Built-In Speakers

After spending quite a bit of time trying to find any existing post covering my question, I have decided to make a thread, hoping that I'm not reposting a dumb question, to the offense of many.

The search I did, revealed alot of questions regarding the built in speakers, and their quality, however, that is not my question. Opposite to all of the posts I read, I want to continue to use the built in speakers, as I think the audio quality from them is remarkably good, considering what they are. I have a desktop with an aggressive 5.1 setup, so the portability of this laptop pc is my main concern.

I posted this in the Asus Forums, but I wanted to repost here, hoping to get more traffic and information regarding this subject.
My recently purchased laptop pc is the Asus G2S-A1.

"This is my first laptop, and I've only owned it for about 2 weeks now.
I am looking at purchasing the ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Card.

My question is: Does the installation of this card into the ExpressCard/54 slot include it's conection to the Built-In Speakers in the laptop case?

I'm a Laptop newbie, so I hope this question isn't terribly idiotic. I can't find any details anywhere that clarify if the installation of the card will require the use of external speakers, or if it will "magically" (I use this term loosely) interface with the speakers in the case (Through the bus, or whatever). I realize the sound of the internal speakers won't be dramatically better, but the sound processing on the motherboard is alot lower than I am willing to settle for. I can't run multiple tasks involving Java in one Window, and play Media in another, using the existing sound processor on the motherboard.

If the card won't produce sound on the internal speakers it will influence my decision to buy it."

I didn't post this on the Asus website, but I would consider opening the case, and wiring the speakers to the card myself if necessary.

 

i believe you need to hook it up to an external speaker or (the incl.) earphone.

note: might have problems running under vista.

 

Any idea if this particular motherboard has a free internal slot I can use to add a card inside?

I'd prefer to have everything kosher, if I can. If not, I may have to cut a pair of earphones, and solder the wires to the internal speakers, and run the jack out to the expansion slot on the side.

Or better yet, is there an illustrated tech manual available online? I tried to ID the motherboard using Aida32, but the program is kinda outdated for that anymore.

 

Well I suppose you could wire the speakers to the card but that would void the warranty... (of both) Is it worth it?

Also be aware that the CreativeXFi may not be the best external audio solution... see here for some reasons: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=112643&page=17 , last few pages. So it might not offer any sensible audio quality improvement over the integrated audio... in which case the rewiring stuff is quite unnecessary.

 

Yeah, I realize that the sound coming out of the internal speakers will be pretty much the same no matter what's driving them. The original intended purpose was to free up CPU cycles, but on the Asus forums, I was already recommended a new audio driver, and it cured the problems I was having with the sound to begin with.

Now I am considering this project just for kicks, and have some ideas about making a 4.0 sound setup inside the laptop, using any possible extra space for an additional 2 speakers for the rear channels. Weighing the pros and cons about voiding my warranty right now. I might save this project for a few months down the line.

I need to find out the impedance of the internal speakers, and the impedance of the external speaker sets designed to work on the sound card. I'd modify an adaptor, and use the normal jacks on the sound card, so the warranty wouldn't be voided on that side of things. If I work this out right, my installation would be reversible and undetectable, and I could still claim warranty on the PC if needed.

 

yeah, but I doubt you will find space for extra speakers in there Things are pretty crammed in these notebooks...

Keep in mind that the Creative XFi does a lot of processing in the software (the DSP on it is quite old), so I'm not sure how much CPU you would save -- I'm quite sure it'll be nothing to write home about, i.e. no sensible real-life improvement.