[merc82]

I'm interested in a sound card for my laptop PC. Price and availability leave me with the SB Audigy 2 ZS PCMCIA, M-Audio Sonica 5.1 USB, SB Audigy 2 NX USB and Zalman ZM-RSSC USB (distant choice due to limited information).

My main use would be for for video soundtracks. I want to transfer 5.1 sound to my home theatre receiver. Because the video portion can be CPU intensive I'm concerned that the sound card doesn't add to this load. My belief is that the USB cards will tax the processor more than the PCMCIA. Can anyone comment on this? If this is true does the CPU load differ between the different USB models?

 

[rimmer]

Yes, the load varies based on model. Moreof, it varies mainly on the sound processing parameters and amount of data passing through. As for modern computers, the CPU utilization of both PCMCIA and USB is almost marginal for most use cases (like video playback).

 

[merc82]

Thanks for the reply. I see you have the M-Audio Transit which I guess is the replacement for the Sonica 5.1 with added audio in functionality. Do you have any experience playing DVDs or Divx/Xvid with 5.1 sound out through the Transit? The CPU can take a hit playing those compressed videos.

The more I read about Sound Blasters resampling to 44.1kHz to 48kHz and the sound quality hit the more I'm leaning towards M-Audio.

 

[rimmer]

Sonica Theater and Transit are not competing. Transit is able of only stereo analog out while Sonica of analog 7.1 afaik.

Have a look at Sonica and Transit at M-Audio web.

Edit: I was watching some movies on my Centrino 1.3 (equals about P4 1.8+) laptop with Transit but I never really noticed any special cpu load - 50% at most I think. Nothing to be afraid of.

 

[merc82]

Good to hear the CPU load wasn't significant.

I was actually referring to the Sonica 5.1 which no longer has a web page on M-Audio's site though the manuals are still available for download. There's a review and photo here, Sonica 5.1 review.

Thanks for the feed back.