Sound card recommendation?

[David_UK]

Hi
I need a PCI sound card for recording from external sources using Audacity (eg from old LP's). I have a budget of £50. The PC is AMD Athlon @1000Mhz and 384MB SDRAM. I am not concerned about what outputs it offers as we only connect two little PC speakers to them. It's quality recording that I am interested in.
Can anyone make a recommendation please? Thanks.

 

[Geoff]

Something like this should suite you well: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829121126

 

[XanderCage]

do sound cards actually increase overall pc performace, or even in games?

 

[Geoff]

do sound cards actually increase overall pc performace, or even in games?

They drastically increase sound performance (especially higher end ones like the X-Fi), and they do tend to increase gaming performance a bit from not having to use the CPU to produce audio.

 

[heyman421]

there's a night and day difference between onboard and standalone audio, but honestly (really) there isn't much difference between different cards.

i gaurantee you couldn't tell the difference between an audigy, audigy 2, audigy 4, or an x-fi on performance/sound quality alone

the x-fi has the exact same specs as the other boards, but it has some hardware-accelerated dsp's to enhance music and headphone listening, but for 99% of your every day listening, you could get any card

 

[David_UK]

Thanks for your input guys....

 

[JuggaloKillaz]

if you gonna spend that much money, get this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102007

 

[Geoff]

if you gonna spend that much money, get this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102007

The sound card I linked to is much, much better for recording. The X-Fi is really only good at playback.

 

[Dylanj123]

Would you notice a differnce in using this http://www.digitalstar.com.au/detail.aspx?ID=31371 to using onboard sound through Headphones or Logitech X530? And would if take a little bit of load off the processor?