Soundcard for Mac Pro

[hidea]

I currently have the Audigy 2 ZS on my PC. I am wondering if I can bring that in onto my Mac Pro (AFAIK, it's PCI). I've tried looking up creative's website for driver support, there seems to be none.

 

[robbieduncan]

Mac Pros do not have any PCI slots. They only have PCI Express slots. There are electrically different. Putting a PCI card in there would probably damage the Mac Pro and the PCI card.

And there are no drivers for those cards anyway (at least that I am aware of).

 

[Sun Baked]

A lot of people switched to USB and FW devices with the switch to the Mac Pro, however digging around in the Studio Gear section of Logic Pro on Apple's site may yield some PCI Express cards that work with the Mac Pro.

Of course they won't be as cheap as a soundblaster card either.

 

[iW00t]

There are currently no PCI-e sound cards, so you might be SOL if you want to use a different card. Why not stick with the integrated one?

You may also consider buying one of those firewire sound "cards".

 

[WildPalms]

...or as CHEAP as a SoundBlaster. The onboard is superior to the garbage Creative has been pushing out for years.

 

[2ndPath]

I have read about PCI to PCIe adapters in another thread. I don't know wether it works but thought you might want to know about this.

 

[Sun Baked]

That is likely a chip for $20.

Get the chip, and you can convert you PCI card design to a PCI Express design.

aka, a quick and dirty method for Soundblaster to turn an old PCI card into a PCI Express card without starting over.

 

[Sesshi]

I have read about PCI to PCIe adapters in another thread. I don't know wether it works but thought you might want to know about this.

He presumably Googled it and assumed a little too much.

You're SOL for a decent all-purpose (including gaming) soundcard. The onboard is the same quality / ability to be found on an upper-midrange motherboard from late '05 on the Windows side - so not spectacular by any means, and the ZS will easily trump it on a number of parameters.

There's plenty of options for HTPC duties though in the form of external soundcards.

 

[floam]

.

 

[CanadaRAM]

There are currently no PCI-e sound cards, so you might be SOL if you want to use a different card. Why not stick with the integrated one?

MOTU PCIe 424 is shipping (March 2006)

Pic