Good sound card

[Tralis]

I need a hardware recomendation for upgrading my rig.
I'm looking to spend $75. Less is good, more only if really justified.

I NEED the following in my card:
5.1 surround.
Excelent support for games and whatever interfaces it needs to support for that.
Decent support for DTS and other movie formats
Microphone input to talk to squadmates

I'd LIKE the following (in order of nessesity)
7.1 Channel support
Either RCA or Fiber optic out

 

[PC eye]

The lowest priced card by Creative that supports upto 7.1 goes for $65.99 at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102007

Now for getting into a better card for gaming and higher end multimedia the price starts over $80 unless OEM. Newegg has two others seen for under $100 at http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2000360057+50001137+1102608534+4027&name=%2475+-+%24100 with the Xtreme Gamer going for $90.99. That's the best of the three there.

 

[Tralis]

What about if I only want 5.1?
See, I really need a mic input because otherwise I can't VOIP with my squadmates.
Or, could I use the mic input on my onboard while using the 7.1 output on the card?

Really all I need is an SPDIF passthrough and 7.1 processing with a mic input.

 

[PC eye]

You can still set the speaker settings to 5.1 on a 7.1 card. I will doing that here on the new build having a 5.1 set of speakers. The default setting when you first look is 2 1/2 for a pair with a sub woofer. Most cards especially Creative SB models have a mic in as well as the line in jack seen. The software is what controls the input/output on any card. I even create desktop shortcuts by going into the audoo console folder in the Start>Programs menu and right clicking there for speaker settings, sound mixer, and even the EAX console for XP. Vista and newer now use OpenAL.

 

[K3rupt]

Go for a Logitech x-530's They are a 5.1 Set.

They are beautiful

I have a set, I Love em.

The sound they produce is excellent for Music

And the sound is Accurate for gaming.

And excellent all round speakers.

 

[Tralis]

Go for a Logitech x-530's They are a 5.1 Set.

They are beautiful

I have a set, I Love em.

The sound they produce is excellent for Music

And the sound is Accurate for gaming.

And excellent all round speakers.

The speakers I have work beautifully. My onboard sound just doesn't do positional effects as well as I'd like. It could be a driver issue.

 

[PC eye]

Once you have a good card installed you will have to make sure that the onboard sound is disabled in the bios itself. This will rule out using the mic with the onboard plus surround sound from the expansion card installed on the system. The X-FI Xtreme Audio by Creative lacks the line in jack and sees the mic jack only on that model. Before deciding on which card to go with look over the specifications to which one will work best there.