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I need a new, low-cost sound card.

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Ok, here's the deal. I have an Asus A7S333 with onboard sound. I get into 1942 and the sound immediately goes to hell and makes the game skip whenever a sound effect happens. I need a sound card that meets these requirements:

1) Cheap like under $30 if possible.
2) Games very well
3) Doesn't suck cpu cycles like a $2 wh0re
4) I only use headphones, so # of speaker output isn't vital
5) I may buy speakers someday (when the wife allows it) so it'll have to sound good on them too. But i'd probably have 2.1 or 4.1 at the most.

I've seen some card's available from AOpen, Chaintech, Pine, Sound Blaster Live, and Hercules in the under $30 pricerange. Are any of these worth my time or am I barking up the wrong tree. Let me know guys.
 
hercules maxisound?

let me look


ok here is what i found

Guillemot Hercules Fortissimo III 7.1 - OEM at newegg for 42 bucks
 
To answer your original question about barking up the wrong tree

Woof......Woof.....Woof....

Do like the rest of us....just buy one
 
Originally posted by: bendixG15
To answer your original question about barking up the wrong tree

Woof......Woof.....Woof....

Do like the rest of us....just buy one
Click to expand...

You were incredibly helpful for absolutely nothing. Be proud.
 
Nor did I ask for one, you cool all-knowing guy. I asked what people's opinions were. Obviously the concept evades you so leave my thread alone. Thanks. Bye. 🙂
 
surprised no one has mentioned it....i'm using a philips acoustic edge i bought off the fs/t forum for $20, and it is a GREAT card. i'm sure if you look around you can get one for cheap. it'll beat the crap out of the sound cards in its price range.
 
Well, I also use a Philips AE but I don't think you'll get one for $20 though. It's an
excellent card.

edit: If you want to spend an extra $15, you can get a TB Santa Cruz for $45 shipped.
Check this thread in the Hot Deals section if you're interested:

Link
 
I'd have to second the SB Live 5.1 OEM. Sure it's kind of old (compared to the Audigy and Audigy2) but as part of criteria #2, the Live works very well. There should be no problems using it with any of the newer VIA chipsets (works great with my KT266A board) and the drivers have gotten to a point where they are rock solid stable, and Creative stripped out the bloatware and spyware.
 
The A7S333 uses a C-media 8738 onboard audio. You will find the same chip on Hercules Muse XL, and those cards from AOpen, Chaintech and Pine. It's a extremely popular audio chip amongst motherboard makers.

I would suggest you download the latest drivers from the Windows Update Driver Catalog. The latest ones that were just released a few days ago are version 6.43.

To get drivers from the Windows Driver Catalog, just do the following...

1. Go to the Windows Update web site.
2. In the left pane, under Other Options, select 'Personalize Windows Update'.
3. Under 'Set Options for Windows Update', select the checkbox for 'Display the Link to Windows Update Catalog under 'See Also'', then click 'Save Settings'.
4. Go back to the Windows Update web site.
5. In the left pane, under 'See Also', select 'Windows Update Catalog'.
6. Select 'Find Driver Update for hardware devices".
7. Select "Sound" and then select "C-media"
8. Select the operating system (If you have Win98SE, select WinME - drivers for Win ME are newer!)
9. Select all of the patches/drivers you'd like to download, then click on 'Go to download basket' to download them.

Once you get the C-media 8738 working, it's quite a good soundcard, and the Sensaura 3D API has excellent gaming effects.


Cheers
 
Originally posted by: MDFusion
Philips SE 5.1 31.98 shipped from ebay
Click to expand...



Link Fixed 🙂

I just ordered one of these last month and it is a great card. This is the exact same card as the Accoustic Edge, minus the Dedicated SPDIF ports. It does have SPDIF Out, but it requires disabling the Center/LFE output.

One advantage of this card over other low end cards, is that it is a true Hardware DSP (96 3D Sounds), where as most other cards in this price range are Software based (i.e. 3d sound calculations/reverb done by CPU). In this day & age of 3ghz CPU's this isn't as big of a deal as it used to be.

CH2
 
Originally posted by: MadHatter0
Nor did I ask for one, you cool all-knowing guy. I asked what people's opinions were. Obviously the concept evades you so leave my thread alone. Thanks. Bye. 🙂
Click to expand...

Welcome to the internet MadHatter... until a law is passed pulling internet access from the asylums, we just have to deal with it.

CH2

 
What holdencommodore said. I think that mobo has a SIS chipset, and that may be a problem with separate sound cards.

Here is what happended to me. The onboard sound worked just fine in the games I tried with my ECS K7S5A mobo, which uses the SIS 735 chipset. No problems. I wanted a higher quality sound (for playing music), so I got a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, a highly recommended card (CMedia chip), and the quality is super. But the sound is screwed up in two games. Sounds do not even happen in some cases (no gun sounds) or is barely audible at random, while others are loud. In another game the end of sounds are cut off, and a repeat of the beginning is tacked on. Weird.

I think you ought to try drivers for the onboard sound, and the chipset before you get involved with a separate sound card. The CPU usage is normally very low with todays onboard sound.


 
Actually, the Santa Cruz uses a Cirrus Logic chipset (CS4630), not a C-media. In regards to the gaming issues, this is well known. The Santa Cruz, despite what the anti-Creative zealots on this board would have you think, is not the best sound card for games. Music, yes, but gaming NO. The Creative and Philips cards handles this task much better. I've experienced the same problem you have with some, select game titles with my Santa Cruz regardless of driver version. Unfortunately, most, if not all, game developers don't test enough with this card when they design their sound engines.
 
I acctually found a Fortissmo 3 clearanced out at a local shop and went that route. Thanks for all the replies guys 🙂 I haven't installed it yet so I'll keep you posted. I'm gonna wipe my system (it's needed it for a while) and start fresh.
 
try to spend 15 more bucks and get a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, excellent for everything, music, gaming...
 
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