Need advice about onboard sound vs Audigy

Soldato
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In building my new PC I've come across a bit of a problem. I've got an aftermarket cooler on my Southbridge chip (as it gets pretty hot). This was a tight squeeze with my 2nd X1900 in the lower slot, but it fits with nothing touching.

The problem I've got now is that my Audigy 2 ZS card is too long to fit in the only remaining PCI slot on the board...

jt_fitted.jpg

jt_x1900.jpg


Although you can't really see it in that picture when I try and fit my Audigy 2 ZS card in the bottom PCI slot, the only way I can get it in is by turning that copper cooler clockwise, so it's essentially resting on the white motherboard header pins. With it tilted right over it is impossible to get the connectors in there.

I have a DTT3500 speaker system which requires the Digital DIN output on the Audigy 2 or Audigy 4 Pro (X-Fi doesn't work with it) to get proper digital 5.1, EAX, etc.

So at the moment I'm faced with the following options:
* Ditch the big copper cooler and use the standard one, and hope my overclock is still stable
* Ditch the Audigy 2 ZS and use the onboard sound on my motherboard (no idea how good this is, I suspect it cant be as good as a dedicated card)
* Ditch the HIS X1900 and get another X1900 with a different cooler :o

Any thoughts? :)
 
Man of Honour
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why on earth did you get that south bridge cooler?

If you are intending to do some serious OCing, then you should consider water cooling anyway..
:confused:

If you are intent in keeping it then use the standard on board sound.. which is fine. Unless of course you are going to get an X-Fi card.. then thats worth ditching that SB cooler for.
 
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Soldato
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I would ditch the cooler. Sound card is much more useful to you, the cooler isnt required unless you are doing some heavy oc'ing and if you are then slimmer coolers are available or you may even consider water.

Sell your cooler I say.
 
Soldato
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Thanks guys.

The X-Fi isn't an option for me because I have an old set of Creative DTT3500 speakers, which Creative kindly removed support for in X-Fi upwards. I don't intend to sell a perfectly good set of speakers for no reason. Even if X-Fi was an option it looks like the cards are just as long as my current Audigy 2 ZS, so I would be stuck with the same problem.

Forgot to mention, I will be using phase change on the CPU so it'll be pretty heavily overclocked... I'm aiming for 4.3Ghz+ from my Conroe E6700.
 
Soldato
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Ive just noticed from looking at the pins that the only things I would be missing would be the power and HDD led. The rest of the pins I should be able to get in.
 
Soldato
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Durzel said:
You can say that again, especially as it popped and flashed when it died. I thought it had nuked my motherboard & CPU. :(

I did a similar thing once, I was dusting my room and just ran the cloth over the outside of my pc case, the cathodes flashed brighter than anything I have ever seen and the whole system went dead, longest 2 mins of my life trying to restart it :D
 
Soldato
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There's probably nothing wrong with it persay, I just know it gets pretty damn hot so I figured there was no harm in improving the cooling on it...

After following some advice from another forum I ended up with this:

jt_sideways2.jpg

jt_sideways.jpg


Hooray! Haven't got much room underneath for my SATA ports though! Mind you, they were already obstructed by the X1900.. design flaw imo! Shame OCUK doesn't sell right-angled SATA cables...

Thanks all for the help!
 
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