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    Express Card/External Sound Card

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by phiLLy11, Aug 22, 2007.

  1. phiLLy11

    phiLLy11 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Anybody know a good Express Card sound card that I can get for my Dell XPS M1710?

    I'm thinking of getting some Sennheiser HD555s for Gaming, but I have Onboard sound, and that kind of ruins the point of getting a nice headset if i'm going to use onboard sound.

    I could also settle with a somewhat portable External one.

    Please don't recommend the Express Card Sound Card solution from Creative. That X-Fi version isn't actually an X-Fi, and it's got some pretty bad reviews.

    I wanted the get the PCMCIA Version of the Audigy 2 ZS from Creative, but, My computer doesn't have a PCMCIA Slot, and to my knowledge, the Express Card -> PCMCIA convertors aren't easily found, and they're quite expensive.

    Thanks!

    - Phil
     
    phiLLy11, Aug 22, 2007
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  2. rhino.software

    rhino.software Notebook Consultant

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    i too would like to know as im looking out for one :)

    so does anyone know a good gaming expresscard? or maybe in the pipeline being made doesnt matter whether internal/external for vista.

    thanks...
     
    rhino.software, Aug 24, 2007
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  3. Vagabondllama

    Vagabondllama Notebook Consultant

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    I'm in the same boat.

    Actually, phiLLy11, I use HD555s. They're amazing headphones. They don't sound amazing at first, as with all headphones, but after you 'wear them in' a bit they're very nice.

    My laptop has a high pitched noise on the headphone jack, so I'm wondering if an express card might fix the problem...assuming I can't fix the high pitched noise some other way.
     
    Vagabondllama, Aug 30, 2007
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  4. Lt.Glare

    Lt.Glare Notebook Evangelist

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    The high pitched noise is more than likely caused from EMI from other components in the computer. Go to your sound manager and try muting everything except 'wave' and 'master volume' and see if that helps.

    The more components running in your computer, the worse it may be. A big contributor to EMI is your CD drive, processor, and hard drive. Of those, the only one you can really do without is your cd drive, so the less you use it, the less pronounced the sound will be.

    Otherwise you will need to either shield your sound card with copper or tin foil (which is risky since they are conductors) or get an external sound card. The better the sound card, the better those headphones will sound. I personally tried out those headphones on the PCMCIA audigy 2, and man, the sound is amazing.
     
    Lt.Glare, Aug 31, 2007
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