Question about Sound Cards.

[Johnny Vinyl]

I have a PC I no longer use that has a Creative Labs SoundBaster X-Fi Xtreme Music sound card.

My current PC is a Dell Inspiron 545 Quadcore and was wondering if there is any benefit to installing it there. Will it surpass the built-in sound of the PC?

Thanks.

[PrivatePixel]

Originally Posted by John72953

I have a PC I no longer use that has a Creative Labs SoundBaster X-Fi Xtreme Music sound card.

My current PC is a Dell Inspiron 545 Quadcore and was wondering if there is any benefit to installing it there. Will it surpass the built-in sound of the PC?

If the DELL utilizes the onboard Realtek ALC888 audio chip, a third party audio card from Sound Blaster should offer a noticeably improved aural experience, if you have decent speakers connected to the DELL (sorry, I'm not a fan of SB cards because of their drivers and past experiences with Creative's products, though feedback on the X-Fi cards seem to be mostly positive). I use an ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 card and the improvement over the onboard sound was immediate: the ASUS card offered depth and clarity that was lacking with the onboard audio, both in games and music. You should experience something similar if you upgrade the Inspiron's audio.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by PrivatePixel

If the DELL utilizes the onboard Realtek ALC888 audio chip, a third party audio card from Sound Blaster should offer a noticeably improved aural experience, if you have decent speakers connected to the DELL (sorry, I'm not a fan of SB cards because of their drivers and past experiences with Creative's products, though feedback on the X-Fi cards seem to be mostly positive). I use an ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 card and the improvement over the onboard sound was immediate: the ASUS card offered depth and clarity that was lacking with the onboard audio, both in games and music. You should experience something similar if you upgrade the Inspiron's audio.

Thanks my friend!

It says I have the Realtec High Defination Audio...no mention of a model # in the Device manager. Hopefully, and I think I do, I have all of the documentation still of the CL SB card.

[PrivatePixel]

Originally Posted by John72953

Thanks my friend!

It says I have the Realtec High Defination Audio...no mention of a model # in the Device manager. Hopefully, and I think I do, I have all of the documentation still of the CL SB card.

You're welcome.
If you're unable to locate/determine what chipsets are on your motherboard, I would recommend using a third-party app such as SIW (System Information for Windows) or SIV (System Information Viewer). SIW has a nicer GUI to work with.

If you can't locate the documentation and/or audio driver CD, you can find everything related to your card on this page on Creative's website.

[Johnny Vinyl]

This is what it says when I view it using SIV

High Definition Audio Controller (Intel 82801IR (ICH9R) HD Audio Controller)

[PrivatePixel]

Originally Posted by John72953

This is what it says when I view it using SIV

John:
Can you run SIW instead? I'm curious as to what's listed under Hardware > Sound Device, as well as Devices > Sound, video and game controllers. According to DELL's website, the Inspiron 545 came with three audio options: ALC662 HD, ALC888 HD and X-Fi Xtreme.

This is what I'm looking at on my PC, for example:

[Johnny Vinyl]

PM sent!

[GunZenBomZ]

The sound card you mention is a good one, on-board sound uses cpu power, decent sound-cards have there own cpu so to speak. They will produce much better sound then most motherboards.

[PrivatePixel]

Originally Posted by John72953

PM sent!

Reply sent via PM.