Looking for a Win 7 64-bit friendly sound solution.

TheInternal

Senior member
Jul 7, 2006
447
0
76
Greetings,

Though my main system is a bit dated (Athlon 64 x@ 4400+, 4 GB RAM, 1 TB HD, dual 7950 GT in SLI, Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro, all hooked to an ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe x16 SLI capable motherboard, Windows 7 64-bit professional), I'm tired of trying to get my old sound card to be fully functional and never quite getting to that point. Yes, I've tried the latest drivers from Creative's website. Yes, I've tried Daniel K's Audigy support pack 3.6, and have enabled the hardware memory hole on my motherboard. I can't get the speakers to output 5.1 sound in games (such as TF2) AND have the mic remain functional. If someone knows of a fix that I've not discovered, please feel free to share it. Otherwise, I'm looking for a new sound solution.

Despite buying Creative Labs products for the last 8 years, I now have some ethical qualms with Creative Lab's recent business practices (particularly their unwillingness to create drivers for products they were selling less than five years ago, and their admitted business practice of limiting driver functionality of older products on newer OSes). That being said, I'm open to hearing any good options for a sound card for gaming and possibly some music/audio creation. I don't NEED MIDI or SPDIF, but I do need analogue out for my 5.1 Klipsch promedias, and a mic in for games/recording. MIDI and/or SPDIF in and out would be a great bonus to have though.

The card needs to work well in Windows 7 64-bit and not have issue with there being 4 GB or more of system memory. It must have mini-plugs (the ones that accept the standard 1/8th inch jack that headphones use) for my 5.1 speakers. I have one PCI slot, and one PCI-E 1x slot (though the 1x slot may not fit anything but a small form factor card due to my XFX Geforce 7950 Xtreme's big-ol passive heat sink.) A history of good driver and product support is a plus.

Thanks for taking the time to read and/or post replies.
 

Coolone

Senior member
Aug 18, 2001
983
0
0
I've been using an HTO Striker 7.1 for the past few months with Win7, and it's working like a charm. My only problem with it is that all the jacks on the card are the same color, so it's difficult to see what I'm plugging into. Other than that, it's great.
 

hennessy1

Golden Member
Mar 18, 2007
1,901
5
91
I have also been using the Claro Halo XT card from HTO. Great drivers. Their cards use a PCI slot. No problems with sound what so ever. You don't have to go to their top of the line to get good sound either all their cards are A+. I have 2 different systems both have Vista x64( Win 7 x64 drivers are available as well). Also have 8 GB and 12 GB of ram no problems with either.