Recommending soundcard??

[neilm]

I have a GA-8IHXP motherboard with Intel P4, I want to know which soundcard to go for?

It needs to be under £50($90) and really worth the money, there are a few that had good reviews; the GTXP (too expensive, i think?), SoundBlaster and Turtle Beach Santa Cruz..
//(edit: make the price range slighty higher if need be, as I can probably get it through ebay)

I wanna know what you all think should the best soundcard be in this type of setup (would like it to be EAX supported, as I play half-life, and possibly other FPS games).

Thanks!

 

[DeRusto]

If what you REALLY want is EAX support..go for the Audigy, however, the Turtle Beach card also supports EAX just not as good as Creative..which is natural

I would still recommend the Santa Cruz mainly out of preference, because I do listen to a lot of music on my machine, and EAX support is less of an issue..

 

[m1ke101]

yup generally the sound card to get is either the santa cruz or the audigy. ppl usually say the audigy is better for gaming, and the santa cruz better for music. the acoustic or seismic edge is also supposed to be a very good card, but very difficult to find. o and btw the audigy also comes with firewire ports, if that makes any difference to you.

 

[Mem]

I like my Audigy a lot for gaming,however if you want something cheaper don`t overlook the Philips Seismic Edge 5.1 sound card,sounds great and is another good card with EAX support ,btw at Dabs it`s only £42 inc vat for retail version,also if you don`t need a 5.1 sound card then the Philips Rythmic Edge that supports 4 channel sound is only 32 quid from the same place.

 

[DeRusto]

Oh yeah, the Phillips cards are also very nice, if under appreciated.. You could try one of those, I'm sure you would be pleased with it.

 

[wicktron]

I'd go for the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.

 

[Funyuns101]

and the controversey begins again
but i hope you have good speakers for a good sound card

 

[Imported]

Santa Cruz or Acoustic Edge I'd say..

 

[mooseAndSquirrel]

That motherboard has an on board Creative CT5880 controller chip. Have you tried the on-board sound and found it wanting? That's a top dollar board!

 

[neilm]

So you are saying I shouldn't need to buy a soundcard?

I haven't set the hardware up yet, as I still needa buy a few more things. So haven't really tested what the onboard soundcard is like...

 

[Mem]

It uses a Creative CT5880 controller chip for onboard sound on that board,so you don`t need to buy a new sound card,it depends on if you`re happy with the onboard sound quality or not,so try it first and then decide.

 

[Chaotic42]

I like the Santa Cruz. It works flawlessly with Linux right out of the box.

Sounds good, I like it.

 

[neilm]

What are decent speakers I can get for that santa cruz card?
Not too expensive mind

 

[mooseAndSquirrel]

Originally posted by: neilm
What are decent speakers I can get for that santa cruz card?
Not too expensive mind

Well, again, my advice would be to try the on-board sound and save yourself 70 bucks on a soundcard. Put that 70 towards the speakers. IMO a higher end soundcard with inexpensive speakers is like putting premium gas in a rented Ford Focus. What's the point? The specs of your motherboard are quite good for sound. The motherboard you bought may be the most expensive single processor board out there (it's certainly towards the top). If you go into the BIOS and start turning things off like sound and lan and raid support to then go and put a sound card, lan card and raid card in there, your decision on the board may not have been a good one.

Now, if you were planning on putting in some Klipsch 5.1 speakers then I'd say the on-board sound should be replaced. You may also find the on-board sound stinks, but you can get a sound card the same day you decide to buy one, so I'd still recommend giving the motherboard a chance.

 

[neilm]

Ya, I'll definitely be giving the onboard sound a chance.. since I need to save a few pennies. Maybe later I'll get the soundcard, so what spealers would you recommend? (and keep in mind I may go in to buy the cruz card a while later)

p.s. I don't touch anything in the bios without reading what it does in the motherboards manual

 

[Sid59]

I'd listen to the onboard sound. if that sounds bad .. go with the Turtle Beach card.

I have the turtle beach and it setup to play through my desktop speakers and my surround sound speaker =). Got complaints today from blasting some heavy bass music. Guess it was the thumping got annoying.

Anyone recommend a card with optical out?