Need good sound card advice.

[MegaCharger]

I am building a new rig from newegg.com, but I don't know which sound card to get. I don't care about sound much really, I just want one that will work stably and cheap. Preferably around $50. Any suggestions?

 

[LatexRat]

I still Run an old first generation SB Live! They work great, and are cheap these days..

 

[Xenon14]

For the money, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. I think u can pick one up at around $50. It's considered the best card for listnening to music, and in general it's a very very good card. The best gaming card is considered the Audigy 2. It usually sells for $130, but I've seen deals for $80.

 

[sirstarvsalot]

I'd recommend the "REATIVE LABS SOUND BLASTER AUDIGY WITH 1394" and the "Guillemot Hercules GameSurround Fortissimo III 7.1 - RETAIL" those are the names as the are exactly on newegg.

 

[Corporate Thug]

i think santa cruz is $60 OEM @ newegg, great card

 

[pay]

Is the santa cruz also good for gaming? I mean I dont expect it to be on audigy level but atleast decent?

 

[MegaCharger]

Newegg is selling the audigy 2 for $78. But it's an OEM. Does that thing comes with the the driver CD and that cable I needed to hook it up with my speakers?

On a side note, I found the 3.0Ghz on googlegear for $499. It's a pretty darn good deal. Is googlegear honorable? Resellerratings.com gave them a score at the upper 8.0's, is that good enough? Because newegg doesn't have them in stock and I really wanted it 🙁

 

[MegaCharger]

*BUMP*

Nobody can help me on my last question about Audigy 2 OEM 🙁?

 

[tapir]

The Audigy OEM should come with a drivers CD. It lacks extra games and software bundles that Creative sells with retail boxed cards. As for the cable, it should have come with your speakers, no sound card I know of comes with a cable other than to a breakout box or something.

Googlegear is an awesome store, I would say on the same level as newegg. They usually have CPU/RAM for a little cheaper than the Egg so I check there often

 

[mrman3k]

Since you are building a new rig, I would recommend that you use the onboard sound since it sounds like you are not an audiophile and you need super great sound quality.

Especially if you get an Nforce2 mobo that is Soundstorm equiped, you will be set.

 

[snidy1]

Originally posted by: mrman3k
Since you are building a new rig, I would recommend that you use the onboard sound since it sounds like you are not an audiophile and you need super great sound quality.

Especially if you get an Nforce2 mobo that is Soundstorm equiped, you will be set.

That's what I would recomend also

 

[HaroldW]

Have you looked at a Aopen Model AW850, PCI 5.1 Sound Card. It's dirt cheap ($12) at Newegg, does Dolby 5.1 and gets great reviews. I was really surprised when I saw someone else mention it. See:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...=57&manufactory=1316&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1

and

http://secure.newegg.com/app/CustratingReview.asp?item=29-117-105 for the user reviews

I myself have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. If the Aopen had been around when I was buying it I would have probably bought the Aopen.

 

[squidman]

I would definetily recommend the nForce MCP-T onboard audio (not just because i have it. I also posses M-Audio Pro card, and a SB Live X-Gamer 5.1). Its fast, got a good equalizer, and excellent sound reproduction. It can also handle EAX, and EAX2 (thus rendering old SB Live and eraly audigy's useless). You also didnt tell us how much money u plan to spend on audio. If not a lot - then go for nForces' onboard. If you got 250$ and above - then get yourself an m-audio pro. its the $#!+ when comes to music (my other computer is for music creation/listening, and m-audio kicks lots of unbereably heavy ass)