Sound Card for Alienware M15x

[trihedral]

Looking for a sound card / external sound card for the Alienware M15x

Only have two main choices, i try to find the best of the best, but in terms of notebook sound cards, it's very limited compared to desktop PCI-E's.

1. Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook Sound Card PCMCIA
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Blaster-Audigy-Notebook-PCMCIA/dp/B00067KZJI

24 Bit / 192KHZ Output & THX Certified
Studio Quality Sound, Low-Latency Recordings, and High-Fidelity Inputs

2. Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD Sound Card powered
http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-XFi-HD-Sound/M/B004275EO4.htm

24 Bit / 96KHZ Output & THX Certified

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The first sound card beats the external one in terms of 192KHz > 96KHz, but came out before the second so perhaps the second one is more up to date? which do you think is the clearer choice that i should make? I have a Blue Yeti Pro Microphone that produces 24 bit 192KHz recorded sounds thus i was looking all the way up to 192KHZ but don't know if it would yield any better quality.

 

[shin0bi272]

IIRC there's little difference in audio quality and SNR between the x-fi and audigy series. So go with which ever suits your needs better.

 

[trihedral]

in terms of what suits me best, i'd say the one with 192KHz output which should be the better sounding one right?

just a little sad that it doesn't have the cool look and pluggins like the X-Fi HD one.

Just wanted a 24 Bit 192KHz to grasp the full sound quality being produced from my microphone. Perhaps there's an even better card i might have overlooked.

 

[gamerk316]

Well, the ASUS Xonar One just hit the market, and the ASUS Xonar U3 remains an attractive USB option.

http://www.asus.com/Multimedia/Audio_Cards/Xonar_Essence_One/
http://www.asus.com/Multimedia/Audio_Cards/Xonar_U3/

Auzentech has the Cappuccino EX that should be releasing soon, as another good USB option...

http://www.guru3d.com/article/auzentech-cappuccino-ex-sneak-peek/

 

[trihedral]

^
Exactly the stuff i'm looking for!

Sadly the U3 only does 48KHz @ 16bit, and after i saw Xonar Essence One i was blown away. Too bad the cost was a little over $500...

One thing that would suck for using a usb option is that my M15x only has two USB 2.0 slots, one connecting the usb microphone, the other to my razer mamba 4G mouse.

Is there any way to e-Sata to usb or something? or any other accessories that could give me more usb ports?