Optiplex 980 w/SSD seeking improved Sound

[kleis2]

This particular Dell desktop with mini tower is out of warranty as far as Dell, so, i'm looking for information on the Sound/Audio and would like to see if a sound card can be added to this specific computer to improve the basics of playing music and videos, not necessarily for gaming. If any suggestions or referral, I would appreciate it. I would have not really selected this Dell computer if i would have known in advance a little of the original model was made for business or not so much was put into the "sound" quality as I understand.

 

[atljsf]

dell only knows how to do office pcs without gpu or a real good soundcard, the alienware part is for gaming, but that is not really dell, is just that company they bought

i thin you can put a pci express sound card, low profile, and a low profile gpu in there

are you going to use the sound card or are you going to use hdmi output?

if you are going to use hdmi, the sound card is not used at all so it doesn't have any sense to have a soundcard

hdmi sound is generated by the monitor, sound bar or tv/audio set up you have, the audio is transfered as data to those devices and they do the rest

so, how are you planning to use the pc, with a monitor and some speaker setup or connected to a tv, using a home theater for audio or something like that?

 

[kleis2]

dell only knows how to do office pcs without gpu or a real good soundcard, the alienware part is for gaming, but that is not really dell, is just that company they bought

i thin you can put a pci express sound card, low profile, and a low profile gpu in there

are you going to use the sound card or are you going to use hdmi output?

if you are going to use hdmi, the sound card is not used at all so it doesn't have any sense to have a soundcard

hdmi sound is generated by the monitor, sound bar or tv/audio set up you have, the audio is transfered as data to those devices and they do the rest

so, how are you planning to use the pc, with a monitor and some speaker setup or connected to a tv, using a home theater for audio or something like that?

 

[kleis2]

Thanks for this info.
I would just use computer for playing or using the computer speakers so actually HDMI isn't necessary. Yeh, i was a bit fast to purchase this computer when i did having lost my other in rain/leaky ceiling, etc...or i would have taken more time to research what i would be 'getting.'
So, i had a Biostar mobo before and i understand about the PCI Express and what would you (maybe) have idea of what sound card that may be compatible with this computer?? Also if i can improve the sound with this method, i could then likely disengage the eternal speaker that has its place as more or less mastering the audio on this machine. I'd like to just sell this and get something else but i doubt that it would be a fast sell seeing how it was converted to SSD and at the time i bought it there was no actual working warranty that i got from a friend's shop. Only his, that's whole other story. But yes, to answer for the usage, i just browse and would play video in place of having TV and for music. So, that's my next pursuit if to go that route in actually getting good enough sound card that could work or to hopefully serve the purpose.

Thanks.

 

[atljsf]

don't get me wrong, that is a decent pc, old but decent, small, not noisy and doesn't get hot, right?

but dell was only thinking on internet explorer, excell, word and lots of accounting apps when made their pcs

one question first, your dell looks like this?

or like this

the first one is the sff, small form factor, the second is the normal one, the normal one has space for both soundcard and gpu, the sff only has space for the soundcard, pci, not pci express, and a gpu but should be low profile single slot gpu, so not a gaming capable gpu, only old quadros would fit in there, and not much in small form factor low profile shape

for the normal size one, if you disable the onboard soundcard and put a xonar soundcard, things should change alot, like day and night difference

if you are not going to use hdmi, then buy any gpu you can fit in there, low profile gpu must be, so a gtx 750 or 1050 low profile is what you need, there is some amd but really a bit hard to find

i would buy one like this

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132020

not sure if in the box comes the low profile bracket, probably comes

there are alot of better sound card out there but this one should be the starting point

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137079&cm_re=gtx_1050_low_profile-_-14-137-079-_-Product

that will make the old dell into a gaming pc, that is based on the idea that the psu will handle the gtx, something that should, usually those come with a 300 watts psu, if it doesn't have a psu this big, you can buy a 430 watts psu for this particular pc

for the sff, well, i wouldn't change anything, heat, psu size and cost of low profile parts would make any modification too complicated, perhaps the soundcard only

 

[kleis2]

Hey this is great info. Mine is exactly like the first SFF pic. you provide. And then the SSD enhances it, of course. But accordingly, your talking about the other model where there's more wiggle room to accommodate space-wise the added components? So as far as my particular model, and i was in a pinch since lost other computer to get one and went to my friend's shop that i've known awhile and go there now and then, but he's local and he put on windows 7 is what i wanted over the other retail or new with windows 10 preloaded.
But sticking more to what i do have, you said the sound card would be the only thing i could do(?0 or pretty much it as far as what the computer is made up by in terms of space inside. I think where i bought it, he took this model and put in the SDD and that's why there's not a warranty running on it but it's "new" and yes, real quiet. But the internal speaker is other issue i've had where when generally attaching or plugging in the speakers port of computer speakers 2.1 that normally when adding computer speakers the OS would change the order of main speakers or in this case it takes fully over so i have both internal and computer speakers playing to co-exist sort of. I didn't really want to dis-engage the internal speaker and that's the only way that it would not play for this particular set up. And then if i do that, does that automatcially roll over the onboard sound to the speaker port? I didn't want to take computer back to vendor as I did already once when i didn't have a proper cable to hook up the Asus monitor when i first got it. I didn't really pay much attention to that part about it, thinking that it should be no problem taking the monitor i have.
Anyway, what's the gpx you mention? Or for the most part, it doesn't look like that's going to be workable for this specific computer?
And if i get that sound card in the Newegg picture(?) would that be 'low profile' but still make big difference do you think?
Thanks!

