Does every soundcard work with every motherboard?

[OddBone]

Hello, I am here to find out the simple question: Will every sound card work with every motherboard?

If not, what sound cards will work with what motherboards and how do you know that it does?

Thankyou for your time.

 

[badge]

The soundcard will have an interface. The most common for soundcards are PCI and PCIE x1. Check your motherboard for an available PCI or PCIE x1 slot where the card can be installed.

 

[foscooter]

As long as you understand ISA vs. PCI vs. PCI-e, than another question is: Is my sound card supported in my OS.

For example, I had a Sound Blaster Live! PCI sound card, which is unsupported in Windows 7. No drivers, no sound, lots of problems, not resolvable!

Also, the onboard sound on my old Asus P4-800 Deluxe mobo was unsupported!

Check the Window Compatibility website.

 

[mavroxur]

For example, I had a Sound Blaster Live! PCI sound card, which is unsupported in Windows 7. No drivers, no sound, lots of problems, not resolvable!

Um, I hate to break it to you, but creative offers vista / win 7 drivers for that card on their site. We have lots of Opti 280's with that card at work, and have rolled the Win 7 driver into our image.

 

[foscooter]

Ok, but they didn't in April 2010....or I didn't find them. I dumped the system anyway.

 

[gamerk316]

Generally yes, with some caviats:

Some Creative PCI models use VERY aggressive data transfers, which can lead to problems with some motherboards.

Some ASUS Soundcards [namely, the DX and D2X] use a PCI->PCI-E bridge chip that is known to accasionally have problems with NVIDIA motherboards.

As a general rule though, if the board has the interface, its compabable.