Sound Card Recommendation

Shadow_MKII

Shadow_MKII

New Member
I am planning on building a new rig at around the middle of March and I was wondering what kind of sound card I should get. I see there are no stickies on sound cards I figured I would post here. What kind of soundcard should I get? I am planning on getting some Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers, possible 5.1 if I go absolutely overboard and nutty, therefore, I wouldn't mind one that is compatible with those kind of speaker set ups. I assume it would be compatible, but I want to make sure. Anyhow, I'll give you an idea what I plan on getting here: http://www.anitec.ca/product/466/altec_lansing_vs4121_2.1_speaker_system/. By the way, I don't plan on getting anything wireless if I get a 2.1 system, if I get something like 5.1, I just might. :o
 
The first question would be the type of sound that will be heard through a good set of speakers. Are you planning to play dvds/watch movies where cinematic type sound can be supported by some of the onboard sound now offered on the newer boards? Or are you a hard gamer looking for the EAX type of audio effects popular and exclusive with Creative Labs Sound Blaster model cards?
 
As of right now, I plan on listening to music, playing some games (not too high end like F.E.A.R. or something) and maybe the occassional movie. As for for EAX audio, I don't know what that is. I also don't know to what degree of quality my onboard will offer. (I plan on getting this: http://www.anitec.ca/product/6915/asus_m2r32_mvp_xpress_3200_athlon64orx2orfxorsempron_pci_e_socket_am2/. I know it supports 8 channels, but that's about it. I'm not sure what kind of quality it can offer and what kind of applications for sound it has. When it comes to the sound aspect of computers, I am very out of it. My current computer says it all, and my previous computer would make most cry.
 
FEAR isn't so high end since that's without antiliasing and antisotropic filtering set high on the MSI Radeon X1300Pro here. You can run 8gb of DDR2 800 memory with the total of four 2gb dimms and you won't have to worry about anything "memory hungry" there! The specifications can be looked over at http://store.pagecomputers.com/cata...SSID=dlahgto7dpetf99roltdls6s51#tab_technical

You are already running a Creative card there. Which model is that one? EAX is one thing that brings the sound to life in pc games. A game like FEAR has the option to enable/disable EAX in the audio settings. It still will be a big jump with or without an expansion card for sound for you there. The one limitations seen for games like FEAR is that some are stereo only. When playing those you have to set the speakers setting accordingly. PREY on the other hand like Half Life 2 can be set for 5.1 surround sound.
 
Well, I did a fair amount of digging around, and the only thing I could truly find in terms of sound was that it was/had a SoundMAX ADI 1988A 8-channel CODEC. I don't know if you can get much from that. I also found out that my motherboard is pretty good for what I am looking for in the process! I'll continue to do some plundering to see if I can find anything in the mean time.
One more thing - this is a bit off topic - but what antisotropic filtering? I believe antiliasing is when a frame has the edges of it's objects blurred slightly to get rid of the polygon/pixel like appearance, but as for antisotropic, trilinear and bilinear filtering I am lost.
 
Many prefer RealTek for onboard while SoundMAX is typical for an Asus board. It won't be crap as a rule when Asus uses it. As far as antisotropic the term itself has different applications like the one seen at these links.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5009706.html
http://ejbe.libraries.rutgers.edu/viewarticle.php?id=112&layout=abstract

In games these are settings for improving the quality of textures. The more you try pushing a game at higher resolutions with a lower end video card the lower settings are. Besides screen resolutions the support a video card offers as well as the game itself. Often the setting for antisotropic filtering and antiliasing alike are disabled unless you are running a high end card. Unfortunately a site with a good breakdown in layman's terms is lacking to see a full description there.
 
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