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Can I use 2 seperate sound cards in a single computer?
I was asked to put 2 sound cards into a friends computer. One is Soundblaster Live (model # SB0200), and the other is a Soundblaster Live (model # CT4830). His computer has a cdr configured as a master, and a dvd rom as slave, both are on same cable. The cdr audio cable is to be hooked to cd input on 1 card, and the dvd roms audio cable run to the cd input on the 2nd card. The computer has onboard sound already. Is this going to be a problem? Thanks for any help on this topic.
Umm...short answer: yes you can, but why would you?
The cable routing you described shouldn't be a problem.
If there is a problem, you can avoid it by setting up things in the bios correctly ahead of time but come on, who wants to find the old manuals and read all those blah blah bios menus...
I'd throw them both in, and disable one if I had to with the device manager, and then go fiddle with the bios to try to get them both working at the same time. (What I'm saying is, I'd still do one card at a time, i.e. throw it in, boot, let windows find it, make sure it works etc, then do the second one and if there is a problem then, disable card 2 via the device manager and then try to sort it out in the bios. But yeah IRQ settings and such pshhhh, the bios is probably going to just get all that right on its own these days.)
The bigger question I have to ask is...why would you/he want to do this? Is this machine from before ~2004 or something?
It depends on how old the motherboard is, but the on board audio is almost definitely superior unless it is as old as the older card, which is the SB0200. The SB0200 is very old now, and the other one is only a few years better. The newer SB might be better for games, but for just CD playback or DVD audio, the on board audio is almost definitely better.
It should all work together as in be conflict free and anything that can use them will just ask you in their configs somewhere 'which of these options should I be using?' Although, the correct answer for either performance or quality is probably going to be...use the on board audio.
What does he really want this set up for? What's he trying to do or accomplish? Because...I'm pretty sure these two old cards are not a solution...
Something tells me this is mostly about the extra inputs/outputs on the cards? Or is it about trying to squeeze some performance out of an old CPU/mobo? Like...maybe the guy likes to listen to CDs while he plays games, but is concerned about his frame rate in uh, GTA: San Andreas?
If it's about performance...the on board audio probably can't be beat by those old cards. If he has more than one CPU core and/or the system is at least ~2007 stuff, then the onboard audio is probably better than both cards, for both quality and performance.
If it's ~2004-2007 stuff or older, then I'd try to talk him into just installing the newer SB card (the CT 4830) and use it in games and yet still let the on board audio do CD playback and any other misc audio tasks like recording LPs etc. Those SB cards are gamer cards and don't have a great reputation for handling non-gaming stuff.
The "CDR" drive is seriously ghetto, a new DVD burner is his for ~$20 and can burn DVD+/- R's at ~22x which is probably faster than the read speed on the old CDR drive right? A new drive should also burn CDRs at ~48x and read CDRs at ~48x and read DVDs/DVDRs at ~16x.
I was pretty sure the internal ROM-drive-to-audio-card connection was approaching anachronistic...as in it just doesn't matter anymore. And yeah I'm looking at drives on newegg and it is now pointless enough that the drive manufacturers are even skipping that output entirely and telling people to just connect it to the motherboard via the IDE cable and fuhgeddaboutit.
So I'm thinking...install no cards, or if you have to, install the newer one and yet skip the internal drive to card direct connection because it is pointless unless it is a really old system. A better idea though...ditch/sell both of the old ROM drives and replace them with one new $20 burner.
Whatever he really wants the sound cards for is a mystery to me...but for less than $30 he can probably actually do it...possibly for as little as $10 even. Inputs, outputs, 5.1 surround sound, 7.1 surround sound, improved CPU performance or improved sound quality...whatever the goal, it can probably be done for not a lot of money...but it's doubtful those old cards will accomplish what he wants them to.
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