Asus stx II. Does it need grounding.

[johhnn]

Hi And thanks for reading this thread. Does the hood / sheild covering about half of the asus stx II soundcard need to be grounded.
The sheild is there but obviously is only truly effective if there is a ground cable attached to it.
Is the sheild grounded or should i attach a ground cable to it.

Thanks

 

[BlackBat]

It looks like the hood/shield is screwed through the PCB into the back plate, which will then be grounded through the case.

 

[EsaT]

All such shieldings of expansion cards should be grounded automatically through circuit board's ground.

But if you're planning to buy sound card, that Xonar can't be really recommended.
While Creative always gets the flak for bad support Asus is even worse and despite of that being luxury priced top product newest driver is four years old!
And if you intend to use it for headphone gaming Dolby Headphone is overall mediocre.

Also that card has problems with AM4 motherboards with switching of output capable to rebooting whole PC:
https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1036071?_ga=2.92572701.1048640317.1526260340-329128221.1511925089
Can only suspect it has something to do with it using USB sound chip through, not known as quality maker Asmedia, PCIe-USB bridge.
http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-cards-and-amd-ryzen-am4-motherboards-compatibility-report/


Besides those C-Media sound chips having bug/"feature" which can trigger it to spew out full amplitude static noise.
Which is something I wouldn't want to think about happening with headphones.
That card is capable to high enough output voltage/power to reach hearing damage starts in seconds SPL with usual sensitivity headphones.
Ironically apparently most common when used on Asus motherbards, with Win10 being another risk factor.

 

[JasonM]

While we are on subject of shielding, does any one know if the aftermarket metal rear (backplate) shielding reduces any interference, I expect they are just cosmetic but there is a the remote change someone reading this uses one. I'm referring to the installation on sound cards that already have a front standard metal shielding.

 

[EsaT]

While we are on subject of shielding, does any one know if the aftermarket metal rear (backplate) shielding reduces any interference, I expect they are just cosmetic but there is a the remote change someone reading this uses one. I'm referring to the installation on sound cards that already have a front standard metal shielding.

For EMI resistance the most important thing is proper circuit board design.
If that isn't there it doesn't matter if there's some cover on one side or whole thing is in the end of USB cable. It will still vacuum in interference.

http://archimago.blogspot.com/2017/04/retro-measure-2002-lynx-l22-pci-audio.html
(notice stylish cable management)