CD/DVD audio question with Audigy 2 ZS

[matt_hobson]

Hi,

here it is:

I have got an Audigy 2ZS which came with 1*Digital Audio cable, and the sound card supports 1* Digital input and 2* analogue input. I will only be using 2.1 speakers.

I have 1*CD/RW and 1*DVD/RW both support analogue and digital output (they will be going down separate IDE channels as i will have my hard drive through SATA). I will use the CD/RW mostly - really just got the DVD drive for writing DVD's as i have plenty of DVD players.

My question is this, shall i plug the digital cable from the CD/RW (as i will use this most) to the soundcard, and let the DVD audio come down the IDE channel? - will this affect motherboard performance much? I heard somewhere that it is better to have the audio down the IDE rather than analogue as it doesnt then have to be converted - however i also heard that the IDE sends it as analogue

Should i buy an analogue cable to plug into the sound card from the 2nd optical drive? If so then would i lose more by putting the CD/RW through analogue (as i will be using this more) or would the DVD performance be greatly weakened by analogue?

Cheers guys,

matt

[MurphmanL]

I havent understood the concept of your post - but as far as Im concerned, u plug the soundcard in, u install drivers, plugin speakers and wella, the sound works! If u wish to fiddle around with Cd Audio imputs and plugin headphones etc i dont know, but i know i stuck a cable into my audigy 2 and the other end into my dvd drive, and nothing happened... could be duff headphones tho

[mike_w]

As far as I know, if you have 2000/XP, the sound will jsut be sent down the IDE cable - no ned to fiddle around with little cables from optical drives to sound cards.

Apparently, the sound is better through the IDE cables than through the little cable.

[MurphmanL]

I dunno about that,this isnt my area to discuss but I know windows xp will deliver better audio than windows 2000!