 

[atljsf]

the 980 might be new but is not a new model, at all

what cpu do you have in it? run cpu-z to know the model

yes, there is not much space in there

the slot on the 980 for soundcard is for old pci models

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-XONAR-Headphone-Audio-Card/dp/B003ZXDOL6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1494806403&sr=8-2&keywords=pci+sound+card

you could also use a usb soundcard

https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Performance-Headphone-Integrated-Microphone/dp/B00EZT7RE4/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1494806216&sr=8-8&keywords=usb+sound+card

or 2.1

https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-System-SB1290/dp/B0044DEDC0/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1494806216&sr=8-17&keywords=usb+sound+card

then buy a low profile gtx 1050 and that will give you a gaming pc on the cheap

about the internal speaker, if you know what cable is, i would unplug it and remove it, forget it existed

about the gpx, what is that?

i was talking about a gpu, video card, to play games

 

[kleis2]

I went directly to the cpu-z site, downloaded, went to open & boom-Trojan! & it also downloaded Bytefence anti-malware that i might have autho'd during the download. Anyway i got rid of that as fast i put it on but recently i downloaded similar called Speccy. Anyway, here's the specs as far as my machine on CPU: Intel Core i5 Cpu 650@3.20 Ghz
The Model it says 0C522T(CPU)
Chip Set Havendale/Clark Dale Host Bridge
It does shoe as far as Slot Type: PCI i would think that's probably for the (if i was to get) soundcard(?).

I like those links you include and the USB-one looks cool & that is separate and apart (right) or like a portable hard drive.
Yes, on the eternal speaker, Dell shows exactly where it is attached and advised same thing, go in and de-tach.
Earlier on you said something about xonar sound card and that is more or less for gaming as i liked the part of night and day difference. So, i want to try to get the best that there be to make that noticeable. But at the same time, i have to know more about what I'm doing. Like if to click off the onboard sound, for instance, in order to put up a replacement sound card like the usb-one, would that be just by flipping it off in the Bios or set to disable(?).
I had better onboard sound on my other computer and bought a Creative sound blaster since i have those T3000 2.1 Inspire Creative but the onboard sound was much better than that sound blaster.
Now on this machine's it's highly different and so i also wanted to upgrade speakers to the famous (still) Klipsh Promedia 2.1.
With the model cpu & everything do you think still the links / usb and other creative sound is the way to go??


Thanks*

 

[atljsf]

no idea how you searched cpu-z with google

this is the installer download link

http://www.cpuid.com/downloads/cpu-z/cpu-z_1.79-en.exe

it is not a virus, if your antivirus says is a virus, you have a bad antivirus doing false positives for nothing

the i5 650 is from the year 2010, so is a 7 year old cpu

about shutting down the onboard soundcard, yes, if bios has a option to disable it, i would do just that, some mainboard do need a physical jumper, not sure if this one is the case

the internal space of the case and your budget dictates what you can do with it

it is always preferable to use internal solutions, a internal soundcard than a external solution, but sometimes is required

if you haven't had a real soundcard and only used onboard soundcards, use a real soundcard will make you scared from the lack of quality on what we use daily, any old cheap soundblaster will wipe the floor with the great soundcards onboard on most mainboards, paired with great speakers you will regret using onboard soundcards

the oly reason we don't buy soundcards anymore is hdmi, you use that for image and audio, so soundcard does nothing unless you directly use it, but most of us don't use it anymore

if you open the case and decide that there is space for the single slot low profile gpu and a soundcard, i would go for that

there is some low profile single slot gpus, but most are old, but surely alot better than the old slow ugly intel gpu it must have

this would be ideal

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-Mobile&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-Mobile-_-pla-_-Video+Card+-+Nvidia-_-N82E16814127836&gclid=CKCIjtmN1M4CFQKMaQod8kgOXg&gclsrc=aw.ds&Item=N82E16814127836

in reaity a gt 730 should fit and be perfect for some games in low quality and for watching movies

https://www.amazon.com/PNY-GeForce-GDDR5-Graphics-VCGGT7301D5LXPB/dp/B00KYCTCZ8

or

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127852

do you have 8 gbs of ram on that sff pc?

 

[kleis2]

I have 4 gb Ram. When i purchased the computer i insisted on 8 but when i picked it up the guy said that they put 4 instead and that i didn't need or would notice a 4gb difference. (Though, i thought at the time i was spending the money so what did they care and i was suscpicious that maybe they couldn't put 4 more. But seeing how we were friends or i had hung around a few years earlier, i didn't want to make any more waves and so i bought it with 4 gb).
In looking again at the options of putting sound card if it can make up for a better sound i think i would opt for the Asus model you have put in or maybe even a better one-up if i'm going to use it for the replacement of onboard. Plus it looks like it would fit right under the current SFF keyboard mouse ports and there's that one empty slot(?). Those other copies you show i've looked at and the MCI ones are hot looking and that or those kind of 'video cards' does that make for audio too or i mean, when it comes to sound that is, it is like a bundled sound card in the 'video' card? Kind of dum question and some of the reviews like the one guy said on his 960 optiplex it just fits!

 

[kleis2]

I downloaded link to the CPU-Z and it's cool compact little screen that details everything.