audio for two drives ?

[jcavant]

I just ordered a K8N Neo Platinum motherboard and plan to just use it's onboard sound. But, I am using a dvd drive and a cd-r/rw drive and I'm not sure how you connect the audio for both drives. Anyone know how or have suggestions? They would be much appreciated.

 

[boshuter]

You don't have to do anything, just hook the drives up and windows will handle the audio. I haven't used audio cables on my drives for a long time.

 

[jcavant]

Thanks man ! But, how does the audio get sent ? Through the ide cable?

 

[capricorn]

For playing regular DVDs and audio CDs you'll use a 4 pin audio cable (unless you are using digital audio) to connect the drives to the motherboard. I don't have any specifics about your motherboard, but on most, there will be at least one 4 pin connector on the other end. Something like this one from NewEgg. On your motherboard they might have audio connections for things like CD1 and CD2 or just CD and AUX. You then just have to make sure that audio input is not muted in your volume controls (as AUX often is, by default).

Some motherboards might have three pin audio connectors, in which case, you want this one instead. If you are already using these drives in your current set and can play audio CDs, you probably already have these cables. Some OEM drives do ship without them. My problem is that they ship ones that are too short, so I end up buy these 24" ones.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: boshuter
You don't have to do anything, just hook the drives up and windows will handle the audio. I haven't used audio cables on my drives for a long time.

Yup - WinXP (and some other OSes, not sure which ones specifically) uses digital audio, which transfers the audio data right over the IDE cable.

 

[capricorn]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: boshuter
You don't have to do anything, just hook the drives up and windows will handle the audio. I haven't used audio cables on my drives for a long time.

Yup - WinXP (and some other OSes, not sure which ones specifically) uses digital audio, which transfers the audio data right over the IDE cable.

Hmm. If that's so, I've been wasting a whole $4 on my last couple systems. I knew that was true for things like MP3, since they are really just read as data. I still thought CD and DVD audio was over the wires though. I'm getting ready to build a new system myself, so I'll have to try that.

 

[jcavant]

Thanks guys for taking the time out to help out. I really appreciate it.

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Yup - WinXP (and some other OSes, not sure which ones specifically) uses digital audio, which transfers the audio data right over the IDE cable.

Welcome to Anandtech also.

 

[jcavant]

I installed XP home and it didn't work (no sound). Is there a way to manually get it to read this way (over the ide cables)?

 

[Feep]

Does sound work for anything or just not the drives. Chances are you just need to appropriate driver for your onboard sound.

 

[Feep]

does the sound work for anything, or is it just not working for the drives, chances are you just need to install the appropriate sound drivers for you mb, go to the manufacturers website, or use the cd that came w/ the mb.

 

[Feep]

sorry about that, the thing said i couldnt post for 15 secs, i didnt know that post would still show up so i did it again,
mods- feel free to delete one of them.

 

[jcavant]

I installed the audio drivers already and ther is no sound on windows load up, I haven't tried a dvd or game yet.

 

[boshuter]

go into control panel and look in sounds and audio devices. Look around in there and make sure the volume is turned up, your correct hardware is recognized, speakers configured properly, etc, etc, etc. Also, make sure you speakers are plugged into the right port on your motherboard. You may also want to look in device manager and see if your audio hardware is working correctly (no "?").