diff --git a/SConstruct b/SConstruct
index 36111f81b3..a97894315d 100644
--- a/SConstruct
+++ b/SConstruct
@@ -186,7 +186,9 @@ env['CPPDEFINES'] = cppDefines
 tests = {'CheckWXConfig' : wxconfig.CheckWXConfig,
          'CheckPKGConfig' : utils.CheckPKGConfig,
          'CheckPKG' : utils.CheckPKG,
-         'CheckSDL' : utils.CheckSDL}
+         'CheckSDL' : utils.CheckSDL,
+         'CheckPortaudio' : utils.CheckPortaudio,
+         }
 
 build_dir = os.path.join('Build', platform.system() + '-' + platform.machine() + '-' + env['flavor'] + os.sep)
 VariantDir(build_dir, '.', duplicate=0)
@@ -206,9 +208,7 @@ env['HAVE_BLUEZ'] = conf.CheckPKG('bluez')
 env['HAVE_AO'] = conf.CheckPKG('ao')
 
 # needed for mic
-env['HAVE_PORTAUDIO'] = 0
-if conf.CheckPKG('portaudio') and conf.CheckCHeader("portaudio.h"):
-    env['HAVE_PORTAUDIO'] = 1;
+env['HAVE_PORTAUDIO'] =  conf.CheckPortaudio(1890)
 
 # sfml
 env['HAVE_SFML'] = 0
diff --git a/SconsTests/utils.py b/SconsTests/utils.py
index d507aca3ab..58078c6c75 100644
--- a/SconsTests/utils.py
+++ b/SconsTests/utils.py
@@ -83,6 +83,25 @@ def CheckSDL(context, version):
             context.env.ParseConfig('sdl-config --cflags --libs')
         return int(ret)
     
+def CheckPortaudio(context, version):
+    context.Message( 'Checking for lib portaudio version > %s... ' % version)
+    context.env.Append(LIBS = 'portaudio')
+    found  = context.TryRun("""
+              #include <portaudio.h>
+              #include <stdio.h>
+              int main(int argc, char **argv) {
+                printf("%d", Pa_GetVersion());
+                return 0;
+              }
+              """, '.c')[1]
+
+    ret = (found and (version <= found))
+
+    context.Result(ret)
+    return int(ret)
+
+
+    
 def GenerateRevFile(flavour, template, output):
 
     try: