How do you guys feel about having 2 sound cards at once

fireberd said:

In most cases you can only have one "default" device for any sound function. e,g, if you select one sound card for "playback" then you won't hear any "playback" on the other sound card (or Integrated Audio chip).

And the only way around that is if the program(s) you are using have the option in them to select an audio device other than the Windows default (Winamp for example does). And even then there is no guarantee that it will work.

fireberd said:

In most cases you can only have one "default" device for any sound function. e,g, if you select one sound card for "playback" then you won't hear any "playback" on the other sound card (or Integrated Audio chip).

I guess that depends on the software, most programs I use, (Sound Forge, Cubase, Winamp) all have driver setup panels that allow use of any audio device available to the system.

One of the main reasons for a separate audio card is sound, almost any third party audio hardware, whether pcie, pci, usb or firewire, sounds cleaner and more accurate than the $2 audio chip built into the MB.

Ap

Yea i really want it for my speakers. i hate that i have to turn my knob more than half way out to get the sound pumping, when i put it on my xonar and its a bit of the way up and its blaring along with better quality.

I have my main PC set up for recording and have a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 firewire audio recording interface BUT it is ONLY for Sonar, not for "regular" PC sound.

i guess im going to give it a shot, see how it runs for a while, if i start having any problems i know where to point 2