Half height sound card

BarGin

I've just bought a half height sound card to fit in my Dell Inspiron 530S pc. The card I've got is a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio. My problem is that although the card is half height the back plate isn't and it won't fit in the pc. Is there anything I can do other than remove the back plate altogether?

Another problem I have is the digital output won't take a standard optical cable to connect to my surround sound amp - are there adapters available and if so what would they be called?

Any advice much appreciated.

BarGin

fwor

This a problem that I've seen with Hauppauge half-height TV cards. In that case, if you write/email Hauppauge UK they send you a replacement back plate in the post. You can probably get Creative's UK office to do likewise.

I'm not certain what you mean about the digital output. If you mean that the sound card has only a coax-based electrical digital out, and your AV amp only has optical in then you need something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/COAXIAL-COAX-TO-TOSLINK-OPTICAL-AUDIO-CABLE-CONVERTER-c_W0QQitemZ150202071000QQihZ005QQcategoryZ72406QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

That particular item comes from the States and seems a bit expensive, but I'm sure you should be able to find something cheaper from Hong Kong if you use a search like "SPDIF to TOSLINK" or "COAX to OPTICAL".

If the output on the card is not 75ohm coaxial, you'll need to be a bit careful, as there is some issue that I vaguely recall about voltage levels, but hopefully you won't have that problem...

ormus

i gave away a half height sound card to someone on here (or freecycle) last yr. he had to modify it (backplate) to fit his dell pc.