sound card question

my old computer's got a fairly decent sound card: a creative soundblaster live pro (or something like that, i'm not sure). i bought the system in 2001. it's quality is pretty good, but it doesn't have a front panel where i can convienently plug in headsets etc. right now, my new computer has a front panel, but it's got onboard sound. i wonder, if i put the old sound card in the new computer, is it possible to link the front panel to the card?

thanks in advance.

bumpitidy bump

You'd only be able to do this if the audio card has some sort of auxiliary output internally, AND if you can match this up with however the audio plugs into your front panel. Just crack open the case and take a look to see if you think you have some compatible connections. Note: don't be fooled by the CD-input connection or aux-inputs likely on the card.

If your sound card dates to 2001, the on-board is probably better then your card.

And it is pretty much impossible to route sound from a card to a front port unless you get an after-market sound bay. Most of those come with /8" plugs that you plug into the back of your unit which passes the sound to the front.

The better way is probably to get an all-in-one solution, like the Sound Blaster Audigy or X-fi. Those both have optional 5¼" sound bays with all kinds of plugs that you can access through the front.

The vast majority of clone cases use the AC-97 plug to pass through to the front, and that comes on less then 10% of the sound cards. The other standard is one that Creative uses on some cards, but the only manufacturer that I have ever seen use that has been Dell. Most of the others (HP, Compaq, E-Machine, etc) use a standard of their own creation, and really can't be used without major midification.

the reason why i'm asking is that my onboard is a little unreliable at times. it had really bad static noises when i try to use voice communication, which i recently managed to fix by fiddling around with the driver. it also randomly restarts the computer at times, which lead to me playing the game with no sound (which kinda sucks). i play a monk for my guild, and the last thing i need is for my computer to restart in the middle of gvg.

i'll probably wait until i scrap together the money to build my own computer before upgrading the sound card, i guess.

This is a common problem with on-board sound cards. They all tend to have higher "sound floors" (background static on recording), and are more reliant on the CPU then cards are. There are often drivers that reduce the static problem, but they come at the expense of having the CPU working harder, taking away general system performance. For my day-to-day gaming, I use an on-board card. But my sound recording system has an Audigy card, because of the higher quality recording.

Whenever I do VOIP during gaming, I actually use 2 different systems at once. One just does my VOIP, and the other I use to play the game. But I know that most people do not have 2-3 computers to work with at the same time.

i wonder, if i use my old sound card, will it use up the same CPU resources as the onboard, or should it be a bit better?

my old sound card was actually quite good. i don't remember it ever having background static on recording.

Depends on the drivers (how old) and what it's doing. It's not until you start trying to process 3d sound that you get cpu utilization.

Creative cards do hardware processing of EAX (off loads as much as possible from the cpu) but there is a catch. If a newer EAX standard comes out then the card hardware supprt, it has to start using more CPU processing. That and creative tendency to abandoned there older cards drivers support.

Sound Blaster Live = EAX 1.0
~Audigy, Audigy 2, Audigy ZS/4~
Sound Blaster X-Fi = EAX 5.0

No idea what EAX version gw is using, I would suspect EAX 3 or 4 at most to be honest. Hardly any game can actually make full use of 5.

Try both. Use on-board and test it out. Plug in your old card (turn off on-board off in bios) and run it. See which works out better. SB Live is rather old to be honest but it will depend on the game you are running.

i just found the driver CD for the sound card. it is apparently not a SB live, but a soniq audioPCI. i have no idea how good it is, as i can't find anything written about it.