Using 2 sound cards - on board and installed

bdonedge

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Jul 4, 2009
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Does anyone know if it is possible to have a seperate sound card from your on board, but use both? I have a sound card I use for recording
and it doesn't have 1/8" input for headphones or desktop microphone. I use them for gaming which is often, but I can use my other soundcard to run through my stereo. I'd like to use both and switch back and forth when I deem necessary, so is that an option?



Here is my setup right now, and it might be a little easier to understand:

I have one computer I game on which I use onboard sound with. I use 3.5mm headphones and desktop microphone through it

My second computer
is an old piece of *** I have my super nice sound card hooked up to. It has ONLY component and HD audio input/outputs. It doesn't have a single 3.5mm connection on the entire thing. Only RCA, etc. On that computer, because the sound card drivers make it so that it is the main card, I am unable to use 3.5mm audio equipment.

I want to take that card and put it into my main rig because I want to get rid of this old computer and give it to my dad. But if I put it in my main rig, the drivers will make it so the sound card is the default and it will automatically uninstall the onboard drivers, making the 3.5mm connections useless. Basically i'd like to know if there are other ways to make the onboard audio work simultaneously with the other sound card
 

mibix19

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Feb 8, 2010
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Hi found this post but no answer as yet If I find anything will post.



I have multiple sound cards in my PC without any hitches...A creative X-Fi, a Yamaha SW1000XG (plus analog daughter board), and the motherboard's AC97 chip.

To mix the sound outputs, you could feed the output of one card back into the line-in of another, or as I do, use an external mixer.