Alternative Mounting Solutions, PCI-e Soundcard

D

Deeky

Gawd
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Feb 7, 2008
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I'm considering alternative methods of mounting a PCI-e soundcard, in this case an Auzentech Home Theatre HD 7.1. It needs to be a secure and safe solution as it's an expensive piece of hardware. First and foremost, I want to keep the card as far away from all the EFI and nonsense going on inside the case as my speakers and headphones are quite sensitive. I have some buzzing issues, my 285 GTX refuses to play nice, and there's only one PCI-e slot available to me (right next to the video card). I was initially looking at simply moving the card away from the GPU using this, but I've been unable to devise a safe alternative method of mounting it internally, not being able to employ the usual backpanel slots and screw mounts. My next thought was getting some kind of enclosure and mounting it externally, but the cheapest solution I can find would be a micro or small form tower of some kind. Even then, I would have to daisy chain at least two of the PCI-e extender ribbons to reach and I'm not sure how that would effect performance.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
 
So which one you're wanting to keep away from the card...

Is PC in grounded outlet?
And have you disabled Spread Spectrum settings in BIOS?

As one option you try to find EMI shielding paper for covering back side of the card. (just make sure paper's surface isn't conductive)
 
:D Indeed, the pesky Equestrian Federation of Ireland is messing with my audio. AGAIN.

Yup. The outlet is grounded. I have no idea what Spread Spectrum is! I'll look into it.

I've finally found a budget solution: I placed a piece of electrical tape over the bracket on the inside, between the card's PCB and the bracket itself. This reduced the buzz to near zero. The card is still sitting right next to an extremely hot 285, which I'm not crazy about, but some strategic placement of additional electrical tape will likely solve the issue entirely.

Thanks!
 
honestly no matter what you do the card and computer is still being powered by a switching supply... adding those long ribbons could mess with bus timing and introduce errors/jitter... your best bet is using digital out and an outboard dac
 
Deeky said:
I've finally found a budget solution: I placed a piece of electrical tape over the bracket on the inside, between the card's PCB and the bracket itself. This reduced the buzz to near zero.
Click to expand...
You mean between case and card's bracket? Slot "cover" is attached to PCB with screws and probably also to card's ground plane so some insulation in elsewhere shouldn't affect to that.

But regardless that would still make it look like somekind grounding related problem.
 
Nope. I mean between the card and the bracket, not the bracket and the case. I spent 4 days trying to isolate the bracket from the case, no dice. As soon as I placed tape between the bracket and the card itself, that's when the buzzing stopped.
 
I've already sent the paperwork and received my RMA number this morning. I'm shipping it off this afternoon.
 
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