Computer sound cards and RAM

TSMyers · May 26

I have two Laptop Computers Laptop 1 was a Windows 7 machine that I upgraded to Windows 10, it cannot be upgraded to Windows 11. Laptop 2 was a Windows 10 machine that has been updated to Windows 11.

Laptop 1 has been my go to computer with my new Flex 8400, I like using the laptop headphone jack for connecting my headset and also the BT dongle for freedom from wires. While that started out working great I have noticed that after only a few minute of use my TX as heard on a local Kiwi SDR is garbled and not readable. I have had this same issue with two Gaming type headsets. My first thoughts were the weak sound card built into my laptop. This laptop is about 8 years old.

I decided to try an experiment and loaded SSDR onto laptop 2, which is a newer laptop with Windows 11 and possible a better built in sound card. I did so using the BT headset and was able to work a full net with reports from others that they noticed no difference from me using the hand mic that came with my Flex. I did notice that when laptop 2 was accessing other files or something in the browser that the RX on the Flex was choppy with hesitation, almost like a choppy lag.

I do know that while Laptop 1 has 16 GB of Ram, Laptop 2 only has 8 GB of Ram. Neither are big power houses but I expect more Ram would help Laptop 2 with the rough audio.

My plan is to upgrade laptop 2 with a 1TB SSD, and 32GB of Ram, and turn it into my primary computer.

Does this sound like a good path moving forward and do my conclusions make sense?

KD0RC · May 26

That may or may not be a good conclusion. Often, performance is more impacted by network robustness than by compute power. Try plugging your laptop directly into the radio using an Ethernet cable. Both the radio and computer will need to be restarted.

If that solves the issue, then you know that you have network issues to deal with. If it does not help, then there is a good chance that more memory will make it better.

Also try without BlueTooth to see if that smooths things out. I have not had great luck with BT devices, so I tend to just use wired audio equipment.

How many cores and processors do your laptops have? Go to Windows Task Manager and select the performance tab. The lower right-hand section should have this info:

Mine is a core i9 with 32 GB of RAM. The 16 logical processors ensure that I don't run out of compute power for everything that I like to run. Note that SmartSDR itself does not take a lot of power, it is all the other things like Skimmers, digital programs, etc. that require the computing oomph.

TSMyers · May 26

I did look for a comparison and found this, the i7 is the older and the i5 is the newer, but I will try plugging into the headphone port to see if the lag is still there, good idea

See Below

The Intel Core i5-8265U significantly outperforms the older Core i7-5600U.
Released three years later, the i5 features 4 cores and 8 threads
compared to the i7's 2 cores and 4 threads. This gives the i5 roughly
double the multi-core processing power, making it noticeably faster and
more capable for modern multitasking. Key Comparisons

Feature	Intel Core i7-5600U	Intel Core i5-8265U
Release Year	2015	2018
Cores / Threads	2 Cores / 4 Threads	4 Cores / 8 Threads
Base Clock	2.60 GHz	1.60 GHz
Boost Clock	Up to 3.20 GHz	Up to 3.90 GHz

Computer sound cards and RAM

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