Moderator: Thanas
) I've looked at some, but I really don't know too much about sound cards, so help would be great.
Most people will be happy with onboard sound these days, but if you have expensive speakers/headphones then onboard just isn't going to cut it. Most good consumer cards use either VIA's Envy24 sound chip or Creative's emu10k2 (basically Audigy 2/Audigy 2 ZS). For standard multimedia use, you should be looking at the following cards:
Stereo listening: Chaintech AV-710 (~$30)
Games: Audigy 2 ZS ($90)
Multichannel listening: M-Audio Revolution 5.1/7.1 ($75/$90)
The Audigy cards will have poorer analog sound quality than the Envy24 ones, but they offer hardware sound acceleration support in most games as well as EAX DSP effects. In contrast, you'll be doing sound processing in software with an Envy24 card. This isn't as big a deal as it sounds, however, since most games today offer software DSP effects that sound just as good as Creative's EAX stuff, and the performance hit from letting the CPU do the work is reasonably small on modern systems. Overall, the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 is probably the most versatile, considering the good multichannel DAC and reduced CPU usage in games compared to other Envy24 cards.
Having gone from an Audigy to a the low end X-Fi, I'd say get the X-Fi. Yes, its ~$120 for the Extreme Music, but it sounds a hell of a lot better than my Audigy did, and it has much better drivers. I'm using Klipsch Promedia, BTW.Beowulf wrote:I'd go with a 5.1 system. Probably the Klipsch Promedia 5.1. Also, I think the X-Fi is just stupidly insane. An Audigy would probably serve you well enough.
Heheh, I already have them and they're LodgitechThe Kernel wrote:First off, why do you want 7.1 channel speakers? Unless you really need those extra two channels, the best models are of the 5.1 variety. If you really want 7.1 channels, have a look at the Megaworks line, although I really think you should save yourself the money and go with a high performance set of 5.1's (Logitech has a nice range of these).
. I'm getting into music a lot now, and I'm starting to make it. One of my friends has two PCs, one with 7.1 and the other is 5.1. I've listend to both and decided that I'd want the 7.1 for music making/listening. Come on, who doesn't like more Powah? It may be a bit much, but who wouldn't like to feel their insides shake from the bass goodness? Dunno, just something I would like to have.
