Two Soundcards = 5.1 Output? - Onboard and PCI

[Knowledge]

Okay. I just built a second box just because. Its on a K7S5A board with the on board sound: C-Media 9738 Chip, and I have a extra 4.1 soundcard which has the C-Media 8738 chip on it. Now I bought a set of Labtec Arena 675's for $30 bucks yesterday at CompUSA and they are just a basic set of 5.1 speakers. What I wanted to do is hook them up to this system, but I lack the soundcard that will support it.

As of now, Im using the onboard sound. But I wanted to know if it was possible to stick this other 4.1 card in aswell and use both to get enough connections so I could have 5.1 sound (Granted, a 5.1 soundcard is only like 10 bucks but thats not the point. I just wanted to do it the hard way because the easy way is for resol's )

I know (well, at least I heard) that these particular sound cards can be re-flashed and set the way you want them. For example like you can set the Mic jack to be Center instead... Get what im saying? Or instead of trying this my way and using two soundcards, if theres a way to make configure the 4.1 card to do what I want it to do, thats fine too.

If not, Ill probaly just go out and buy one... But I just wanted to screw around with this... Give me something to do Any and All information is greatly appreciated. Many Many Thanks In Advance for any help you can give me

 

[alecjahn]

Hmm it doesnt sound that do-able... but then again ive seen some pretty weird setups so it probably is possible - somehow.

I'd just go snag a SB Live! or similar since theyre really cheap and usually configure well.

Good luck with the ECS... :/

 

[aj2003]

strange thing to do tbh, id go with alecjahn and buy a live or audigy they are really cheap now. or maybes buy urself a beter mobo with ur money cos no offence but ive had nothing but trouble with my one of them

 

[majistic]

Nope.

 

[Knowledge]

Heh Nobody likes ECS eh?

Well this machine was built out of spare parts, so Im not really looking for another motherboard. Another sound card is fine, I just wanted to know if I could do without it... I said that in my post. Buying a new soundcard was the easy way out. But since I guess the two soundcards idea wont work, Ill more focus on getting the 4.1 C-Media card to give me Center and Sub outputs instead of Line Out and Mic. If anybody knows how to do this, please let me know.

Other then that, thanks alot for your replys. I really do apreciate it

 

[Apokalipse]

I agree with alecjahn, doesn't sound do-able

I would get a SB Live 5.1, as they are descent but inexpensive cards

 

[alecjahn]

Yeah I kinda have similar thinking patterns. When I build a computer, I'd rather have a few problems I have to solve, rather than have everything go as planned, cause I feel like I've really accomplished something... or at least do something noone else has done before

One time i got bored and took two 2.1 speaker sets and an old Aureal A3D 4.1 sound card and make my own dual Subwoofer surroundsound system mwahahaha. didnt last long... the cords got tripped over quite a bit, and since Aureal went out of business i had no drivers to run my new win2k.. boohoo....

It would have been a hell of a project, ive got to say.

Yeah, we all have at least a slight grudge against ECS. I just RMA'd one (and still havent gotten it back..) and was planning on using one to build a friend's computer... but not anymore. Then again i overclocked on mine (mwahaha!) which probably was its demise. You dont think NewEgg will not honor my return because i had a different BIOS on it... will they? Hope not. Im poor.

I'm poor, which brings me back to the whole "two soundcards into one" thing - the reason i would probably have tried the same thing.

Anyways, have fun with it.

EDIT: I was just gonna add maybe you should get an n-force2 motheboard (you can probably get a nice cheap one somewherez) and kill two birds with one stone. N-force seems to be the only chipset with *good* built-in sound. noone can argue with 6.1.