SoundBlaster card vs XPS 8300 integrated

Hi Aras1,

Six years is old for a PC but not for a decent sound card. I think there is absolutely no harm in trying. There is no problem having two sound cards in a computer, obviously. I would just check around to make sure there's a proper device driver. For example, if you have a 64-bit OS, that can be a challenge. Microsoft has provided lots of drivers, 32 and 64 bit, for old hardware but many of them aren't provided with the OS, so you have to search their site for legacy drivers.

GENERALLY the "latest and greatest" integrated audio is as good (and sometimes better) than separate sound cards.  I have a recording studio and am a musician so I'm probably more attuned to audio then some others.  I have a separate sound card but it's because the the Integrated audio interferes with my recording software.  It it wasn't for the conflict issue I would be using the Integrated audio for the "PC audio". 

Some (many) new Integrated sound systems do not have a System Mixer function (SoundBlaster calls this "what you hear") and for those that must have this function a separate sound card is a must.

Check with Creative on Win 7 drivers for your Xfi card.  Some of the early Xfi cards are not supported for Win 7 (and Win 7 specific drivers are needed for the Xfi's). 

fireberd and osprey, thanks very much for the advice. The SB card I have in my old system is relatively new (~ a year) as I purchased it to refresh my old system and get a couple more years out of it.

Once I have my new system up and running I'll give it a go and see if I can see a difference. Mind you, my needs are not great. I simply like to listen to excellent sounding music while working. Plus, I have a labour of love converting my old vinyl to digital mpegs.   :emotion-1:

Aras

You should be aware that the Dell OEM (original equipment manufacturer) sound cards are different from retail sound cards. For example my Dell XPS 8300 was ordered with this part: 510-10336 Sound Card : Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Card. However the Creative Diagnostics Device Detection reported the following supported Creative products are detected: Device: Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio.

Other users have noted that thier Dell supplied cards do not have the same connections as the Creative web site shows for their Music card and look more like the Audio card. The first post has links to pictures.
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/p/18793475/18916461.aspx?PageIndex=3
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3513/p/18511322/18634308.aspx#18634308

I would guess that since the XPS 8300 has only 1 PCI Express x16 card slot and 3 PCI Express x1 card slots, what Dell appear to have done is to use the Soundblaster Audio board which has x1 connection and then added components to bring the spec up to something that they can term as a "Music" card. There is no documentation but it has five jacks and two optical jacks and looks like the attached picture.That makes it hard choosing the right divers and comparing performance!
My 520-10991 Speakers : Dell AY410 Multimedia Speaker System UK (Kit) are quite cheap and only have 3 speakers but they do have a convenient separate volume control and headphone socket. I just connected one green plug into the green socket and it sounds fine! Note also with this soundcard that you will NOT be
losing the front headphone + mic jacks - they both work fine on my PC. I wanted this for voice recognition and it seems to do the job for me.

Sorry I cannot be more helpful. My single x16 slot is taken up with a double height video card so the sound card presumably has to be x1. (I have not opened my cover yet!). Presumably your SoundBlaster X-Fi Audio sound card uses PCI Express x1 card slot. If your card has the Intel HD standard Front Panel Header Audio connector and as SoundBlaster have the drivers for Windows 7, then your card should fit.
http://support.creative.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?catID=1&CatName=Sound+Blaster&subCatID=208&subCatName=X-Fi&prodID=16770&prodName=PCI+Express+Sound+Blaster+X-Fi+Xtreme+Audio&bTopTwenty=1&VARSET=prodfaq:PRODFAQ_16770,VARSET=CategoryID:1

Cheers
Tom

Dell XPS 8300 | D02X8319 | XPS 8300 : Intel Core i7-2600 Processor(3.40GHz,8MB) | Memory : 8192MB (4x2048) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel | Hard Drive : 2TB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 "Stripe" (2x1TB - 7200RPM)
Optical Drive : 6X Blu-Ray RW (Blu-ray, DVD, CD read & write) & DVD+/-RW (DVD, CD read/write) optical drives | Wireless : Europe Dell Bluetooth 365 Card | Graphics : 1 GB ATI Radeon HD 5870 Graphics Card | Sound Card : Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Card
| Operating System : Windows 7 Ultimate (64 BIT)

Hey Tom, thanks for the info. The card I have in my old PC looks exactly like the pic you posted above and it is a PCI x1. But I never could figure out how to connect the card in my old system to the front end headphone and mic hookups. I know there are some pins on the side of the card for doing so but my old PC was an IBM and I could not figure out how to jury rig it to connect up with the pins. Are you suggesting this should be possible with the XPS 83000 or that the integrated sound card will still put sound out to the front end mic and headphones with a dedicated sound card installed or that the mobo will direct the sound card output to the front end mic and headphone jacks?

