[grizzancs]

Hi!
 
I have been reading head-fi.org for a long time, as I'm interested in high(er) quality audio.
 
2 weeks ago I finally decided about my starting gear:
 
- Sennheiser HD 555 (now with Foam-mod)
- Xonar Essence STX
 
Unfortunately, after I've plugged in the STX (with the additinal power cable it needed), my VGA ( Sapphire ATI Radeon 5850 ) was no longer recognized by my motherboard ( GIGABYTE GA-880GMA-UD2H ), tried other slots, no success.
 
They both work alone. I could not try other cards in my computer, and could not try the same combo in another computer.
 
If someone encountered the same error, please help me.
 
However, as I don't have the resources to debug what's wrong, buy new motherboard, etc, I've decided to sell the STX.
 
I've tested lossless music with lots of detail both with onboard audio (ALC892), and both with the STX, and surprisingly, I could not hear any difference, not even with songs which have lots of bass! (Yes, I used the headphone-out ) I knew the HD555 does not necessarily need an AMP, but I thought there's more difference with a better DAC. Both have stunning sound.
 
Is this specific onboard stuff really that good?
 
I'm thinking on buying a used Creative X-fi Xtreme Music (PCI), just for the 3d positioning and EAX, is there any chance that it will be worse, than the onboard one?
 
Thank you!

 

[grizzancs]

Also, fellow STX  + 5850 + AMD CPU users - please post your motherboard (and exact vga model), I have not given up entirely, I might try to sell my motherboard.

 

[dmac03]

What PSU do you have?
 
Perhaps it can't supply enough juice on the used rails. This may be another possibility other than a mobo incompatibility.

 

[grizzancs]

Corsair HX620, should be more than enough.

 

[grizzancs]

Well, it seems I can sell my STX ( :'( ) , and my VGA hides my PCI slot, so I'll probably buy a PCI-E card, if I can try one out for compatibility.
 
And if I'll upgrade headphones, I'll get some correct equipment.
 
Thanks for your reading anyway.

 

[luminouslight]

Sounds more like a problem with the motherboard and not the cards.  Have you tried resetting the CMOS to see if there could be some bug in there with the settings? (You will loose all existing BIOS settings, but on my Gigabyte Motherboard, I am able to save profile settings, which remain after resetting the CMOS).

 

[beeman458]

FWIW, the STX is a PCI-E card.
 
???

 

[grizzancs]

Quote:

Sounds more like a problem with the motherboard and not the cards.  Have you tried resetting the CMOS to see if there could be some bug in there with the settings? (You will loose all existing BIOS settings, but on my Gigabyte Motherboard, I am able to save profile settings, which remain after resetting the CMOS).

I tried that now. Unfortunately, it didn't work, but thanks for the idea.


 
Quote:

FWIW, the STX is a PCI-E card.
 
???

I meant that it physically hides the PCI slot, so I can try only PCI-E cards (so the card I mentioned - the Xtreme Music - is not an option anymore.)

 

[KnightOfAwesome]

Just out of curiosity, have you disabled the onboard video and the onboard audio?
Looking at your motherboard, you have one PCI-E x1 and two PCI-E x16 slots, have you tried sticking the video card in the bottom most PCI-E x16 and the sound card in the one just above it?
 
Seems same problem here : http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?board_id=21&model=Xonar%20Essence%20STX&id=20100814162405093&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

 

[grizzancs]

Quote:

Just out of curiosity, have you disabled the onboard video and the onboard audio?
Looking at your motherboard, you have one PCI-E x1 and two PCI-E x16 slots, have you tried sticking the video card in the bottom most PCI-E x16 and the sound card in the one just above it?
 
Seems same problem here : http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?board_id=21&model=Xonar%20Essence%20STX&id=20100814162405093&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

Yup, I have tried to disable them (before, and now, after the CMOS reset).
 
The second 16x PCI-E slot runs only on 4x speed, according to the manual, but yes I've tried it.
 
The same problem on ASUS forums was written by me.
 

 

[dmac03]

Have you tried putting the stx in one of the pci-e x16 slots?

 

[KnightOfAwesome]

That explains why it was so similar
 
Getting a new motherboard wont help, The ATi card has built in HDMI with audio out right? Try disabling it in windows, or any possible way. That could be the conflict.

 

[grizzancs]

Quote:

Have you tried putting the stx in one of the pci-e x16 slots?

Yes, same symptom.

 
Quote:

That explains why it was so similar
 
Getting a new motherboard wont help, The ATi card has built in HDMI with audio out right? Try disabling it in windows, or any possible way. That could be the conflict.

That could be disabled only in windows, but I have no signal from VGA since boot, so I don't think that could help. (But if I had the card, I'd try this ofc)
 
However, yesterday I sold my STX to someone (it works there, he said), and I have bought a Creative X-Fi Titanium. Everything is okay with this. Strange...
 
Thanks for your help and ideas!
 
Oh, no one said yet! But I'm already sorry about my wallet.