Creative external sound card for dell

Hey guys im not happy with the onboard audio within my dell E1705. And when i play battlefield 2142, i cant put the audio quality up to the Max, or very high, nor can i activate the creative audio option within the game. And onboard speakers arent very nice for music and movies.

What im wondering is, will this external sound card do any good for my laptop? will it allow me to activate the VERY HIGH audio quality option within battlefield?
And does anyone else with a Dell and this external sound card have any reviews perhaps? thanks guys.

http://creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=205&product=9103

 

I'm going to move this to the accessory forum. I think you will get more responses over there.

Generally external sound cards do give you a better sound quality, but I don't have any experience with that particular sound card. Creative does have a great line of sound cards though.

 

I have used creative's Soundblaster Live! 24-bit external system and the Audigy 2NX external system both with my old Toshiba Portege (which had a sound card that couldn't even play music properly!). Unfortunately I never tried games with them but they were both great cards with excellent sound quality and some very good features. Easy to install and setup. I'd recommend the 2NX if you can get that as I believe it has 5.1 support and might make a better gaming card.

 

You need the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook sound card.

Cnet review: http://reviews.cnet.com/Creative_So...Notebook_sound_card/4505-3022_7-31156120.html

I have this for my Inpiron 6000. Amazing card. I can put sound up to high quality and you can enable EAX support. I've used it for HL2, Guild Wars, CoD and a few others, not for battlefield 2142, but I would imagine you would get the same results. Shop around for it. It retails at 100-130USD. You can usually find it with rebate for 50-60. It comes with a ton of software, some useful, some not. It also allows you to record. Check it out, I think it is exactly what you are looking for.

 

Most newer laptops including the E1750 can't use that because that is a PCMCIA card and not an express card. The SB 2ZS won't fit the express card slots.

 

Refer to this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=84773

Creative has crap for the money. You might as well go for a professional audio device from M-Audio. The quality on their products is higher than any crap the Creative's got. The thread shows you the specs of a few external solutions that is pretty freakin nice for price and quality. Anything seems to be a better alternative than Creative.

-Gophn

P.S. I work with professional recording artists and producers... its M-AUDIO all the way for them, Creative is too weak for them.

 

The creative card certainly isn't pro-audio quality, but for the price, especially if all you do is listen to mp3s and play games it's fine.

For better audio quality there's a similar card from Echo, but it's only stereo while the creative supports surround sound (if that's something you need). The echo card is supposed to put out quality good enough that I would use it in a mid-high end home audio system.

There are several companies, m-audio among them, that make usb and firewire external interfaces that are great. However, most of these will be way overkill if all you're doing is listening to, not doing serious recording.

 

Thanks for the info, I wasn't aware. Do you if creative has a new card in the works based on their x-fi technology that would work in an express slot?

 

X-Fi is not going mobile. If you want that kind of quality and for a better price, you should just check this out:

Get yourself an external USB or Firewire soundcard.

M-Audio professional mobile audio products

You might want to get a professional device from M-Audio.. definitely past the quality of anything that Creative has to offer.

M-AUDIO Transit (USB interface) - $70-100

Picture of front and back ports
- mobile 24-bit/96kHz USB audio
- 1/8” stereo analog/optical digital input
- 1/8” stereo line/headphone output
- TOSlink optical digital output allows AC3 and DTS pass-through
- line/optical input accommodates self-powered stereo microphones
- includes 3.5mm (male) to TOSlink (female) adapter

Read review for M-Audio Transit (audoMIDI.com)
Read review for M-Audio Transit (AudioReview.com)

Hope this helps,

-Gophn

 

Uh, man, if I were you, a sound card isn't going to give as big of a difference as real speakers.

They would cost about the same too...

Here are some suggestions:

Creative Itrigue L3800's
Itrigue 3400's
Logitech Z2300's
Logitech X230's
Klipsch Promedia 2.1's

All of those would deliver excellent sound quality.

 

FYI, I have the Itrigue 3400's nice, speakers, but a little lacking on the mid-range. Nice thing about them is you can usually get them from circuit city for 50$ with rebates. That is how I got mine. For $50 they are worth it. I dont think I would pay 130 for them though.

 

The L3800s look pretty sweet!

 

Yes, the Itrigue 3400's suck (I have a pair), but the l3800's are awesome. Klipsch promedia 2.1's are awesome as well. So are Logitech z2300's. Those are the best of computer speakers. I listed the good affordable ones too, I don't know how much he is willing to spend.

 

Personally, I've tried all the ones I've listed, except the promedia's... I would personally recommend the Creative l3800's (Don't listen to the creative bashers). Unless you are a huge bass fan, they are perfect. Even then, you can turn up the bass.

They cost the most, but you get what you pay for...

BTW, don't turn up the trebile on these babies, or they will sound bad... in fact, turning up the trebile at all will make them sound bad. Disable your sound thing, and just use the remote that comes with the l3800's.... Yes, they even come with a friggin' remote to control them!

Just turn up the bass and that's it.