No, I did not make a mistake and upload the wrong photo. After I installed my new sound card, I went for a ride up to and around Lake Miramar, where I saw these large geese, the kind you do not want flying into your jet's engine.
Earlier in the day I made a trip to Fry's Electronics to buy a new sound card for my computer. After much research, I decided on the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium. It is a bit of an overkill for me, as it is intended for gaming and intense multi-media applications. However, it had everything I wanted, including a 5.1 digital optical output. More importantly, I no longer have that high-pitched sound emanating from all my speakers (now if only I can fix the constant ringing in my ears!). I made sure I installed the card in a slot away from my graphics card. The hardware installation was straight forward, except I had to remove a large air-duct system to get at the motherboard inside my computer. Once the hardware was installed, I installed the software from the CD. That installation was also simple, however, after rebooting my computer the new software checked for updates and proceeded to download 133MB of data. Then I had to update about five programs, one at a time, constantly checking "Next" and "OK".
Finally, after rebooting again, I was able to test the new sound card. Other than the lack of background noise, I really can't hear any difference. I moved my subwoofer farther away from my desk so it wouldn't cause it to vibrate. This card also has an optical input, so I bought another optical cable so I could connect my MacBook using a 3.5MM to TOSlink adapter that connects to the headphone output. Now the audio from my Apple sounded much better being piped through my PC's sound card and out to my new speakers.
I just saw on the news that Circuit City is most likely going to liquidate all its inventory, so that sounds like a good opportunity to buy new home stereo speakers soon.
3 comments:
I think Circuit City is liquidating tomorrow. I need a Garmin GPS. Too bad the one in Carlsbad closed a long time ago.
wow, i'm also thinking of upgarding from on-board audio to the creative x-fi audio but seems like from what you have written its quite a tedious process .. or is it not? I want something to watch movie and listen to music with, which sound card would u recommend?
Thanks for the reply, Justin. The card I bought I'm happy with, but there are cheaper alternatives. For DVDs and music, you don't need more than a 5.1 audio card, and having an optical output is optional. Sound Blaster/Creative have sound cards for under $50 that would work just fine. As far as installation, that depends on your computer's case and motherboard.
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