Cheap sound card

[acedaddy323]

this is the cheapest around and most reliable for the price. sound card

 

[forkd]

Who has used a Hi-Val product? I was looking at one of their products in CompUsa today but backed away for lack of trust/confidence. Are a good product like generic asprin and bleach or are they like welfare government cheese?

This is what they said of themselves.
Hi-Val is the world leader in manufacturing multimedia devices. With Hi-Val multimedia you will submerge into the wonderful world of dazzling effects and enjoy all power of your new sound system. The card is fully compatible with all major operating systems and is very easy to setup and configure.

 

[juiio]

I would highly suggest not getting anything ISA.

 

[KaOTiK]

forkd, from what ive seen their products arent too hot. I work at Circuit City and see quite a bit of Hi Value products returned, but then again we got idiots that are buying the stuff trying to upgrade their comcrap or emachine....so take it as you might.

Kao

 

[Bagger]

I'm not sure I'd buy anything that came with these requirements:

SYSTEM AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS
- 386DX OR FASTER
- 4 MB RAM(8 MB RECOMMENDED)
- SVGA CARD
- 3.5 IN 1.44 FLOPPY DISK
- MS-DOS 6.0+ WIN 3.11 WIN 95 WIN NT
- 1/2 HEIGHT DRIVE BAY

 

[acedaddy323]

When I said cheap I mean cheap. the cheapest soundblaste goes for around 25 if i am correct.

 

[Flatpicker]

No offence. but if it's the cheapest, then: it is both the most reliable and the least reliable for the price. Right?

 

[breweyez]

I love the logic of flatpicker...

I got the hi-val soundcard from compusa. It was terrible. I returned it promptly...also the webcam was a stinker.

They had a card/speaker combo from phillips that I was thinking about getting. $20 after rebate. That looked ok. But I passed. Did anyone get it?

 

[p0ntif]

You can get the same low quality sound cards at swap meets and computer fairs for less than $10 . . .
just FYI

 

[macssuck]

Link to cheap sound card that has excellent sound quality

 

[iluvdeal]

This is probably one of those Aztech chipset sound cards. You can pick them up for less than $10, check around, try ebbay, etc. It does the job if you just wanna an sound to an old PC.

 

[Tangman]

There are plenty better pci sound cards selling for that much or less on the FS/FT forum. I myself have got a PCI ESS solo card that I can let go for $13 + shipping. Much better card than that hival IMH.

 

[ericlp]

Definetly a Luke Warm deal... Since most the time you can buy these Cheap Ass cards for 5 bucks at Fry's. I bought 3 or 4 of them and they SUCK! Drivers a bad... And half the time you get a hum / Buzz from the Cheap parts on this card.

If your going to buy a card. Get a Janton Or somthing...

https://www.microbarn.com/cgi-bin/S...CI4.html?L+scstore+xgqc7493ffa4c0a4+982656994

Try that card for 5 bucks more... and it's 4 channel to boot! Plus PCI.

I have not tried this card... But it looks good on print and has to be better then a CHEAP Hi-Val. Also stay away from Hi-Val CD ROMS too.

 

[corinthos]

Guys, you can get an Ensoniq/Creative Labs PCI Sound Card for $20 shipped from z-buy.com.
Not a HOT deal, just an OK deal.

 

[Bigdude]

Compgeeks has a isa ess chip card for $5.75.

 

[shr00m]

BTW, isn't a ISA soundcard one the most difficult cards to install due to numerous IRQ conflicts?

I say stick with PCI

 

[dirkdaring]

<< I got the hi-val soundcard from compusa. It was terrible. I returned it promptly... >>



I got it also. It works great once you get the correct drivers. It's a Vortex 2 chip (not 1 like the box says). Nice sound, no problems at all. Can't beat free.

Dirk

 

[longhorn]

Hi-Val doesn't manufacture anything. They are a low-cost
relabeler of products manufactured by others. I am still
pissed at them because they filed for bankruptcy a while back,
and screwed me on a $30.00 rebate.

I have bought several Hi-Val items for use in cheap PCs.
They all seemed to work OK. You can usually figure
out who really built the item, and get better drivers.

I would suggest staying away from any rebate deals, however,
if that is the key factor in your purchase. They are horrible
about paying off, and have been through this bankruptcy deal
to clear out bad debt several times.

 

[Richard98]

macssuck,
The &quot;MontegoII Vortex2&quot; in your link bears a striking resemblance to the free Hi-Val CompUSA card. Shape of the card, colors and locations of connectors are the same (including connectors for internal CD-Rom drive). It also has the Vortex chip (perhaps a different one, my CD is labeled Vortex1).

 

[colossus]

I have gotten pretty much every rebate I have ever submitted with the exception of 7 Hi-Val items I bought through CompUSA. Hi-Val can kiss my backside.

 

[desibaba]

Problem with Hi-VAL is that they dont have ports for both DVD and CD...they just have one ..so its not owrth it if you have both drives for your comp !!

 

[Binar]

Fry's had some PCI sound cards(no name)back in january for only $7 and something.
Just a thought

 

[dirkdaring]

<< macssuck,
The &quot;MontegoII Vortex2&quot; in your link bears a striking resemblance to the free Hi-Val CompUSA card. Shape of the card, colors and locations of connectors are the same (including connectors for internal CD-Rom drive). It also has the Vortex chip (perhaps a different one, my CD is labeled Vortex1). >>



Yeah same with mine, the box also says Vortex1. But the card is actually a Vortex2. The drivers on the cd are also very outdated and have a very annoying bug in them that affects WindowsME (at least for me on 2 systems). It installs Soundblaster Pro legacy emulation, which causes Windows to immediately do a BSOD. You can do nothing but reboot, which goes back to the same thing finding the SBPro emulation-BSOD-reboot @repeat!

If you go into safe mode and remove all the drivers and use the new ones, you can download them from www.vortexofsound.com (I think it was) it fixes that problem. Anyhow, thats just for anyone having the same problem I had.

Nice card, works great on my 2nd system.

Dirk

 

[Richard98]

<< Problem with Hi-VAL is that they dont have ports for both DVD and CD...they just have one ..so its not owrth it if >>


Assuming you're referring to the internal sound connectors, my CompUSA card has 3 connectors. They're labeled &quot;CD IN&quot;, &quot;TAD&quot; &amp; &quot;Aux IN&quot;. I would assume that a DVD drive could be hooked up to the &quot;Aux IN&quot;, but haven't tried it.

 

[CentralScrutinizer]

Is the Vortex 2 card on sale THIS week at Best Buy?