Onboard or Seperate Soundcard.

[imported_Leporello]

Hi there,

I'm two days into my conversion from Intel to AMD so please assume the worst about my competence.

I have an Epox 9NPA Ultra mainboard that I'm about two third of the way toward setting up. I'm stumped about how to connect my DVD writer up to the onboard sound. The DVD has CD connectors that I would normally have plugged into an Audigy 2zs card. I've never been entirely happy with this soundcard as its digital connection to my Denon 500HD AV system. Anyway I've discovered that that on the Epox mainboard no such sockets exist. There are jumpers.

I understand that the Realtek sound system on the board is a bit of a kludge and of iffy quality. However, I simply want to get a digital connection between my PC and my AV amplifier. I'd like to try this before deciding on buying another non-Creative soundcard.

So could some kind soul enlight on the following mysteries.

Is it necessary to plug my Plextor into the mainboard or does the signal travel through the system buss?

I'm puzzled by the unfamilarity of a new system and by the manual. Do I understand it correctly in that the various jumpers on the sound system are set to the type of output that the onboard soundcard required? Could someone give me a brief run down on using these jumpers?

I'm also have trouble with getting the USB ports up and working, but I'll look again at this when I've got the Epox system connected the to my wifi setup.

Many thanks for your attention,

Leporello

 

[Leros]

Do not connect your CD/DVD drives to your sound card. Computers are far beyond needing that wire.

 

[imported_Leporello]

Many thanks, I was beginning to suspect as much! Two less wires to join the spaghetti.

 

[imported_Leporello]

Just to complete the story in case anyone else is interested. The Realtech coaxial worked very well indeed and as my seperate amp does all of the audio work, it sounds quite good. As good I would say as that I got from the Audigy 2zs in my previous system. However, there is some motherboard noise from the onboard sound. This can only be heard at very high volume settings so for the present it's not an issue. There was no noise from the Audigy 2zs which, Ive grown to hate for its drivers, it's conflicts with Norton Antivirus and it's kludgy optical connection.

So if you've read this far because this issue affects you, I'd say go for it. Oh, and by the way, it's terrific with my pci DigiTV card. I'll probably move on from the on board sound at some time in the future but for now it'll do.

Now to continue with the USB problem.