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Best way to organize USB AUDIO OUTPUT from PC ?

mbtrack
Level 7

‎04-22-2019 05:52 PM - last edited on ‎03-06-2024 08:20 PM by Community Admin

Hi!

Today I was wondering if the way of connecting a USB cable from my external soundcard to PC matter or not.
I can connect my external soundcard to PC using 2 global ways:

1) Using standard motherboard USB outputs
1.a)
USB Outputs on the back panel of motherboard USB2.0/3.0
1.b)
USB Outputs on the motherboard connectors like USB2.0/3.0 outputs for the front panel.

2) Using PCI-e USB card
2.a)
Using CPU PCI-e slots
2.b)
Using PCH PCI-e slots

In all of these ways USB bandwidth may be processed by different controllers and go thru different data paths.
Which of these 4 ways: 1.a, 1.b, 2.a, 2.b is the best for the cleanest, uninterrupted, less-noise USB audio transportation and why?
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8 REPLIES 8

mbtrack
Level 7

‎04-22-2019 09:39 PM

Hi!

I have ASUS MAXIMUS VIII RANGER motherboard.

I use my computer for high-quality music playback, and I'm interested in the best possible USB audio OUTPUT from my PC to external DAC and external sound cards. I have one external DAC and two external soundcards. 3 USB ports dedicated to external USB audio devices.

Today I was wondering if the way of connecting a USB cables from my external soundcards to PC matter or not.
I can connect my external soundcards to PC using 2 global ways:

1) Using standard motherboard USB outputs
1.a)
USB2.0/3.0 outputs on the back panel of the motherboard :
KBMS_USB78
USB910
USB3.1_EC1
USB3.1_EA2
USB3_56
1.b)
USB2.0/3.0 outputs on the motherboard itself for the front panel:
USB3_34, USB3_12, USB1314, USB1112

2) Using a dedicated PCI-e USB card
There are many PCI-e x1 into 4 USB ports cards.
In the first PCIEX_X16/X8_1 CPU PCI slot I have GTX1080, and I cannot use second CPU PCIEX_X8_2 slot for PCI-e USB card because first x16 slot switches into x8 mode.
Because of that, I can use only PCH PCI slots for dedicated PCI-e USB card:
PCIEX1_1
PCIEX1_2
PCIEX1_3
PCIEX4_3

In all of these ways, USB bandwidth may be processed by different controllers and go thru different data paths, may interfere with my SSD and so on.

Which of these 3 ways: 1.a, 1.b, 2 is the best for the cleanest, uninterrupted, less-noise USB audio transportation and why?
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xeromist
Moderator
In response to mbtrack

‎04-23-2019 09:41 AM

If you are not getting any skips in your audio then there isn't a problem. USB is digital so it's not possible to get static. Audio requires so little bandwidth (even lossless) that it's not really something to worry about. I would arrange things so they best fit your workflow, wire routing, etc.
A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…
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Retired
Not applicable

‎04-23-2019 01:36 AM

mbtrack, can you present the name of the model here? 🙂
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mbtrack
Level 7
In response to Retired

‎04-23-2019 12:22 PM

AS185 wrote:
mbtrack, can you present the name of the model here? 🙂

I have ASUS MAXIMUS VIII RANGER motherboard.
Or what u mean by model?
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Retired
Not applicable
In response to mbtrack

‎04-24-2019 02:49 AM

mbtrack wrote:
I have ASUS MAXIMUS VIII RANGER motherboard.
Or what u mean by model?


I meant the model name of the audio device 🙂
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xeromist
Moderator

‎04-23-2019 05:19 PM

I noticed there were two threads for this. I merged them. Please maintain one thread per issue. Thanks.
A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…
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Tacoboy
Level 7

‎04-28-2019 01:44 PM

mbtrack wrote:
Hi!
Today I was wondering if the way of connecting a USB cable from my external sound card to PC matter or not.
I can connect my external sound card to PC using 2 global ways:
1) Using standard motherboard USB outputs
USB Outputs on the back panel of motherboard USB2.0/3.0USB Outputs on the motherboard connectors like USB2.0/3.0 outputs for the front panel.
In all of these ways USB bandwidth may be processed by different controllers and go thru different data paths.
Which of these 4 ways: 1.a, 1.b, 2.a, 2.b is the best for the cleanest, uninterrupted, less-noise USB audio transportation and why?

Really should not matter which USB port (2.0, 3.0, 3.1, etc) you use to connect the PC to the external sound card.
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Supr4
Level 7

‎04-29-2019 11:11 AM

usb induce input lag/latency, i had issues with gaming, fps issues, inconsistent mouse sensitivity etc. i have a creative X7 dac. use toslink from the motherboard it's far better and quality is the same.
i think pci express isn't perfect too since it's still an external peripherical, there is still some latency involved and it's not as fast as integrated + toslink, don't remember precisely from the time i had a xonar soundcard.
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