Choosing a Sound Card

  • Thread starter Thread starter Romanian
  • Start date Start date
R

Romanian

Hey all, I am getting an ASUS Z96J Notebook PC
(www.agearnotebooks.com). The thing is that it comes with, as many
other notebooks do, only a 2.1 sound card. I would like to upgrade this
to 5.1 or possibly 7.1, but I am having problems choosing.

1) I do not believe it is, but just to make sure, is it possible to buy
a sound card, take out the one in the PC, and replace it with the one I
have bought?

2) If that is a no.... Are there any good external sound cards which I
can purchase, either online or through a store? I found a SoundBlaster
Audigy2 external sound card, but many people said that it had a life
span of about 1 year (it would fail to turn on after that). Any other
external sound cards out there?

Thanks in advance!
 
Can you not customize the system to your liking with the builder or do you
have to buy a more expensive notebook to say get an 8 channel sound.
Rgds
Antioch
 
This is what you need:
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=204&product=10769&nav=0

On sale here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102185

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User

Enjoy all the benefits of genuine Microsoft software:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/default.mspx

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Hey all, I am getting an ASUS Z96J Notebook PC
| (www.agearnotebooks.com). The thing is that it comes with, as many
| other notebooks do, only a 2.1 sound card. I would like to upgrade this
| to 5.1 or possibly 7.1, but I am having problems choosing.
|
| 1) I do not believe it is, but just to make sure, is it possible to buy
| a sound card, take out the one in the PC, and replace it with the one I
| have bought?
|
| 2) If that is a no.... Are there any good external sound cards which I
| can purchase, either online or through a store? I found a SoundBlaster
| Audigy2 external sound card, but many people said that it had a life
| span of about 1 year (it would fail to turn on after that). Any other
| external sound cards out there?
|
| Thanks in advance!
|
 
Alright, thanks! I didn't know that I could also buy notebook specific
ones from Creative :-)

Now I have two more questions.

1)Let's say I bought this card. What I do is just take out my sound
card which came with the computer, and plug this one in?

2) I also found a "Notebook Hard Drive" on Newegg. I am just wondering
if there are any prerequisites to taking out/adding in a piece of
hardware, ie dimensions, power supply, etc?

Thanks again!
 
It is my understanding that going inside a notebook is a bit different to
going into a desktop case.
Previous recommendations I have read in the groups would suggest getting a
experienced computer builder to do it - you have not indicated if you have
such experience.
Apologies if you have and hope you don't mind me mentioning that point.
Rgds
Antioch
 
No, do not attempt to remove your built-in audio device.
You would just disable it in the BIOS settings.
You can replace your notebook hard drive without any problems.
Just make sure its the same size dimensionally.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User

Enjoy all the benefits of genuine Microsoft software:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/default.mspx

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Alright, thanks! I didn't know that I could also buy notebook specific
| ones from Creative :-)
|
| Now I have two more questions.
|
| 1)Let's say I bought this card. What I do is just take out my sound
| card which came with the computer, and plug this one in?
|
| 2) I also found a "Notebook Hard Drive" on Newegg. I am just wondering
| if there are any prerequisites to taking out/adding in a piece of
| hardware, ie dimensions, power supply, etc?
|
| Thanks again!
 
That was it - the bios - that's what was mentioned before - I just could not
remember - thanks Carey - after sending the post I sat trying to think what
was the main difficulty/problem .
Rgds
Antioch
 
1) You don't need to remove anything. Once you plug the PC card to your
laptop, you will see two sound cards in control panel. You can tell Windows
which sound card you want to use.

2) You need to have a External Hard Disk Enclosure to plug the new hard disk
temporary and then use Norton Ghost or True Image to copy your old hard disk
to the new hard disk. Once you finish copying, you can use a hammer or sort
to break open your laptop and replace the old hard disk with the new hard
disk. Make sure you have some sort of glue from Home Depot. You need the
glue to glue the plastic pieces back to where they were.
 
So, let me get this straight. I should have two seperate "orifices" for
a sound card?

Also, would an external hard drive be just as good as an internal hard
drive for gaming, school, etc?

Thanks again! Been a great help.
 
Let's say you want to play MP3 to one sound card but MIDI to another. I
think u can do that but I've never tried it. But I think you cannot play
MP3 to 5.1 + 2.1 = 7.2 speakers with two sound cards.

For the hard disk, I am not sure what u want to do. Do you want to replace
your old hard disk with a faster and bigger and... huh... quieter... hard
disk?
 
Is your existing sound card a "PC Card" sound card that you can take out by
pushing the button?
 
Romanian said:
Hey all, I am getting an ASUS Z96J Notebook PC
(www.agearnotebooks.com). The thing is that it comes with, as many
other notebooks do, only a 2.1 sound card. I would like to upgrade this
to 5.1 or possibly 7.1, but I am having problems choosing.

1) I do not believe it is, but just to make sure, is it possible to buy
a sound card, take out the one in the PC, and replace it with the one I
have bought?
Click to expand...


Not if you're buying a laptop. Laptop's have no separate, replaceable
sound card; they have a set of chips on the motherboard.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
 
So, seeing as my plan failed, let's go to my updated questions:

-- Are there any GOOD external sound cards which I can purchase?
-- Are external hard drives (ie 250gb 7200RPM) as good as internal (ie
40gb 4200RPM)?

Thanks again
 
Romanian said:
So, seeing as my plan failed, let's go to my updated questions:

-- Are there any GOOD external sound cards which I can purchase?
Click to expand...


No idea, I'm afraid; I've never heard of any such thing.

-- Are external hard drives (ie 250gb 7200RPM) as good as internal (ie
40gb 4200RPM)?
Click to expand...

Well, larger and faster equates to "better" in my book. Where in the
world did you find a laptop with a 4200 RPM hard drive? 5400 RPM has
been standard for several years now.



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
 
Actually, 4200RPM was used in 2.5" HD for notebooks of old...


And Romanian, so far I've yet to see any bigger 2.5" HD (laptop size) than
~120GB (costing 120-140eur here in Finland) so if you want 250GB, your only
choice is an external one. But I wouldn't use it for programs etc, only for
backups and maybe multimedia storage.

And, as it draws too much power to be supplied by the USB (or FW) ports on
that same laptop, it needs to be connected to the electrical outlet by it's
own power supply.



--
Tumppi
=================================
Most learned on these newsgroups
Helsinki, FINLAND
(translations from/to FI not always accurate
=================================
 
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