What is a good sound card under $30 to replace the onboard sound on K7S5A?

[kehi]

Hey guys I am thinking a SB Live would be better than the onboard stuff, but please lmk what you think. Thanks

 

[xXgambitXx]

SB Live! is pretty standard now. i'd get it unless you have nice speakers. if you have a really cool speaker system then go for an Audigy. it's only like $61 the last time i checked at NewEgg. and you WILL notice a difference between the Live! and onboard audio

 

[bluemax]

If you're not going to go Live, I'd highly recommend the very cheap C-Media 6-channel card. Cheap, simple, works great, sounds great. Probably better than the crackling/popping SB Live in some cases!

 

[nortexoid]

c-media is ok...u can get the 4-channel and 6-channel cards for dirt cheap...they function great, they simply lack a ton of features...they support the major 3d positional APIs tho...examples are the Audioexcel (aka chaintech) AV511/512 and Zoltrix Nightingale (Pro 6)

the hercules Muse and Fortissimo II are also good choices...the fort. comes w/ digital in and out as well..(optical toslink)...the muse is the cheaper of the two...

AOpen makes a few good sound cards too - some based on yamaha chipsets, though I'd recommend their newest ones using their own chipsets (the AW850 and 840)...one's 5.1 (former) the other is a 4.1 solution.

i would rather use onboard audio than a live.