Soundcard Suggestion?

[FlasHBurN]

Just need a new soundcard for the nForce4 system I am building. Any suggestions? I do a good amount of gaming and listen to music on it, so something that supports all of the different 3d sound standards would be good.
I have some 4.1 Logitech speakers.

Oh, and I would prefer something other than a Soundblaster, and to spend under $100...

 

[Baked]

Chaintech AV-710 or E-MU 0404.

 

[FlasHBurN]

Originally posted by: Baked
Chaintech AV-710 or E-MU 0404.

How is the CPU usage on those cards when gaming, compared to say, an Audigy2?

 

[Algere]

If you want a card that supports all of today's different 3D sound standards, you're gonna have to go with a SoundBlaster. At this time only SoundBlasters support EAX 3/4. If you can forgo that then I'd recommend the M-Audio Revolution 5.1, although you're gonna take a performance hit with the Revolution 5.1 since it processes 3D sounds via software & not hardware like the SoundBlasters.

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: Baked
Chaintech AV-710 or E-MU 0404.

IIRC, the E-MU 0404 is stereo only & it doesn't support EAX of any kind unless E-MU recently released some EAX driver update which I doubt since the 0404 is aimed @ music production & the like. The popularity of the AV-710 is due to it's bang for buck stereo sound quality output from the aux jack (Wolfson 7/8). Multi-channelwise, the AV-710 is as good as onboard sound IMO.

P.S. Forgot to mention that the AV-710's digital out is also good & I'm pretty sure it's multi-channel so when I said earlier that it was as good as onboard sound, I meant the analog outputs.

 

[FlasHBurN]

Originally posted by: Algere
If you want a card that supports all of today's different 3D sound standards, you're gonna have to go with a SoundBlaster. At this time only SoundBlasters support EAX 3/4. If you can forgo that then I'd recommend the M-Audio Revolution 5.1, although you're gonna take a performance hit with the Revolution 5.1 since it processes 3D sounds via software & not hardware like the SoundBlasters.

That sucks, and was what I was afraid of. I guess I will pick up an Audigy2.

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: FlasHBurN

Originally posted by: Baked
Chaintech AV-710 or E-MU 0404.

How is the CPU usage on those cards when gaming, compared to say, an Audigy2?

Low (DirectSound) to high (EAX) CPU usage depending on 3D sound API utilized.

 

[pennylane]

How about with a game like HL2 where the only options you get for sound are "Low," "Medium," and "High?"

 

[DN]

Why would anyone frown picking up an Audigy 2? That sound card is simply awesome -- This should help you decide which model of Audigy 2 to get.. Ciao.

 

[Megatomic]

I was in your boat FlasHBurN when I moved up from my Abit NF7-S R2 to my Soltek K8AN2E-GR. I wound up swallowing my pride and bought a SB Audigy 2 ZS Gamer. And I swore I'd never buy a Creative product...

 

[FlasHBurN]

Looks like I am going to pick up this one..
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/...jsp?ProductCode=290223

Thanks guys.

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: fanerman91
How about with a game like HL2 where the only options you get for sound are "Low," "Medium," and "High?"

I assume the difference between Low, Medium, & High would be the # of sound channels/streams played. Other than that, HL2 probably uses DirectSound3D as I've yet to see any mention of EAX in game (as mentioned) or on HL2's retail box.

 

[pennylane]

Originally posted by: Algere

Originally posted by: fanerman91
How about with a game like HL2 where the only options you get for sound are "Low," "Medium," and "High?"

I assume the difference between Low, Medium, & High would be the # of sound channels/streams played. Other than that, HL2 probably uses DirectSound3D as I've yet to see any mention of EAX in game (as mentioned) or on HL2's retail box.

So does it matter if I have an Audigy 2 or a Chaintech?

 

[FlasHBurN]

Originally posted by: Algere

Originally posted by: fanerman91
How about with a game like HL2 where the only options you get for sound are "Low," "Medium," and "High?"

I assume the difference between Low, Medium, & High would be the # of sound channels/streams played. Other than that, HL2 probably uses DirectSound3D as I've yet to see any mention of EAX in game (as mentioned) or on HL2's retail box.

It actually uses Miles, blah!

 

[coejus]

Originally posted by: DN
Why would anyone frown picking up an Audigy 2? That sound card is simply awesome -- This should help you decide which model of Audigy 2 to get.. Ciao.

Because Creative's drivers suck and the card is way overpriced. It's decent, but it's not really much better than cards costing half as much.

 

[Algere]

Originally posted by: fanerman91

Originally posted by: Algere

Originally posted by: fanerman91
How about with a game like HL2 where the only options you get for sound are "Low," "Medium," and "High?"

I assume the difference between Low, Medium, & High would be the # of sound channels/streams played. Other than that, HL2 probably uses DirectSound3D as I've yet to see any mention of EAX in game (as mentioned) or on HL2's retail box.

So does it matter if I have an Audigy 2 or a Chaintech?

As flashburn said, it's Miles. A format I'm not too familiar with although it doesn't sound like it's proprietary like EAX e.g. So supportwise I don't think it matters much between the 2 cards but don't quote me on that. Performance wise I can only guess having hardware acceleration assist's the CPU ergo decreasing CPU usage that would normally be processed by the CPU.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

I looked over the link to the comparison chart...

I am also looking to buy an audigy, is there any real reason to splurge for the ZS if I dont need a firewire port? (Logitech 640 speakers, so nothing spectacular)

 

[FlasHBurN]

Slightly better Signal to Noise Ratio..

 

[HardcoreRobot]

Originally posted by: FlasHBurN
Slightly better Signal to Noise Ratio..

is this worth the price jump?

 

[ChaoZ]

What's Speaker Calibration for Optimal 3D Positional Audio? Does that let you adjust the volumes of all the speakers?