$30 Sound Card Recommendations?

[mugenrsx]

My Logitech Z-560's will be here in a few days and I am wanting to upgrade my sound card. I don't play games and I listen to mp3s quite often. Which sound card best suits me and where will I be able to get it? I'm not sure if my integrated sound card on my HP Pavilon 750no) will allow me to run the speakers in 4.1 configuration or run at all. Will they even run in 2.1 configuration?

So far I have heard only good things about these cards:

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Chaintech AV-710

What other cards should I look into? What are their pros and cons?

Also, if any of you have sound cards for sale that are in good working order, I'll be more than happy to buy it from you. Keep in mind I am only upgrading my card because I have to. Thanks in advance everyone.

 

[airfoil]

Your choices.

 

[mugenrsx]

Originally posted by: airfoil
Your choices.

Out of those, which one would you pick? How do the models differ?

 

[clicknext]

Santa Cruz is just fine for listening to music, and the Audigy is too. Audigy, from what I heard, is slightly better at gaming, but since you don't need that...

And about your HP Pavillion, you should be able to at least get 2.1, but it probably won't sound nearly as good as a real sound card anyway.

 

[stevty2889]

I loved my turtle beach santa cruz, just recently replaced it with an M-audio revolution 7.1.

 

[zerodeefex]

chaintech can basically use different drivers to run as a m-audio revo.

 

[Algere]

Hmm never heard of that, I've heard it can be flashed and run off as a Prodigy 7.1 but it's only beneficial if your using digital out.
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Back on Topic

Santa Cruz is near or at it's end of it's life cycle.

AV-710 is recommended due to it's price for high quality 2 channel (stereo) output. It's not recommended for it's multichannel speaker output if sound quality is of importance in that area (in relation to the competition).

@ $30 I'd recommend Creative's "newer than SoundBlaster Live" sound cards which I don't remember off the top of my head. :frown:

 

[mugenrsx]

bump before bed