Sound card question

[wyarn]

this is quite possibly the most dumb question to be asked on this site! but hey no questions asked no answers gained! i have a desktop wich is basically nakerd for gaming and the screen is almost shot! BUT its only saving grace is that it has a X-fi XM in it wich i love (bit of a audiophile) now i have a laptop wich specs arnt bad on and the screens amazing!

Now was wondering if i could have my desktop turned on and run my laptop sound through my X-FI without loseing much of the sound quailty and still at 5.1?

Thanks (I TOLD U IT WAS A DUMB QUESTION LOL)

 

[rquinn19]

You could network the computers and play the media thats on the laptop through the computer but im not sure if thats what you wanna do exactly.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

Not sure but I think he's talking about gaming, not playing media files which his old desktop could probably still do. Since the game has to use the laptop installed devices to generate the sound, I dunno how networking it to the desktop would help any.

@OP: what kind of audio hardware does your laptop use? If your laptop has decent hardware and an SPDIF output you might consider connecting it to your 5.1 audio system. I had an X-Fi card in my desktop that died, so I switched to the onboard audio. Connected to my Klipsch Proaudio system, it sounds pretty good. I don't miss the X-Fi card at all..

 

[theboomboomcars]

Now was wondering if i could have my desktop turned on and run my laptop sound through my X-FI without loseing much of the sound quailty and still at 5.1?

If your laptop has a 5.1 audio out then yes. If it is only stereo then no, you will lose some quality because your computer will have to convert the stereo to surround. Which never seems to sound as good as true surround.

 

[wyarn]

thanks for the replys guys ill test it out any way my laptop has shum relly bad sound i know that i wonder if the 3D-MSS (or whatever it is ) will put the sound bak in the right place even tho its comming though stereo? and yes i am using it for gaming well till after summer when i can afford to upgrade!

 

[rodney_ws]

This might be an option for you... one day.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3589

 

[fazers_on_stun]

This might be an option for you... one day.

Cool I have an XPS 1710 with the Sigmatel codec (HDA via the CPU I guess), and paid an extra $15 I think for the SB EAX emulation codec. Not a lot of overhead with a CD2 processor and it does sound good in games with the 5 watt subwoofer, but a real X-Fi card with a dedicated processor would be a better option if not too expensive.

OTOH, I'm not too happy with Creative's customer support - no Vista drivers for their cards, no support for the front-panel jacks on most computer cases (they wanna sell you their external or 5.25" internal connection accessory), plus my X-Fi card died within 2 weeks. But it sounded great with the Klipsch speakers while it lasted .

 

[malphadour]

This might be an option for you... one day.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3589

I was reading thru the post and was about to say "hey, there is a notebook X-Fi on its way", and you beat me to it.

This is defo the card to get for laptop sound goodness