Building new PC - Confused how to connect sound

[chinnboy]

I am building a new PC using an Epox 8K7A mobo, Guillemot Fortissimo soundcard and an ATI AIW 8500 videocard, in addition to a CDRW(Teac) and a DVD-Rom drive(Pioneer). I am confused how to best connect the sound up, and none of the manuals offer any guidance (usually seem to assume there is one optical drive and a soundcard)

Each optical drive has a 4 pin audio out.
The soundcard has three 4 pin inputs marked "Mitsumi", "Panasonic" and "IDE" (I assume this is an audio in, its right next to the other two but without a plug shield)
The mobo has two 4 pin connectors - "CD1" and "AUX1".
The AIW also has a 4 pin "CD OUT" jack which it merely says can be used optionally. Otherwise, it provides rear panel in/ou jacks to hook up to the rear panel In/Out on the soundcard.

I feel sure I should connect each optical drive to something, but what? I'd like to use just the optical output from the soundcard into my AC-3 receiver, and have dvds or cds play thru there, hopefully without a lot of rejiggering to switch from one to the other. If anyone could define an optimal connection setup I'd appreciate any help.

 

[ringl0rd]

This sounds very strange that the (three 4 pin inputs marked "Mitsumi", "Panasonic" and "IDE") would be labeled with those headers, sounds more like CD-ROM controller/IDE hook-ups. But if indeed there are just 3 - 4pin plugs on the sound card then one is probably CD1, other CD2 and AUX.. or CD, Modem, Aux... etc.

If the mobo also has the 4 pin hook ups then it must have onboard sound, you may want to disble it if you don't plan to use it. Free up some DMA's and IRQ's and maybe stop some conflicts along the way.

If I were you I would purchase 2 dual 4 pin sound cables and hook each drive up to the sound card, and if that fails for some unseen reason, then hook them to the mobo.

 

[ojai00]

The cables should go through your sound card because you want sound to come out from the speakers plugged into the sound card. I think the connectors on the motherboard are for the onboard sound. Try plugging the CD-RW into the Mitsumi one and the DVD-ROM into the Panasonic one. Hope this helps.