External Soundcard?

[cdh987]

Hey Everyone,

I am interested in getting this soundcard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102189

The problem is: I don?t have a free 5.25? drive bay on my comp. Is there any way that I could make this work somehow without losing any performance? (like from using a USB connection etc). My computer?s specs are here:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps400/sm/specs.htm#wp1053343

I was wondering if there was some sort of external bay I could use for either the soundcard or maybe one of the DVD drives, but I don?t want to lose performance. Or maybe some way to get more drive-bay space in the tower I have. Any help on this would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[melloyello]

buy a 5.25 in external enclosure (examples) and put one of your cd/dvd drives in that. Then install the soundcard in your PC. I presume you have a PCI slot available.

 

[Telon]

I read a review of a external sound deivce that was conected threw your USB.
It got great reviews in fact they said it was close to the same audio reproduction that you would get from a old lp record on a excelent turntabel.

Some on this forum may have nerver seen a turn tabel Record player let alone a LP Record but just like many hard core Auido junkies prefer a tubed amp over a digital one Records are stilll hold in high regard for there sound quality by many.

I saw this articale on the AVS web site it was posted many months ago but I may still be abel to find the link.

 

[cdh987]

Well, I decided after looking at all the enclosures etc that I?d rater just get a new tower with a bunch of room and swap everything out. I have never done anything like this?the most I have ever done is swap out a PSU and GPU and upgraded my memory. Are there any problems I need to watch out for if doing this? I want to use this tower:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133154

and my comp stats are here:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps400/sm/specs.htm#wp1053343

I have my original PSU in there now which is like a 375 watt I think, but I do have a good BFG 600 watt that I bought with nice long wires, because I thought I needed it for my GPU (turns out I didn?t need it). I have 2 GBs of OCZ Special Ops memory and a nVidia 7900 GT (512). I am sort of nervous about taking everything apart; will everything just swap out and fit in the bigger case or will I need to do something weird like cut things to fit etc? Any reassuring words from all of you experts would be much appreciated here, as well as any tips too. Thanks very much in advance.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Do you need the drive bay connections?

There are also X-Fi cards that do not have the front drive bay. In games, the card alone would perform the same whether the additional connection options from the front drive bay are connected or not.

If you're just looking for game performance, then this card will perform the same
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102005

Unless you know you're going to use the connection types the drive bays provide, then getting a card that doesn't have them will not hold back your performance at all.

If you need the connections and you're made of money and have some REALLY good headphones and speakers to take advantage of the extra sound quality, then the X-Fi Elite Pro would be another one to look at. It has an external pod that serves the same purpose that the drive bays do for other X-Fi models.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102191