PCI-E Sound Card on SuperMicro X11SPH-nCTF

[centaur]

Hello everyone,
What sound card would you sugest to me for server MB SuperMicro X11SPH-nCTF ?

It would be nice to have optical output but it is not necessary

Thanks in advance.

Regards

 

[RTM]

So... some obvious questions:

• What are you looking for? (to give a few examples: some sort of professional quality recording card? or just some basic stuff to play music?)
• Does it have to be internal? (it seems to me, that external USB DACs have come a long way, to in my opinion being preferable over internal cards)
• Budget? How much are you looking to spend

With that in mind, I suggest you look through some of the various forums/sites dedicated to sound stuff (i believe head-fi.org is a good place to start) and look for what is currently popular and fits your requirements.

I am not currently all that aware of what is good and what isn't but it seems to me that the FiiO K3 is, affordable, reasonably popular (in terms of reviews on amazon) and has an optical output.

EDIT: and something else to consider: what OS will you use it with? obviously you want to ensure that there is driver support for whatever you get.

 

[MBastian]

If you want to build an workstation and if sound output is just for youtube and the occasional game there is no need for an dedicated card. Any halfway modern graphics card can push audio though the hdmi/dp link. My current setup is an x9dri-ln4f+ with to Nvidia cards(1650/1070) one for the host (Arch Linux) on for my Windows 10 VM. Both card will happily push audio to my main display, which has an audio out port. If I want the full surround/woofer shebang my receiver is connected to a free HDMI port.

 

[i386]

I like my usb m-audio interface

(With all the nics, gpu(s) and (nvme) ssds I would not go back to an internal sound card and "waste" one precious pcie slot.

 

[TXAG26]

I have a $25 Creative Labs Sound Blaster Play 3 USB dongle for audio on my workstation and have been happy with it. Saves a PCIE slot too!

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[centaur]

Thank you everyone.
OS will be Server 2019 and I have GPU with HDMI so I will try to use that output in the beggining.

I have a $25 Creative Labs Sound Blaster Play 3 USB dongle for audio on my workstation and have been happy with it. Saves a PCIE slot too!

I like this External sound card and if needed, I will probably use it, thanks.