Pretty hot: Vortex 2 PCI $12.95 + $6.00 Ground

[ChurchOfSubgenius]

WWW.CompGeeks.com has this Turtle Beach Montego II on sale for $12.95, other cards with the Vortex 2 chipset are going for around $50.00.

 

[vertigo723]

Great price...but I Aureal went out of business...so no new drivers...I think their last release were beta drivers for Win2k. Weren't really good drivers.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

Yeah, if you plan on running Win2K with this card, think again. I ended up having to reinstall Win2K after the beta Vortex 2 drivers hosed my system. Card seems to work okay in WinME with the Win9x drivers tho, so as long as you aren't using Win2K, you should be okay. Great card, great technology, it's too bad Creative ran them into the ground because Creative couldn't compete on a technology level. This from someone who has a SB Live in my machine, but still, I recognize the superior stuff when I see it. Gravis had a MUCH superior card to Creative in the GUS, but Creative is like the Microsoft of soundcards, and if anyone else starts getting a foothold in their domain, they are ruthless.

 

[BLoop]

Linkified

BTW, this is the stereo version - 2 speaker outputs - not the quad.

 

[PassatVR6]

I picked up one of these Turtle Beach Montego2 Soundcards locally for 19 dollars. I havnt had a chance to install it yet, but now im scared because i run win2k. I guess I shold go get a refund? I dont feel like spending 100 dollars on a soundcard right now when the core on my Tbird is scratched and my CPU is dead, argh!

 

[SinMen]

You better get a refund. I don't think anyone get Aureal to work in W2k + VIA yet.

 

[zoiks]

Does anybody know if there are any good alternatives to creative soundcards?

 

[zzzz]

Santacruz or accustic egde are supposed be better than creative cards. I haven't used any of them yet.
BTW, I have used MX300 in win2k with the default drivers before. It worked ok, but then I went with public opinion and got myself SBLIve value...

 

[MikeHall]

I've been using the MX300 in windows 2000 for a year, without any problems. I may be losing some of the A3d support though, not really sure. The Vortex 2 is still an excellent chip, I'd say it's a good deal.

Michael Hall
MP3 Solutions

 

[jamester]

I've been using an unnamed (not by my choice, but by default) Aureal A3D Vortex sound card with Win2k since forever. It does install with default drivers, but then again, I'm not on a VIA chipset. I tried that, and as stated above, I couldn't get it to work.

I may be joining the public opinion ranks myself when I switch to a SB Live! Value as well. Eventually. Not soon. Digital Camera first.

James

 

[macssuck]

I am also using the Montego II card in my computer under 2k but I have a bx chipset and have not tried the beta drivers im just using whatever driver 2000 installed

 

[Midgard]

Awwww. I just bought ordered one of these yesterday for my sister's system! She has a VIA chipset FIC 503+ motherboard with a K6-2 450 MHz. You guys saying it won't work in a VIA chipset board, or just not under Windows 2000? She is using Windows 98 SE.

 

[mrVW]

This is the same chipset that CompUSA had with the HiVal free after rebate last weekend...

Win2K drivers work on the surface, but I had bus mastering problems when both my Ehtenret and Promise PCI cards talked at the same time I was doing sound (WMP). Not good... junked it, went back to my ISA Sound Blaster 64 card.

 

[aperry]

zzzz,

I have the Santa Cruz soundcard, and it is wonderful! Click HERE to go to their info page and read more about it.

 

[Shantanu]

The Vortex 2 is an inherently superior card to SB Live, and much of the other crap out there. Unfortunatly, due to Aureal's going out of business at the time Windows2K came out, they never put out decent drivers for it. After a year of struggling with my once mighty Aureal Vortex 2 reference board, I finally decided to get a SB Live. This is the first time I've ever felt that I was "downgrading" my computer

 

[SinMen]

If you have W2K + VIA chipset, it will most likely NOT work correctly. It could play a clip for a minute or two and then stop working. I couldn't get it to work on my A7V + W2K. However, it works fine in my BX chipset.

 

[iluvdeal]

My Vortex 2 (Diamond MX300) is still going strong in my computer. Unlike my video card, there really hasn't been any need to upgrade.

 

[qwex]

nice deal, I thought I read somewhere drivers will still be supported for a while...

 

[crazyman]

i ordered one on sunday before this was posted Shipping was 6.95 for ups ground or 7.95 for 2nd day fedex (i think)...total cost right at 20 bucks or so...somebody was selling this in egghead.com under action with a starting price of $9 (he had like 100) multiple times. Then some moron would bid on all 100 of them which bumped the price up to 13 +s/h so screw that and i ordered from compgeeks)

 

[zoiks]

I just checked out the review of the Acoustic Edge soundcard by philips. This guy doesnt wanna take it out of his computer.Text

 

[yymatt]

using original win2k os driver, windows can't shut down, spend a weekend for this stu*ped chips and give up