Need a Sound Card in an Optiplex 960 Desktop

FrankLesniak

Hey Everyone,

I thought I'd post here and see if you have any advice as to what sound card I should get. I have a Dell Optiplex 960 Desktop with a PCI Express/PCI riser card.

Dell Optiplex 960 Specs

Dell Optiplex 960 Riser Card

I have the following video card:
Zotac "Eco" Geforce 9800 GT (No PCI Express power connector requirement)

With this configuration, I have the following slots available:

Full height PCI. This is butted up right against the video card without a lot of clearance for cooling. This is a concern because the video card is hot as it is.

Half height (low profile) PCI. This is butted up right against the riser card, so again, not a lot of clearance for cooling.

Half height (low profile) PCI Express x1. This slot is supposedly limited to 10W (as printed on the motherboard).

All things being equal, I'd prefer to use PCI Express vs. PCI. But the supposed 10W limitation on the PCI Express slot has me a little worried.

Anyway, my current plan is to connect this PC to my home theater. I want audio over HDMI. I could either accomplish this via a HDMI pass-through or via an internal SPDIF connection to the video card.

Dolby Digital Live is a requimement. Having Blu Ray audio format support is a "want to have". Since I'm toying with the idea of connecting this PC at my desk (2.1 analog speakers) instead of my home theater, having a stereo analog output option is a "nice to have".

I was thinking of getting the ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 Slim. A couple of questions:

Anyone know what the power consumption of this card is? I don't have to worry about the 10W limitation since this card isn't PCI Express, but still think that it would be good to know. I'm pretty tight on power in this setup.

I'm going to see if my case has an Intel HD Audio / AC97 front panel audio connector. According to this Dell document, it sounds like the front panel audio might be a standard 10-pin connector instead of something proprietary. But I'm not home right now to confirm. For argument's sake let's say that my case does NOT have this standard connector. Does anyone know of a PCI bracket-type connector for front-panel audio?

What do you think of my plan? Anyone have a better suggestion for a audio card?

Thanks!
Frank

FrankLesniak · 07-14-2010, 04:41 | posts: 6 | Location: Melrose Park, IL

In case anyone is curious, I did buy the Zotac video card and the Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 Slim audio card mentioned above. All is well with this setup...

However, the Optiplex 960 that I have uses a nonstandard front panel audio connector. It looks to be the same pinout as normal front panel audio, except that the connector has 2mm pitch (pin spacing) instead of the standard 0.1" (2.54mm) pitch. Thanks Dell! Ugh. Maybe I could make an adapter?

After some measurements with my digital calipers, I'm 99% sure that the header (connector piece attached to the front panel audio cable) is a Tarng Yu Enterprise Co Ltd TU2005HNO-2x05. This header matches up with a Tarng Yu "wafer" (connector piece attached to the motherboard) part TYU2005WNV-2x05-M6.

Now... how do I obtain the "wafer" piece?

FrankLesniak · 07-15-2010, 04:22 | posts: 6 | Location: Melrose Park, IL

I found this part: JST Sales America B10B-PHDSS(LF)(SN)(P)

Seems like it might be compatible? And it's in-stock at Digi-Key

GenClaymore · 07-15-2010, 04:54 | posts: 5,082 | Location: Michigan,usa

The Forte comes with a low-profile bracket besides the standard bracket.