Many of the x-fi cards had front panel output that worked properly.

Yeah the X-Fi Titanium PCIe cards are the ones to look at.

I remember buying a cable/adapter to connect Audigy 2 ZS to the front panel connectors. Mine was being advertised as for an Audigy 2 ZS, but there are others, too.

https://www.ebay.com/p/Front-Panel-Audio-Adap … 0670/1776245877

There are some minor issues like not auto muting the external speakers when a headphone is connected to the front panel connectors but it' could be a cheap alternative.

X-Fi XtremeGamer is one card that has a standard Front Panel connector.

X-Fi Titanium cards were always the dream, but I can't find one for less than 90 bucks 🙁

Still, how were the SB 0730s in comparison (one of the XtremeGamer ones)? They're PCI instead of PCI-E, but that's no issue since I have a couple free.

I still have my old sound blaster X-FI stored. I didn't put it in my main PC when I built it in 2013, but I always wondered how it would compare to the on board audio of Asus Formula VI that the system has. I also don't know if it has standard front panel connector because the small manual that came with it doesn't say anything about that and just concentrates on the optional I/O drive upgrade.

ninkeo wrote:

they seem to force you to use Creative's 5.25 drivebay for it instead.

Yeah, that's exactly the case. THANKS, Obam.... I mean, Creative.

I looked at the pinout once to see about making my own adapter. It's mostly digital I/O, so you have to use an i2s DAC/ADC. You can't just hack up a cable and get analog audio to the front panel. Obnoxious. Every motherboard with cheap onboard audio had the header, but purpose-built sound cards? Noooooo. 😜

Baoran wrote:

I still have my old sound blaster X-FI stored. I didn't put it in my main PC when I built it in 2013, but I always wondered how it would compare to the on board audio of Asus Formula VI that the system has. I also don't know if it has standard front panel connector because the small manual that came with it doesn't say anything about that and just concentrates on the optional I/O drive upgrade.

x-fi.jpg

Seems as though the Titaniums are one of the cards that force you to use the I/O drive from my research. Similar story to most of the X-Fi cards except for the lower end ones it appears.

Now, I found the Audigy Rx series of cards. They're PCI-E but they've got a audio header on them too. Are these any good compared to the X-Fi cards? They still seem to be made nowadays which is nice

Some SB Live cards, especially OEM versions, have a white front panel connector for Dell PCs and whatnot but I have, to this day, not been able to figure out what type of connector they use..

appiah4 wrote:

Some SB Live cards, especially OEM versions, have a white front panel connector for Dell PCs and whatnot but I have, to this day, not been able to figure out what type of connector they use..

This might help:

https://www.ebay.com/p/Front-Panel-Audio-Adap … 0670/1776245877

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Fron … .9e4514f5Cb2zKp

appiah4 wrote:

Some SB Live cards, especially OEM versions, have a white front panel connector for Dell PCs and whatnot but I have, to this day, not been able to figure out what type of connector they use..

Lol, I hacked into one to get the sound out for the little speaker in one of my acer computers.

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/sb-li … o-jacks.257509/

More details here!

Oh wow thanks to both of you, this will sure be helpful. My main purpose is to route Live! through another sound card, and this will work beautifully.