Budget sound card: Crystal 4-Channel PCI $7.95 at CompGeeks

[kbaxter]

This is not a bad little card. I paid almost twice this for the one I used in my last budget system. It worked quite well and sounded great for the price.

Link to Card

More info:

* PCI Interface
* 64-bit Direct Sound Accelerator
* Line-In, Front Speaker-Out, Rear Speaker-Out, Mic-In, 15-pin Game/MIDI port
* Full Duplex Support
* Plug-n-Play
* Crystal CS4280 Chipset
* Two CD-Audio Connectors
* MP3, 4-Channel DVD Player Support

Includes: PCI Sound Card, Drivers CD

 

[Kaieye]

I bought about four of these sound cards from CompGeeks and you are correct in saying that they aren't half bad. But at my age, a crystal set probably sounds pretty good...

I recommend them for good basic sound.

 

[Coraanu]

Good find, thanks! =]

 

[Visuvius]

I could never get this card to work on my XP box

 

[kbaxter]

Originally posted by: Visuvius
I could never get this card to work on my XP box

That's odd -- sorry to hear that.

I installed mine in a machine with XP Home. Worked great! Might have something to do with the chip set and/or CPU you're using. Or maybe the other PCI cards you have. My box didn't have any other PCI slots filled.....

 

[RobCur]

Good find and cheap too, i may get a few myself. The onboard sound blows btw, those thing slowing me down too much.

 

[ww4397]

Anybody know what the shipping charge on this is?

 

[Mallow]

If the mobo I'm using ever doesn't have builtin sound for a budget system I use this card

 

[udonoogen]

Originally posted by: RobCur
Good find and cheap too, i may get a few myself. The onboard sound blows btw, those thing slowing me down too much.

onboard sound slows computers down? i didn't know that ...

 

[junked]

They also seem to have this card for the same price.
The spec reads...
* CMI8738/PCI-SX HRTF Audio Com Chipset
* Supports C3DX Positional Audio in 4-channel speaker mode
* Direct Sound 3D and A3D Support
* Legacy Audio SB16 Compatible
* DLS Based wavetable music synthesizer
* Direct Music Support
* Drivers Support AC3 4.1 Channel Interface
* MPU-401 Port / Game Port Support
* 16 Bit Full Duplex Codec
* 4 Channel 16-bit DAC
* 32-bit PCI Bus Master Supported

Is this a better card ?
which one is better for my cheap linux system.

 

[Danman]

I bought several of these cards and had never had a problem with them. Very good basic cards for customers.

 

[beyonddc]

I just came back from MicroCenter, they're selling a MadDog brand's 4.1 channel soundcard for $9.99 after rebates. This might be a good deal for some people, because you can avoid paying shipping and handling at CompGeeks.