Should Creative have a PCI bracket add-on for Sound Blasters? VOTE!

[nwarawa]

If I get enough posts affirming the idea, I will contact Creative and give them this link.

I just bought the X-Fi Xtreme Music, because the ones with the 5 1/4" bay inserts are ugly as sin, and I can't afford the super-uber deluxe version. Now, all their basic sound cards still have the pins ready for the 5 1/4" nasties... why not have a little bracket for a PCI slot that gives you more audio I/O ports? It sucks that I have to use the universal jack for either my microphone OR digital out to my amp... I can't do both.

I suggest that creative makes a $20 add-on to give at least some of the extra jacks on the LiveDrive.

Agree/Disagree? What price should it be? Share your thoughts. Thanks.

 

[Some1ne]

I'm perfectly happy with my I/O drive accessory. I think if anything, Creative should move away from the parallel IDE-like interface and switch to something less obnoxious. SATA finally let me get rid of the big ribbon IDE cables, and now I have to have one anyways thanks to my sound card. They should replace it with something much smaller and more compact.

 

[nwarawa]

True 'dat. A thinner cable would be nice. I don't think we'll see that soon, tho, unless they do one of two things:

(1) Round the cable, although it may increase noise along the cable... unless they use nice shielding throughout... which will raise cost.

(2) Use a digital connection, which means you'll need an encoder and decoder on each end, which will of course add $.

Option 1 seems feasable... a nicer cable shouldn't cost that much more.

 

[tiap]

nwarawa
Haven't had creative in quite a while, but they did have a couple versions available, that you are describing a while back, and it also gave digital ports. It fit several models thru the card pinouts. Alsdo, there are/were other companies that made addons for the creative cards. Google or even check ebay.

 

[Oyeve]

I'm waiting for THIS, CLICK DIGITIAL I/O MODULE cant locate one.

 

[Aquila76]

I would like that, even some kind of breakout-box or something like the AIW video cards use. I had all of my bays filled in my last PC, and it would be tough to color match my current case.

BTW: Voting is easier when there's a poll.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

For a couple years, Creative listed on their site a PCI bracket that had optical and coax SPDIF In/Outs. The part was never actually available , at least in North America.

I found this, made by HDA (makers of the Mystique 7.1). It looks so similar to the fictional Creative part, I think they are one and the same.

 

[nwarawa]

Well, I sent the email to Creative since this forum is starting to liven up. I looked at the links above and googled some more... it seems some aren't compatible with Audigy 2, but are with the original Audigy, like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/spdif-AC3-Digital-I...1QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I don't know why... they all (other than some OEM versions) seem to have the "SPDIF_IO" and "AD_EXT" pinouts, and I thought old LiveDrives could be used with new cards.

***as for the poll or "VOTE" thing... I couldn't think of another single word to imply "I want your input"... the ideas and links we've been getting so far are much more useful than a simple poll***

 

[Auric]

It should be a piece of piss to make DIY coaxial cables for digital I/O but agreed the FlexiJack is ill-conceived and ill-named and just a ploy to sell accesorries such as those silly drive bay consoles -silly because plugging wires into the front of the case for anything but infrequent and momentary usage makes no sense and can only get in the way and depending upon the location of the case may not necessarily be more convenient than the back and certainly not as convenient as a proper break-out box which may be placed anywhere and not interfere with access to disc trays and removeable rack trays, nor take up that bay which may otherwise be used for same.

I would not look kindly upon a $20 bracket if it only included coaxial I/O jacks which ought to be standard (seperate and independent of other jacks). Hoontech did retail a bracket for the Live! with both coaxial and optical for around $15 so I would expect something like that from a Creative accessory. Perhaps a bare/OEM model with proper jacks instead of the console connector would be best yet.