ExpressCard sound cards? *FOUND ONE* kind of.

[slugg]

I'm trying to do some basic audio work on my laptop. My computer specs are pretty good except for the sound card (obviously... its a laptop!). My main problem is my sound card's latency. If only I had a PCMCIA slot, because then I could get an Audigy 2 ZS... but I'm stuck with the "better" ExpressCard slot. If it's so good, why are there virtually no devices available for it?

ANYWAYS... does anyone know if there are any ExpressCard based sound cards coming out any time in the future? I really don't want to have to build a desktop just for one specific reason... I don't have that kind of money... but if I have no choice, then oh well.

edit: I just got off the phone wth Creative's support. I explained what I was trying to do and they told me that within 1 month, rumored to be in the beginning of April, X-Fi cards should be available for both PCI-E and ExpressCard. I was told that there is no official statement on the price of these products yet.

If it's the truth, then I can't wait!

 

[TheStu]

I know that you can get some USB DACs, not real sure what the latency will be there.... but hey it is better than nothing non?

Nothing else, check out google, or newegg

 

[Brainonska511]

If a sound card comes out for the ExpressCard slot, it would probably use the USB interface that the ExpressCard slot provides. I would expect PCI-Express sound cards to appear before seeing a soundcard come out for the ExpressCard slot utilizing the slot's PCI-Ex1 connection.

I think there are a few PCMCIA to ExpressCard adapters in the works though.

 

[slugg]

I just got off the phone wth Creative's support. I explained what I was trying to do and they told me that within 1 month, rumored to be in the beginning of April, X-Fi cards should be available for both PCI-E and ExpressCard. I was told that there is no official statement on the price of these products yet.

If it's the truth, then I can't wait!

 

[Brainonska511]

That would be pretty nice if it is true. I would love to have a real sound card for my W3J for the occasional game or (always on) music.

Edit: The one bad thing I could see coming from this is if Creative made the ExpressCard version utilize the USB connection in the ExpressCard standard instead of the PCI-Ex1 connection.

 

[slugg]

^^ I thought that first, but then think about it... why would they release a PCI-Express desktop version along with a notebook version with a completely different interface? It's surely possible, but I think it's more likely that they'll BOTH use the pci-e interface. If not then oh well... As long as I can get ASIO on my laptop, I will be happy

 

[russdaren]

Honestly, coming from a pro audio background myself, Creative has a pretty bad reputation. They are not known to play well with the major audio apps like Sonar, Cubase, Live etc.
I would look more for a Maudio, Motu or Presonus product.
A lot of olks ahve reported very good latency reuslts with some of the Presonus boxes. I myself get 2.2ms all day with my MOTU 828MKII. But thats firewire.
As far as PCI Express sound cards for full size computers they do exist.
Apogee, the gods of digital audio, make one, which unfortunately is only MAC compatible. (makes it easier to support eh).
There are also several DSP cards by Universal audio and TC electronic.

 

[Fraggable]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511
That would be pretty nice if it is true. I would love to have a real sound card for my W3J for the occasional game or (always on) music.

Edit: The one bad thing I could see coming from this is if Creative made the ExpressCard version utilize the USB connection in the ExpressCard standard instead of the PCI-Ex1 connection.

I'm pretty sure the ExpressCard54 interface is a full X16 slot. That's why the Asus XG Station is going to work with laptops with the slot.

EDIT: nope, apparently I'm wrong. An ExpressCard slot only has to support 1 lane.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: Fraggable

Originally posted by: Brainonska511
That would be pretty nice if it is true. I would love to have a real sound card for my W3J for the occasional game or (always on) music.

Edit: The one bad thing I could see coming from this is if Creative made the ExpressCard version utilize the USB connection in the ExpressCard standard instead of the PCI-Ex1 connection.

I'm pretty sure the ExpressCard54 interface is a full X16 slot. That's why the Asus XG Station is going to work with laptops with the slot.

Nope. ExpressCard is PCI-Ex1. The only reason the XG station works is because there is at least one PCI-Express lane to connect it with the mainboard. That is the main disadvantage to the XG Station - the huge bottleneck by only having one PCI-E lane. Of course, x1 offers plenty of bandwidth for a sound card (and most other add-on cards). The only way that I see to increase bandwidth within the ExpressCard standard is to move to PCI-E 2.0 (bandwidth per lane is doubled).

ExpressCard Wiki:
The major benefit of ExpressCard technology over the previous PCMCIA CardBus PC card is a dramatic increase in bandwidth, afforded by the fact that the ExpressCard has a direct connection to the system bus over a PCI Express x1 lane or USB 2.0, whereas CardBus utilizes an interface controller that only interfaces with PCI. The ExpressCard has a maximum throughput of 2.5 Gbit/s through PCI Express or 480 Mbit/s through USB 2.0 dedicated for each slot, versus CardBus's shared 1066 Mbit/s bandwidth.

 

[Fraggable]

We'll just have to wait and see how the reviews for the XG Station turn out. I'm hoping I can trash my gaming desktop and use my 8800GTS with my laptop, but even if I don't get 100% of what I should out of my 8800 I'll still use it. So far there's so painfully little information on the system it's impossible to tell what the performance hit will be. The only info out there is Asus's '9X performance increase over integrated graphics using a 7900gs'.

 

[slugg]

Originally posted by: russdaren
Honestly, coming from a pro audio background myself, Creative has a pretty bad reputation. They are not known to play well with the major audio apps like Sonar, Cubase, Live etc.
I would look more for a Maudio, Motu or Presonus product.
A lot of olks ahve reported very good latency reuslts with some of the Presonus boxes. I myself get 2.2ms all day with my MOTU 828MKII. But thats firewire.
As far as PCI Express sound cards for full size computers they do exist.
Apogee, the gods of digital audio, make one, which unfortunately is only MAC compatible. (makes it easier to support eh).
There are also several DSP cards by Universal audio and TC electronic.

That's good to know... but who else is making an ExpressCard interface?