Sound Card Advice

[cam_mac]

Hi everyone, I recently got a new PC with an integrated soundcard. When I play my MP3's I get a little skipping on each track. I have a descent amount of ram (512Mb), and a descent processor (AMD 1800), so the only thing I can blame is the sound card. Would a seperate card solve my problems? Can annyone recommend a good one under $100?

Thanks, Cam.

[gt_cmpe]

ensure you have all the latest drivers, and then if still no luck this looks pretty good:

CREATIVE SB AUDIGY MP3+ (~$89)

[bassman]

gt's right, it's probably wise to get a new soundcard; Soundblaster Live will also do the trick...

[NDD]

New soundcard can be a good idea, but why not to post more info about your mobo or the o/b sound, so we could possibly help you to save some money ?

[cam_mac]

Thanks for the info, the board is a MSI KT3 Ultra, KT333 Chipset based. I am also running Win2K pro and it doesn't seem to matter what program I use to play MP3's they still skip. However, an audio cd plays perfectly. THanks for the help.

Cam.

[fluffycow]

Thats a pretty good board(and I think it has pretty good onboard audio too).... It should not be skipping. See if you have any irq conflicts, and make sure you have a good mp3 decoder codec installed. Also try getting new sound drivers. I have a 1 year or so old motherboard, and the audio in it works just fine. Scince your cd's play fine, I would bet on the drivers or the codec.

[Brian48]

If you're a gamer, get the Audigy. If music and .mp3's is more your bag, then get the Santa Cruz. If DVD playback is priority, then get the Acoustic Edge. Gaming with the Acoustic Edge is almost as good (if not equal) to the Audigy if you have 5.1 speaker setup, but the CPU overhead with QSound is a little bit heavier and you do lose a few fps.

I have all three and there's really no clear winner between them.

[sm8000]

Hey everybody, I'm just wondering if there are any forums and/or threads that discuss computer audio in depth. There are a lot of other topics that have dedicated portals, but I can't seem to find one specifically for sound cards (on-board and add-in), speakers, codecs, players, CD devices & software, and so on. Maybe one ought to be started? Can somebody point me to one?

My apologies if I have ignorantly glossed over an obvious one!

[Brian48]

You can try the user forum over at 3dsoundsurge.com, but they're not as active as the regular hardware forums here and over at Anandtech.com.

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by gt_cmpe
ensure you have all the latest drivers, and then if still no luck this looks pretty good:

CREATIVE SB AUDIGY MP3+ (~$89)

yeap that sounds about right, when i got it, it was at $99

[NDD]

Try getting latest sound drivers from here.

[AllGamer]

Since when Realtek came out with Sound Cards?

[NDD]

Since I believe Realtek acquired Avance Logic

[AllGamer]

ohhhhhh so now they are the owners of AC97

[cam_mac]

Thanks ND, those drivers work much better. Although there is still minor skipping every once and a while it is barely noticeable and much better than before.