Aras, I think it is worth moving your SoundBlaster X-Fi Audio sound card from your old machine to the XPS 8300. Why else would Dell offer the SoundBlaster on the XPS 8300 if it was not an improvement.

You should install the PCI Express <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell> sound card in the bottom slot - that is where mine is. This PCI Express x1 card slot (PCI-EX1_3) is number 22 in the System Board Components diagram which shows the location of the nearby front panel audio connector (F_AUDIO1) as # 21.

Hopefully your sound card came with the appropriate Intel HD (High Definition) standard Front Panel Header Audio connector cable. See http://support.creative.com/kb/showarticle.aspx?sid=68176

In any case, if you right click on the speaker icon in your system tray you will see that in WIndows 7 you can select different playback and recording devices.

See Configuring Your Computer After Removing or Installing the PCI Express Card

1. Enter system setup (see System Setup Utility)
2. Go to Onboard Audio Controller and then change the setting to Disabled.
3. Connect the external audio devices to the sound card's connectors.

Note that your speakers can make as much difference as anything else. However the SoundBlaster should also be better for converting your old vinyl to digital mpegs.

Let us all know how you get on please.

Cheers
Tom
Dell XPS 8300 | D02X8319 | XPS 8300 : Intel Core i7-2600 Processor(3.40GHz,8MB) | Memory : 8192MB (4x2048) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel | Hard Drive : 2TB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 "Stripe" (2x1TB - 7200RPM)
Optical Drive : 6X Blu-Ray RW (Blu-ray, DVD, CD read & write) & DVD+/-RW (DVD, CD read/write) optical drives | Wireless : Europe Dell Bluetooth 365 Card | Graphics : 1 GB ATI Radeon HD 5870 Graphics Card | Sound Card : Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Card | Operating System : Windows 7 Ultimate (64 BIT)

Tom,

Now that is cool. The reason I could not hook up my SB card to my old IBM front mic and phone jacks is because it was an AC97 type rather than the Intel HD type. Unfortunately, my SB sound card did not come with a 2x5 pin connector cable. Is this something that is easy to find at a PC store?

BTW I am waiting for a replacement XPS 8300. The original one kept locking up for no apparent reason. I hope the replacement gets here soon!

Does anyone know if one were to add a sound card to the XPS 8300, would the headphone and microphone jacks on the top still work? Is that what the Intel front header business is about?

Hi

I found the integrated audio for my XPS 8300 to be awful and bass drowned everything out. Headphone quality was awful. Much worse sound than the integrated audio in my Inspiron 6400 laptop.

I thus got a creative PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio. http://uk.store.creative.com/sound-blaster/pci-express-sound-blaster-x-fi-xtreme-audio/1-16770.aspx I actually purchased an oem one from amazon for a good bit cheaper.

This wasn't exactly the same card that was an optional upgrade for the system but a cheaper/earlier version of it. It works fine. I just disabled the integrated audio at bios and then powered down the machine. Instaleld the card, made sure headphone adapter bit is put into the soundcard and then put the machine back together. Installed the windows 7 x64 driver. So far sound is perfect for me.

Before with the integrated realtek card I had bass drowning absolutely everything no matter what setting I had, a skype call sounded like thunder and lightning. It was maybe an easy problem to fix or something was wrong. Standard headphones in the headphone port sounded terrible, straight out of the box. I spent a while messing about with the settings, reinstalling drivers etc. but in the end just decided to install the creative card and am much happier.

System is running perfectly now.

Creative offers this webpage which shows what the connector should look like:

http://support.creative.com/kb/showarticle.aspx?sid=14133

But I cannot find someone that will sell it to me.

Natakuc

How did you do this part?

...made sure headphone adapter bit is put into the soundcard and then put the machine back together.

I have been searching around for the connector between the SB sound card and the motherboard to hook the sound card into the front side mic and headphone jacks but cannot find one anywhere. My Creative SB Titanium PCIe card didn't come with one. I checked the box and it doesn't list one being included so it wasn't an oversight on the part of Creative. But the 3 or 4 PC stores I have checked here just shake their head and shrug their shoulders when I ask where I can find one.

Actually you have the same card as me? Which looks similar anyway.

The drivers are here:

http://support.creative.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?catID=1&subCatID=1&prodID=16770&prodName=PCI+Express+Sound+Blaster+X-Fi+Xtreme+Audio&subCatName=Sound+Blaster&CatName=Sound+Blaster&VARSET=prodfaq:PRODFAQ_16770,VARSET=CategoryID:1

Well this is way cool! I just assumed that I would need to find the correct connecting line. I see a yellow 2x5 pin connector when I open the box as indicated in your diagram above. This looks easy! Can't wait to try it out.