Looking for a decent, cheap sound card

[Cheesetogo]

My current onboard sound seems to be broken, so I'm looking for a decent sound card as a replacement. I'm just looking for something that won't make annoying noises come out of my speakers, or horribly butcher the sound. The Chaintech AV-710 looked to be about perfect, but it appears that it's not being made anymore. I'm looking to spend around $30.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

any x-fi that u can afford will be nice
pretty much any M-Audio card u can afford will be nice also..

 

[Ika]

If you can't find a used AV-710 anywhere (I just sold mine like... last week), the M-Audio Revolution seems to be your best bet. A little past your budget, but you can't find a decent sound card for $30 without looking at anything other than the AV-710 anymore.

 

[Peter]

If you want simple and working, get something with a C-Media or VIA (formerly ICEnsemble) chip on.

 

[I4AT]

For a simple sound card that uses a decent VIA chip, there's at least 3 cards at Newegg for under $30.
PPA 4 channel
PPA 6 channel
Encore 7.1 channel

All 3 use the VIA Tremor chip, which is pretty similar to the Envy24PT, but not quite as good as the 24HT-S used on the AV-710.

 

[Cheesetogo]

Originally posted by: I4AT
For a simple sound card that uses a decent VIA chip, there's at least 3 cards at Newegg for under $30.
PPA 4 channel
PPA 6 channel
Encore 7.1 channel

All 3 use the VIA Tremor chip, which is pretty similar to the Envy24PT, but not quite as good as the 24HT-S used on the AV-710.

Should those be free of the annoying crackling/squeaking noises that is common with onboard sound? I'm not terribly concerned with the quality, but I can't stand those annoying noises.

 

[Peter]

Here's a comparison table for the VIA chips:

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/audio/controllers/

 

[I4AT]

I couldn't answer that for sure, the chipsets are pretty good quality, but I have no idea what other parts have been used. None of the reviews have had any complaints with the sound so far though, for whatever that's worth.

If you don't mind buying used you could probably snag an AV-710 from FS/T or some other board like Head-Fi.