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sound card recommendations?

Asherr
polycounter lvl 18
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Asherr polycounter lvl 18
i'm looking to get a new sound card since my last one finally made me mad enough to remove it permantly.

it was a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Gamer (which came with UT2K, Theif 2, and MDK 2) and i've had nothing but problems with it since i first installed it. have had it for a few years now and it just kept getting worse. couldn't unplug my speakers and plug in my headphones without it freezing up my computer or giving me a blue screen/hardware-paritity error. oftentimes after this happened i would have no sound until i uninstalled/reinstalled drivers and mover the card to another slot.

i'm looking for opinions on a relatively cheap card to get.
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  • CheapAlert
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    CheapAlert polycounter lvl 18
    I have no problems with my Live other than the HUGE CPU OVERHEAD it takes bringing my 305fps average in MDK2 down to 230.
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  • bearkub
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    bearkub polycounter lvl 18
    Telling him how well your system runs with that card was a great recommendation for a new card, Cheap! nice!

    Asherr: I got the Audigy2 which has worked quite well, but it tends to be a little pricey. You may want to check with EQ because I know he just was in the market for a new sound card. I have heard (note HEARD) that Turtle Beach is making some good affordable ones, but I dunno for sure.
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  • KDR_11k
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    KDR_11k polycounter lvl 18
    I'm using onboard sound. Not that bad and no more stop errors from Creative's stupid drivers.
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  • ElysiumGX
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    ElysiumGX polycounter lvl 18
    I've had the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card for nearly 4 years with no problems, and excellent performance, installed on atleast 2 computers. Been using the same drivers the whole time.

    These days I think they only sell the Riviera, and the Catalina. May be ever better, as my card wasn't advertised for gamers, but it still rocks.

    They're around the $30 - $50 range, btw.
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  • sledgy
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    sledgy polycounter lvl 18
    Hey Asherr, you may want to check for chipset updates for Windows. I use a Live series card and was having quite a fiasco getting them to work with an older VIA chipset until I found chipset drivers for Windows which resolved the issue. Worth a try when it comes to money smile.gif
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  • JKMakowka
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    JKMakowka polycounter lvl 18
    I am very satisfied with my Audigy2 ZS, both under Windows (only install the bare minimum of creative sofware) and Linux (great Alsa support).
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  • Marine
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    Marine polycounter lvl 18
    get an audigy, live's are, as they say, a fuckton of shit
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  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    I'm still rocking my Sound Blaster Live Value after about 6 years, might be time to retire the little fella
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  • EarthQuake
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    EarthQuake mod
    i got an audigy2 ZS for $100 from fry's, fucking ace card. I recently threw a cheap turtle beach card in my work pc and had some problems getting the provided drivers to actually install, and theres some quality issues i have with it as well. But i made the stupid mistake of buying an open item from fry's so that was probably what it was....
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