What soundcard should i buy for 30-50 $?

[garrison9999]

hey all i need help decideing what is a good sound card i can get between 30-50 dollars. everyone says having a pci soundcard is alot better and gives a big performance increase. im running games like splintercell and ravenshield and getting really low fps...im thinking it might be due to my onboard sound.

my specs:

P4 1.6GHz
512 PC2100 DDR-SDRAM
ATI Radeon 8500LE
SoundMAX Intergrated Digital Audio
Windows XP Home Edition

thanks in advance

[Giblet Plus!]

I would go with a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz for about $60, or a Phillips Accoustic Edge for about $60. They're worth the extra $10.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Heard good things about the Santa Cruz yep. Also the massive slowdown in games like splinter cell comes from using 3d Hardware. In Ut2k3 using 3d sound on my Sblaster PCI512 just about cripples gameplay. In these games your better of using the software sound setting believe it or not

--Jakk

[garrison9999]

Where could i get the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz for $60? i checked compusa and they have it for $80. I dont have a creditcard so i cant buy any parts online at the moment, so i need to get the card from a store.

EDIT: Bestbuy has this Philips Sonic Edge 5.1-Channel Sound Card
for $40. Anyone know if this is a decent card?

[Bigjakkstaffa]

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...n=turtle+beach

Lookie here

--Jakk

[garrison9999]

I did a goggle search to find reviews of the Philips Sonic Edge 5.1 but didnt really find anything. Does anyone know of some good sites that has a review of this card?

Thanks

[x51out]

Try to scratch a few more $ together if you can and get an Audigy2... very low cpu usage... link to NEWEGG . For $78 OEM, that is sweet.

[KraZy_SkitZy]

Try a Fortissimo II or III, I have aFortissimo II, and it sounds great, in Unreal 2003, I have Hardware+EAX turned on and I get no Framerate drop at all.

[Giblet Plus!]

Originally posted by garrison9999
I did a goggle search to find reviews of the Philips Sonic Edge 5.1 but didnt really find anything. Does anyone know of some good sites that has a review of this card?

Thanks

I've heard good things about it.

Short review:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,893089,00.asp

The one person in the sysopt database liked it:
http://www.sysopt.com/userreviews/so...1__PSC605.html

[Giblet Plus!]

garrison9999 - check your PMs.

[Paco103]

You don't need a credit card to order online. Send a money order. They're $0.50 at any K-Mart. My bank gives them to me for free. They'll all take them. If there's nothing about it on the website, call the place and they'll happily tell you how to send one. It takes about an extra week for delivery, but I never used credit cards. If a place doesn't take a money order, you probably don't want to deal with them anyway, it's kind of fishy. There's also a receipt that you can turn in if you fail to recieve your goods. If the money order has been cashed, you have evidence.

[Brian48]

Originally posted by KraZy_SkitZy
Try a Fortissimo II or III, I have aFortissimo II, and it sounds great, in Unreal 2003, I have Hardware+EAX turned on and I get no Framerate drop at all.

Well, I agree that the Fortissimo III is probably the best overall choice in the $30-50 price range, but to say that there's no framerate drop in UT2003 with HW audio enabled is a bit of a stretch. Also, EAX is non-functional in UT2003 with any card other than the Creative line (even though you can select it in the game menu). It just defaults to regular HW audio, which is why you see no difference with EAX enabled or disabled.

UT2003 Build UT2003_Build_[2003-04-07_17.42]
Windows 2000 5.0 (Build: 2195)
AuthenticAMD PentiumPro-class processor @ 1923 MHz with 511MB RAM
PNY Verto GeForce4 Ti4200 8x AGP (4345)
Herc F3 using 609 drivers

dm-antalus (software 3D audio)

8.455093 / 56.110268 / 120.259224 fps rand[20587]
Score = 56.127529

dm-antalus (Hardware 3D audio)

7.791842 / 46.964405 / 101.648773 fps rand[20587]
Score = 46.977062

dm-antalus (Hardware 3D + EAX audio)

7.753698 / 46.979298 / 104.515076 fps rand[20587]
Score = 46.991398

The Santa Cruz is a great card also if you can find one under $50, but just bear in mind, this is a legacy card now and no new drivers are coming out for it. In fact, Voyetra has left the consumer sound card business for the time being. Personally, I think the drivers for CS4624 cards like the Fortissimo series and Herc GTXP have gotten to the point where the audio quality is just as good as that of CS4630 cards like the Santa Cruz and earlier Herc GTXP.

The Philips Acoustic/Seismic Edge line of cards are also excellent as well, but I can't bring myself to recommend them until Philips gets off it's **** and decides on whether of not they want to continue driver support. Don't even bother with the other cards in the Philips line.

My specs for comparison.

[KraZy_SkitZy]

Originally posted by Brian48


Well, I agree that the Fortissimo III is probably the best overall choice in the $30-50 price range, but to say that there's no framerate drop in UT2003 with HW audio enabled is a bit of a stretch. Also, EAX is non-functional in UT2003 with any card other than the Creative line (even though you can select it in the game menu). It just defaults to regular HW audio, which is why you see no difference with EAX enabled or disabled.



My specs for comparison.

I've ran FRAPS with the different sound modes, and no significant framerate drops or nuthin, only difference was the sound quality, which was very nice with HW+EAX, I thought OpenAL allows Unreal 2003 to use non-creative cards EAX?

[Bigjakkstaffa]

I thought OpenAL allows Unreal 2003 to use non-creative cards EAX?

It should but it dont seme to, Hardware and hardware+EAX sound just the same on my card

--Jakk

[Kruzin]

Originally posted by Brian48

The Santa Cruz is a great card also if you can find one under $50, but just bear in mind, this is a legacy card now and no new drivers are coming out for it. In fact, Voyetra has left the consumer sound card business for the time being. Personally, I think the drivers for CS4624 cards like the Fortissimo series and Herc GTXP have gotten to the point where the audio quality is just as good as that of CS4630 cards like the Santa Cruz and earlier Herc GTXP.

Turtle Beach just released a new set of beta drivers within the last couple weeks for the Santa Cruz.

While it is getting old, it is still a great card, and I'd rather have it than any creative card with all their bloatware.
I still love mine