Fry's $7.99 PCI audio card (Inland -CMedia CMI8738 chip)

[larrymoencurly]

They're advertising one again this week.

Is this one any good?

 

[Braxus]

From my experiences, Cmedia actually does good in their driver updates. Although cheap, the sound chip does a fairly good job for playing basic stuff.

 

[bafuu]

I bought this last friday and had to return it last saturday. There is just too much static noise. Maybe there is not enough shielding or something. And the rep that I return it to said that was a common complaint for this card. Save yourself the trouble of staying in a return line at Fry's and skip this card...

 

[bafuu]

Oh one more thing... I just noticed that Amazon.com has the SB live mp3 for 77.94. If you pricematch it at staples and use the 25 off 75 coupon that would be a sweet deal...
SB live at Amazon

 

[stiltner]

Or you could just get it from any other retailer out there. The value and mp3 and x-gamer are all the same card, the only diff is the software. I paid 41 for a Live Value about 4 months ago, gotta be able to get em for less than that now

 

[jamarno]

bafuu:

The one I bought wasn't bad and showed very low hiss even compared to my old Ensoniq PCI
([L]www.pcavtech.com[/L] gave it high marks for noise, distortion, and other performance factors).