Windows 10 and Sound Cards - starting to get the hump with 10 now

[pastymuncher]

I have had no problems with my Creative Soundblaster Z in windows 10. I haven't actually had any problems at all with 10.

[Biscuit]

I have a pretty old Asus Xonar D2X and i have had to reinstall the drivers once, however this is once over the course of quite a while and other than that its been working rock solid.

Not sure I would recomend this specific card to anyone buying new though, requires a floppy power adapter :/

[Zak33]

I went back to the system restore from when I registered Windows 10 and then tried again with my best card: Razer Baracuda

I tried this on day one but Win10 told me the software wouldn't run on my PC. (This App cant run on your PC) and it didn't work as Admin last time nor in compatibility mode.

this time... it ran straight away and is now working perfectly with all the menus and options.

While bemused as to the difference between now and back then.. fingers crossed.

[RapsterUK]

I have a pretty old Asus Xonar D2X and i have had to reinstall the drivers once, however this is once over the course of quite a while and other than that its been working rock solid.

Not sure I would recomend this specific card to anyone buying new though, requires a floppy power adapter :/

I have an Asus Xonar DX, which also has the ubiquitous additional power connector onboard (4-pin Berg connector (floppy drive power connector)). The guys over at bit-tech asked the Xonar engineers the question as to why the DX had this power connector:

Power
Like the D2 and D2X, the Xonar DX still requires a power connector and while we never got an answer as to why this was the case when we first did our D2X review, we have since had chance to sit down with a couple of engineers working on the Xonar project.

When asked, they explained that this is purely because the power from a PSU is far cleaner than it is from the motherboard, meaning you again get far less interference and therefore better quality sound. At least, that’s how the theory works.

Sure, it’s a pain in the back side, especially since it’s a floppy connector and not a Molex, but we have more respect for it now that we know its presence is actually for our benefit.

So, nice that they do this stuff to try and improve sound as much as possible.

By the way, I have been trying onboard sound for years in comparison to my pretty much bog standard Xonar DX and the onboard sound is not a patch on the DX. Motherboard sound is nowhere near to the quality of a discrete solution, even though inroads have been made as to the quality of onboard sound. Trouble is, the chips and traces are all contained on the motherboard, which are surrounded by all sorts of electronic devices, chips and power components creating noise and interference affecting the onboard solutions.

[Biscuit]

I have an Asus Xonar DX, which also has the ubiquitous additional power connector onboard (4-pin Berg connector (floppy drive power connector)). The guys over at bit-tech asked the Xonar engineers the question as to why the DX had this power connector:



So, nice that they do this stuff to try and improve sound as much as possible.

By the way, I have been trying onboard sound for years in comparison to my pretty much bog standard Xonar DX and the onboard sound is not a patch on the DX. Motherboard sound is nowhere near to the quality of a discrete solution, even though inroads have been made as to the quality of onboard sound. Trouble is, the chips and traces are all contained on the motherboard, which are surrounded by all sorts of electronic devices, chips and power components creating noise and interference affecting the onboard solutions.

Thanks for posting that, its good to know! I do wish they would just just use a bloody molex or SATA though!

I haven't tried one of the modern motherboards where the Audio PCB elements are in a totally dedicated section of the motherboard, but this apparently does help a lot.

[shaithis]

At the time I thought the reasoning was that the power was used for the PCI-to-PCI-E bridge chip.

I still have a DX somewhere, I remember it used to get VERY hot.

[RapsterUK]

Thanks for posting that, its good to know! I do wish they would just just use a bloody molex or SATA though!

I haven't tried one of the modern motherboards where the Audio PCB elements are in a totally dedicated section of the motherboard, but this apparently does help a lot.

I will give one of those a try on my next upgrade, whenever I find it sensible to upgrade my current components. Nobody wants a new build at the moment, so it'll probably be my machine for upgrade and testing. I am interested in just how much this isolation actually helps in the real world and not just on paper.

My oscilloscope is trembling in anticipation!

[Watevah]

Creative X-Fi Titanium HD. Not really that cheap but can be picked up for around 50 quid on eBay. Rock stable in Windows 10 since the official driver release.