Buying a sound card

raoul_1101

raoul_1101

Member
I've been thinking about investing in a sound card for some time now, and finally I have the money to do so. After reading the sticky, I didn't find too much information that would help me pick one out so I started a thread.

I pretty much use sound for all kinds of things. I'd like to have a digital out so I could watch movies surround sound via my other system with a digital input. I also am looking for quality that would support me being a musician, for i like to record drums/guitars on free time. And finally, I would like a card that would increase the quality of sound for playing games and listening to music. I would not like to spend more than $140, and I'm looking for a moderate-high quality card. What should I look for? Any recomendations?
 
Patching from the out of one sound card into some card on another system probably would fail due to feedback and other problems. Sdound cards offer digital inputs and putputs for devices like stereo receivers and feeding audio in from camcorders and other small external devices. For gaming the two brands looked at now are Creative and Diamond for popularity and sound quality there.

The Creative XtremeGamer can be looked over at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006

M-Audio is another brand with digitial and optical output on some of their models. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829121006

It will also depend on where you plan to order from.
 
The card seen at TigerDirect is the exact same as seen on the link at newegg. But newegg carries it for almost $20- less pricewise. That's something to consider there. The actual model selected as far as the fatality and the higher price there would be the additional capabilities for what you are planning there. Both models have the optical input and output jacks.
 
Are you running XP or Vista at present? There's one thing to know about Creative's support site if you are running XP lately. The latest updates even when selecting XP as the version of Windows being will actually be a set of Vista drivers.

When going to the MS update site there and choosing the custom option to see what optional hardware and software updates were available Vista drivers were again downloaded by MS onto XP. The auto updater you see when installing from the software disk will connect to download the latest web updater for Vista. The idea is to use the no answer to prevent anything but the drivers on the disk(XP) from being installed.
 
With the Xtreme Audio the sound seemed just as good on a 5.1 speaker set here on both XP and Vista while each saw a different software mode with the sound mixer displayed in XP with no volume, bass, and tremble control knobs while Vista saw the Entertainment mode with the controls visible. The XtremeGamer sees all three modes available in both XP and Vista.
 
Most like that would be the options seen in the softwares between the two cards. But that simply takes a trip to Creative to look over the features and specifications seen for each model. The Xtreme Platinum Fatality offers the 5 1/4" drive bay I/O connectivity panel for one. http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=16559&nav=0&bypass=1

That's one item that would be an optional purchase for the Xtreme Fatality Pro model seen at http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=15854&bypass=1
 
I'm using a regent ht400 surround sound system (dolby 5.1). How can I wire it (not digitally) to 5.1 with my sound card if the Regent only has left and right inputs?
 
Front channel(L+R) out on the sound card to left and right in on the Regent. You then have to configure the sound card's software for headphone out instead of 2 1/2, 4, 5.1, or 7.1. The Regent shoud then be able to snthesize the 5.1 effect.
 
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