Inspiron 1520 Aftermarket Soundcard?

I was customizing my dell and saw this as an option:

ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi® Xtreme Audio Sound Card

It costs $75 so I wasn't sure if it was worth it or if there were better after market options. I wanna do something with the sound since I hear that some Inpiron's have that annoying noise from the headphone jack.

So any suggetsions on an after market sound card for the Inspiron 1520.

 

There are cheaper ones out there.. probably won't sound as good as the creative express X-Fi. People who have the creative card say it sounds amazing. Also note, there was a leak this week on a 1520 replacement (1525/26) that might ship as early as Mid Dec.. On that model it looks like they moved the headphone jack to the front which will probably fix the static issue. It will also offer HDMI.. It might be worth waiting a bit longer. See the 1525 thread or just google dell 1525 and you will see the engadget leak.

 

Yeah, I'd wait for it but I have a deal now that's too good to pass up on.

So the ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi® Xtreme Audio Sound Card is the way to go?

 

The express card sticks out the side of the laptop which i find annoying. personally since i use a usb hub anyways (so i only have to plug one usb cable into my laptop while at my desk) i use the creative live 24bit external usb sound card. While sound quality might not be as perfect as the xfi, it sounds the same as my audigy 2 zs on my logitech 5300e 5.1 speakers. So unless you are using some massive audiophile speakers, i doubt you will notice the difference. The usb card costs at most 50 bucks and you can get it on sale for 30ish. And its usb, so it wont stick out the side of your laptop and it will still work on future laptops when the express card slot goes out of technology.

 

Yeah I would.. but then I always have liked creative sound cards.. they have been making them forever.. I also prefer their mp3 players over Ipods. But they have owned the sound card market for as long as I remember. But again, I did just recently asked someone who bought the express card and they loved it. The only problem they said was they needed to get an updated driver so it would work with vista.. I don't remember if the driver was from MS or creative.. but just be prepared for that.

 

Well I agree.. as long as you buy a creative card.. its going sound good.

 

Will this sound card help the overall quality of the internal speakers of the laptop, or do you need to hook up external speakers to get any productivity out of it?

 

Your internal speakers wont sound any better than they do now.

 

Laptop speakers suck, so yes, you need a decent speaker set.

 

That's what I figured.

 

I don't think the static is at issue with the external speakers. And no, the USB/express card solution will not make a difference. You have to physically plug external speakers to the USB/express card solution to gain any benefit.

As for the Dell speakers.. hmmm not good. I briefly had a 1420 and it was ok.. but nothing special at all. Lets just say It was worth my time and effort to get my portable creative travel sound speakers when I had the dell. Now that I have an HP with the built in altec lansing speakers.. I don't go through the effort of grabbing the creative travel sounds.. the speakers are exponentially better. But that makes sense since altec lansing is a speaker company whereas dell is using whatever generic speaker is available. My point is for general stuff, the dells might be good enough. But for more serious listening you are going to want to get some buds or other external speakers. Lets just say there are worse speakers then the dells and far better. I find the dells just average for a notebook at best.

 

What about the choice for:

Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™HD Software Edition

 

From what others say.. its just software and a complete total ripoff and waste of money.