Sound Card Option

[WWS]

I have the Rampage 2 extreme motherboard and do not want to use the supplied sound card. I know there is limited room to fit an aftermarket card and was wondering which creative card would work.

also if anyone has this motherboard, could you answer the following questions.

1. Do you still install the sound card in the same PCI slot as the supplied card?
2. Would I just disable the onboard sound in the bios and install the new drivers?

 

[philbar71]

dont have the board, but to answer your questions

1: yes
2: yes

and as far as it fitting as long as there is about 4in from the pci express slot you will be fine

 

[saltynay]

Well firstly the supplied card is pci-express and if its the same as the striker 2 formula which I have, the heatsinks will stop you installing pretty much anything there except the soundcard it comes with. You would uninstall the drivers in windows first then unplug the card, plug in the new card and then install the latest drivers for the new card and disable the onboard sound in bios.

What kinda budget do you have and are you running vista or xp?

 

[nderscore]

If you do not install the sound card in the specified slot, then that slot becomes useless. It was meant solely for their riser sound card. Yes, disable onboard sound and install the new drivers (however, even if you do not it will still function properly).

Also, any PCI soundcard will work.

 

[WWS]

I am running XP 64 for a budget I was looking to spend about $150

 

[philbar71]

i would get the asus xonar dx2

 

[saltynay]

+1 or the auzentech prelude 7.1 is very good aswell.

Imo the asus xonar d2x rules!!! I could be tainted by owning one mind

 

[baron5]

ive heard the auzentech really isnt that great, alot of people tend to stay away from their cards. basically it depends what ur primarlily using it for, any m-audio sound card will **** on a creative card in terms on music/audio production, but for gaming your best bet is to just get a creative x-fi. m-audio, EMU and other good soundcards dont support EAX for gaming ad far as i no.

 

[saltynay]

The auzentech x-fi 7.1 prelude is very good they start where creative left off for a gaming card I would say auzentech. For media editing/production m-audio cards and for an allround star asus xonar d2x. I wouldn't go creative they have been at the top for too long and forgotten there customers aparently drivers are and where awful for vista and there cards are overpriced for what they are. I did alot of research around 4 months ago before buying my card and that was what I found. My asus xonar sounds better in films then my friends creative x-fi fatal1ty gamer however doesn't have the front panel inputs. I wrote a mini review a while ago just after I purchased the D2X
http://www.techist.com/forums/f76/asus-xonar-d2x-188923/

 

[WWS]

I looked at the ASUS and the AuzenTech sound cards. The only problem is that none of these will fit in Rampage 2 Extreme PCI slot used for the sound card. They are all too big.