sound card upgrade?

[DigitalHavoc]

Well, as I mentioned in a previous post, I am presently using an OLD Ensoniq PCI that was upgraded to an AWE64 (circa 1997). The only reason I'm thinking about a new card is because I play a lot of games and would like to take adavantage of the new effects. I also imagine this thing uses quite a bit of CPU time. Now, my criteria are:

*MUST play nice with my KT7A board (v 1.1, non-RAID, VIA122A chipset).
*Be a low user of CPU time.
*Have the latest gee wiz kinda of game effects.

I use mostly a headset to play, so I don't need 5.1 dolby. I think I've narrowed it down to:

*Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (nothing but good things)
*Fortissimo II 7.1 (wont ever use the 7.1, but had good reviews)
*Philips acoustic edge (CPU hungry and read many compliants about driver instability)
*Muse 5.1 DVD (just a 5.1 to grow into, but may use a lot of CPU)

Do I really even NEED to upgrade? I'm thinking I'll hear more in the games, but I'm not so sure. Sound repro playing CDs or MP3s is great with the old card.

OK, shoot away, which is the best for games on a KT7A, 1 GHz Athlon?

thanks,

DH

 

[Arhra]

Only piece of advice I can give is avoid the Audigy 2 series like the plague.

 

[amdskip]

I love my Santa Cruz card. With todays faster processors you don't really have to worry about cards affecting cpu speed.