Following the unsurprising announcement that Cake are ceasing support for XP with X2, I have stepped up to Win 7 64 bit. I have migrated my current Saffire sound card to the new PC.
 
My question has anybody got a suggestion as to what I can put on/in the old machine so I can use it for play back and possibly some editing of old projects and CD build duties.  The on board sound card is just slightly worse than useless with unbelievable system noise leakage.
 
Nothing too fancy is required just something that gives a reasonable sound quality.  It will feed a spare channel on my mixer out to my mains.
 
Many thanks in anticipation.

 I still use an old office computer for some wave lab editing and to cross reference mixes through a home stereo, and I use my old Sound Blaster audigy II PCI card.
I think any $30-$60 PCI ( e) sound card will work as an upgrade to crappy on board. No point in buying a $100 USB interface for output.
Some even have RCA jacks like the Sound Baster.
I also have a  $30 ASUS PCI sound card that sounds great that we use for watching movies and it's our home stereo system. It's only mini jack.

Here's my quick test of on board / PCI sound card quality.

Open Wave Lab  or any good quality wave editor.
Disable the Mike input
Turn up the line in with control panel ( Creative  has it's own mixer )
Don't plug anything in!
Put the software in Record mode and observe the meter and Phase scope.
You'll soon see if the system has a terrible noise floor. Most do.
Some you'll see little spikes from hardware and DPCLAT stuff.
I was pleasantly surprised that my Asus laptop was dead quiet and that's a friggin, realtech!

Thanks, the noise floor is appalling.  Never noticed when my Saffire was plugged in as the on-board was disabled.

I will look around in the Inter web

Besides the mic input (as proposed by sock monkey) it might help to mute *all* the inputs except wave. ** Another thing to try would be to move the wires that connect the MB sound connector to the panel.

bvideo


Besides the mic input (as proposed by sock monkey) it might help to mute *all* the inputs except wave. ** Another thing to try would be to move the wires that connect the MB sound connector to the panel.

Thanks Bvideo unfortunately the sound out is fixed to MoB.

My question has anybody got a suggestion as to what I can put on/in the old machine so I can use it for play back and possibly some editing of old projects and CD build duties.  The on board sound card is just slightly worse than useless with unbelievable system noise leakage.

Companies are blowing out the Audiophile 192 right now ~$85.
That would be perfect for your scenario...

As the Monkey said, any PCI(e?) sound card is a good upgrade from the MoBo card. They used to be $20-$50 depending on if you got 5.1 etc. Here's a whole page of 'em. 


http://www.newegg.ca/Stor...7&name=Sound-Cards