Shielded sound card

[Pugsicle]

I have what I assume is coil whine coming from either my gpu or psu and I can hear it through my headphones. I can even hear it when I move my mouse around on my desktop. Would a shielded sound card help block it? If so which one would you recommend?

[Altecice]

Onboard Soundcards in motherboards are very well shielded from the rest of the motherboard purely for this reason. That is why if you may end up with a worse experience with a soundcard than the motherboard's onboard sound card.

[Godlygamer23]

You're better off moving the audio signal away from the hardware instead of purchasing something with a shield on it. A DAC would work.

[Pugsicle]

You're better off moving the audio signal away from the hardware instead of purchasing something with a shield on it. A DAC would work.

How would this work? Wouldn't the signal still be coming from the same location, just with the DAC in between?

[Godlygamer23]

How would this work? Wouldn't the signal still be coming from the same location, just with the DAC in between?

The DAC would be on the outside. What I imagine is happening is when the signal is converted over to analog, the EMI(I think it's EMI) leaks into the analog signal causing distortion. When the signal is going to the DAC, it's still digital until the DAC does its own work. As long as the 1s and 0s can still be perceived, EMI won't do anything.

[Enderman]

Onboard Soundcards in motherboards are very well shielded from the rest of the motherboard purely for this reason. That is why if you may end up with a worse experience with a soundcard than the motherboard's onboard sound card.

un no, onboard sound always is worse than a PCIe sound card

the audio tracks on the motherboard are mm away from the power circuitry which is what causes the EMI

 

PCIe sounds cards have the DAC circuits lifted off the motherboard by several centimeters which removes almost all of the EMI

but the absolute best option is to use an external DAC and put that far away from all cables

[Pugsicle]

The DAC would be on the outside. What I imagine is happening is when the signal is converted over to analog, the EMI(I think it's EMI) leaks into the analog signal causing distortion.

So would something like this work? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LP3AMC2/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687442&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B005VO7LG6&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0G0X0S9HZ3N8WEGGAZ70

[Godlygamer23]

PCIe sounds cards have the DAC circuits lifted off the motherboard by several centimeters which removes almost all of the EMI

but the absolute best option is to use an external DAC and put that far away from all cables

However, I had a Recon3D sound card from Creative with no physical shield and I got EMI from my 660 Ti in certain areas, like zooming in BL2. When I got my SoundBlaster Z, the EMI went away.

[Enderman]

How would this work? Wouldn't the signal still be coming from the same location, just with the DAC in between?

The DAC would be on the outside. What I imagine is happening is when the signal is converted over to analog, the EMI(I think it's EMI) leaks into the analog signal causing distortion.

 

whatever is used it will always have a DAC (digital to analogue converter) because your PC is digital and the sound you hear is analogue, and some place it needs to switch

onboard audio switches it at the motherboard, a sound card switches it a bit farter away on a PCIe card, and an external DAC switches it outside your case

EMI (electromagnetic interference) is from power circuitry inside your PC distorting the analogue part of the audio

 

digital is not affected

so by having the DAC farter away from the power circuitry you get less EMI

and that means that onboard > sound card > external DAC

in terms of EMI, external is the best, and onboard is the worst

 

personally I have used sound cards and found that they already get rid of almost all EMI even though they are still inside the case

[Godlygamer23]

[removed]

Video cards can still cause EMI, especially if that sound card sits above it as it did(and does) in my case. Also, I'm pretty sure I said what you said....just with less words.

[Enderman]

Video cards can still cause EMI, especially if that sound card sits above it as it did(and does) in my case. Also, I'm pretty sure I said what you said....just with less words.

yeah i was just elaborating on the subject

 

but putting sound cards in PCIe slots right beside a GPU is not the best idea either