PCMCIA sound and power

[kallenin]

Hey all,

Are there any power issues with having a PCMCIA sound card (like the Audigy 2 ZS for notebooks) ? Or is it roughly the same, since you wouldn't be using the onboard sound on your notebook? It seems like if you were using the full 5.1 surround functionality there might be some hit to battery life. Any takers?

-Kallenin

 

[mpjesse]

There would definitely be some hit in battery life, whether or not it's noticable or not is another issue. But this is true when using any PCMCIA device. New PCMCIA devices run on 3.3Volts, which isn't bad.

Here's what Maximum PC had to say about the topic:

We were concerned about the Audigy 2 ZS Notebook’s power consumption, so we threw our notebook on a watt meter to see if our power consumption increased when using it. With the card installed and the DSP for EAX effects enabled, we saw a slight increase in power consumption but probably not enough to make a noticeable impact on battery life.

http://www.maximumpc.com/2005/01/sound_blaster_a.html

-mpjesse