Audiophiles help! Xonar essence STX what pci slot should I whack it in?

[Gardnersworld1]

Alright chaps the more reading I do the more I realize how significant and superior a soundcard is to onboard sound - it really hit me when the bomb got dropped that most mobos only support 32 ohm headphones, and I am here wearing some dt 990 pro 250ohms.... (so yeh im using... 12.5% of my headphones potential?).

So basically this card is in its way and I was a little confused as to what pci slot I should stick it in because this is my first soundcard I have got.

Basically I have a free pci-e 1.0 and 2.0, my gtx 780 is in one 2.0 and I was wondering if the soundcard would get any benefit from being in the 2.0, my GUESS is it won't and I should whack it in the 1.0?

If anyone has had experience installing a card tips are more than welcome too, is it as simple as turning off the pc, installing the card and disabling the onboard audio or not? lol

As always your knowledge is obliged chaps and I will highly appreciate any reply!

 

[skit75]

It should be fine in the 1.0 slot. Manufacturers sometimes ask you to disable your onboard audio in order to make sure you have hardware resources available for the add-in card(also some drivers prefer specific IRQ & I/O ports). Most likely, you will be fine just powering down, inserting your card and powering back up. Then install your driver.

 

[spawnkiller]

1.0 should be enough, still 2.5 gbits/s of bandwith per lane

I suggest that you disable onboard audio, anyway once you'll hear the Xonar, you'll never plug anything in onboard again ^^

i usually install the card in the 1st PCI-e slot over the GPU but sometimes that can cause interferences, if it's the case with your rig, use the far bottom slot, this should help a lot with interference (however Essence should be shielded correctly so i'm not expecting interferences)

once it's installed, boot the PC click cancel on windows have found a new peripheralm etc... And install the ASUS drivers, reboot and all should work correctly (make sure to grab the latest drivers on the ASUS website, don't use the CD-rom ones)

PS: you don't really use your headphones at 12.5% but you'll see an enormous quality improvement as well as a higher volume and a much more present and precise cymbals, bass, etc... (everything will be much clearer in every details)

Ohms is the unit for resistance so 250 ohms is more resistant than 32 ohms, in clear a 32 ohms capable sound card will never be capable of pushing correctly the impulsion needed for 250ohms but will push correctly 8 ohms speakers... Distorsion and low volume are cause by low grade sound card or too high impedance on the heaphones/speakers...

 

[Gardnersworld1]

Hello skit, hello spawnkiller.

Sorry I could not reply earlier, I had some chores crop up, thanks for those replies chaps I guess I will whack it in the pci-e 1.0 after all I would prefer a definitely over a should though guys, haha.

I appreciate the tip about installing it at the very bottom pci-e slot as well dude I will make sure to do this.

 

[Gardnersworld1]

Hoping you guys are still here, which slot would you guys recommend I stick my soundcard in (the circled slot is where my gpu is) mobo - http://i.imgur.com/iokgaCk.png

Thanks, Chris.

 

[skit75]

It looks like you could use either the white slot or black slot at the very bottom. You have two 1x slots(blue) one above and one below your video card. I would use the black slot at the bottom just to keep your video card breathing space available.

 

[spawnkiller]

i would take the 1st dark blue slot over the GPU or the last Black one as the white can be used later for SLI/Crossfire

 

[gamerk316]

Personally, I keep the soundcard as far away from the GPU as I can. Less chance of interference.

 

[manofchalk]

Put it in any slot that isn't the other glowing one. Your two options are the very top or very bottom basically, do you want EMI interference from your graphics card or PSU? :lol:
I put my sound card (a $30 Xonar DGX ) in the top one above my graphics card.