Best Budget Sound Card

L

laserazer

CAGiversary!
What's the best sound card I can get for my desktop pc for around 30-40 dollars? I hear either creative or diamond. Any particular version? PCI/PCI Expressx1?
 
PCI. First off, does your motherboard have on-board sound? If it does, it may not be worth it to buy a new sound card. Second, are you interested in 5.1, 7.1, etc? If so, it may cost a little more. I know that the Realtek AC'97 on-board sound can do I believe 5.1.

But yeah, PCI. And if you want a budget card, a Creative might not be so bad.

Check out www.newegg.com. Not the best place for sound cards, but they do offer some cheap deals.
 
DO NOT BUY the Audigy SE. I tried one out a few weeks ago and after having tons of stuttering issues, I read on many different forums that it doesn't support hardware rendering. I can't even begin to make sense of that.
 
I never buy a stand alone sound card. My ears apparently stink enough that I think the onboard sound is good.

I put a fan in my slot that is supposed to be for the sound card. It keeps my video card a couple degrees cooler.
 
Never owned a sound card and never will. My speakers aren't exactly crap, but they wouldn't do anything beyond onboard sound justice. Plus I just don't like dealing with the added hassle of one more thing inside the PC. Would a $40 card even make a difference?
 
Hey vihit, I noticed the Diamond 7.1 card you recommended was at Fry's for $20 after rebate, so I picked it up. I'm having some issues, though. The sound was awful using the disc drivers, so I had Windows update them and now it's back to about 90% normal, unless I try to enable EAX and then everything's choppy. What drivers do you recommend, and what games/settings do you play mostly?
 
[quote name='metaly']Hey vihit, I noticed the Diamond 7.1 card you recommended was at Fry's for $20 after rebate, so I picked it up. I'm having some issues, though. The sound was awful using the disc drivers, so I had Windows update them and now it's back to about 90% normal, unless I try to enable EAX and then everything's choppy. What drivers do you recommend, and what games/settings do you play mostly?[/QUOTE]

I too have that card, bought it when it was like $40 but I don't regret it at all. It's a great card.

When I bought it, it was fairly unknown but almost half the reviews on Newegg said to use the C-Media CMI8768+ drivers (the card is made by Diamond but uses the CMI8768+ audio chip). I used those drivers from day one and never had an issue.

But C-Media's site is currently down.
 
[quote name='metaly']Hey vihit, I noticed the Diamond 7.1 card you recommended was at Fry's for $20 after rebate, so I picked it up. I'm having some issues, though. The sound was awful using the disc drivers, so I had Windows update them and now it's back to about 90% normal, unless I try to enable EAX and then everything's choppy. What drivers do you recommend, and what games/settings do you play mostly?[/QUOTE]

http://cmediadrivers.googlepages.com/home

I used the drivers from that site. I have Vista on my PC, and neither Diamond or C-Media had Vista drivers. I tried out the drivers from that site and my card has been working flawlessly.
 
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