp. Optical is still reasonably common on motherboards, and on mine at least it is less noisy than the analogue outputs.

[944 Man]

This is a Dell Precision: Xeon CPUs and a pro-orientated video adapter. PC99 is as far as the audio goes connectivity goes.

64bit compatibility might be the deciding issue.

[toohuge]

944 Man said:

This is a Dell Precision: Xeon CPUs and a pro-orientated video adapter. PC99 is as far as the audio goes connectivity goes.

64bit compatibility might be the deciding issue.

I don't think the older Sound Blaster cards will work.

I ran into the same issue with my Fujitsu R920 (dual Xeon) and tried an older sound card. It physical fit, but the newer 64 bit operating system was a no go.

In the end, I opted to use a older Sound Blaster USB sound card, Creative updated the drivers to Win 10/11 and it works great with SPDIF out and Dolby etc. but not the latest Dolby formats such as Atmos or EX etc.