Sound Card recommendations

zerodamage · May 5, 2004, 12:48 AM

Since I recently lost my motherboard which had Onboard Sound Storm, I now need to pick up a decent Sound Card. Most of the new Nforce2 mobo's do not have SoundStorm since Nvidia is no longer supporting it. So What I am looking for is decent sound card that doens't cost a lot and isn't dependant on the CPU like most onboard sound is. The replacement AC97 sound for SoundStorm is terrible and hurts your performance ingame due to CPU dependance.

I am looking for Prices

I am looking for Reviews with performance in regards to CPU use.

While I would love to get an Audigy 2, the prices are less than bearable. I am open any ideas.

Thanks

ZD

BiGBrOwNPimpsta · May 5, 2004, 04:26 AM

get the audigy 2 and use the audigy 2 zs drivers from the guide i put up lol. its great.

Judas · May 5, 2004, 04:38 AM

..... Nothing like a Hercules Digifire 7.1 ..... very very cheap solution (price wise)...

zerodamage · May 5, 2004, 04:45 AM

Judas, you have any reviews for the Digifire? I've heard about it before but never checked it out.

I didn't see it on Newegg at all. Thanks guys so far.

Dom · May 5, 2004, 04:49 AM

What about a Santa Cruz? I have one and love it, not as fancy as the Audigy, but nonetheless, a great card. Forty-bucks at NewEgg.

Necrosis · May 5, 2004, 04:53 AM

I'm going to say Fort III...though those new Turtle Beach cards sound nice.

Judas · May 5, 2004, 04:56 AM

Yeah there's a few.... never really read about any of them though...

3DMark03 has a sound issue... giving you somewhat messed up low FPS in it... all other games run rather great... (actually better then when i had an audigy 2 zs)

Of course there are limitations... such as not having the latest EAX... however.. majority of games don't use it fully yet....

Another thing to note is the fact that you wouldn't really need the digifire... as it has bells and whistles you wouldn't need...

the Fortissimo 3 7.1 is pretty well the exact same thing... uses same drivers.. just a little stripped down on some unessary features.. and 30% cheaper... (usually)

why would i recommend it over the audigy...? because creative will guranteed.. have another card sitting on the shelves soon... with more "good stuff".... and you'll watch your audigy 2 zs overall support crumble....

This or the fortissimo will hold you over.... for quite some time.. it's cheap.. and it's rather very impressive...

Here's some random reviews i pulled of google...

http://www.techspot.com/reviews/hard...71/index.shtml

http://www.maximum3d.com/article.php?cat=sound&id=223

BiGBrOwNPimpsta · May 5, 2004, 06:23 AM

i would say if your using an audigy 2+ you need some good speakers to compliment it either 2.1 or 5.1 at least. the audigy 2 shines on modes after 5.1. audigy 2 zs has some enhancements and definately the drivers have been cleaned up.
quality is great with the card, i get no distortion with my inspire 5.1 5300's with 100 bass (with high bass redirection) only advantage you have with the digifire I would say is multiple sources, but if your using it for multimedia entertainment such as gaming, movies and music definately the audigy 2/zs is a fun card and crystal clear card.

the drivers dont suck in terms of quality, they suck because its bulky and a few too many files to grab and update which they should fix up. they really cleaned it up from SB Live though omfg it was horrible. and for gaming EAX makes a diff and audigy 2 zs is the card that will keep your FPS the highest in games

Judas · May 5, 2004, 06:52 AM

the fortissimo/digifire (which from now on i'll refer to as Hercules throughout this threads lifespan) has excellent results for entertaiment... The keep the FPS up rather quite high and reproduce sounds pretty well EXACTLY the same quality as audigy 2 zs.... DVD's... hercules reproduces from each channel amazingly well.... cpu usage is nill.... i mean.. playing any form of audio through winamp or other medias shows up as 0% (with task manager set to high refresh).... other testers even approve of the card using nill for usage during most music playback..... DVD audio hower nocks it up to a few percent... but that's pretty aparent even for the audigy 2 zs... Only throughback you'll see comparing the hercules to the ZS.... is the fact that the hercules card doesn't have a pure 7.1 channel difference between 6.1 ..... there are some enhancements made to fix this though (basically the 6th/7th speaker reproduces the same sound.... however... there is some enhanced stereo seperation that is attempted to make it 7.1)..... But there isn't many speaker systems that you'll come across that supports the full 7.1... and there isn't many rooms that you can setup the 6 and 7th to far apart to even really tell the difference.... however... i think this is hercules worse drawback.... but seeing as it's fairly cheap.. and i don't have 7.1 let alone 6.1.... and could be expecting a new set of soundcards soon.. this sucker still holds its value AND it works great.. excellent for putting in other computers.... To put bluntly... Your choice is.. spend a good 2-3 TIMES more money for the audigy which preformances/sounds that same as the hercules cards...... BTW... Hercules cards are the only sound card that i've come across that's PURE Plug n Play.... no restarting of the computer nessary.... simply download the driver.... start the quick install..you have pure audio within seconds....

RIV@NVX · May 5, 2004, 11:52 AM

Have you considered M-Audio Revolution 7.1 (or Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 or TerraTec Aureon 7.1 Space, they all use the same chip)? All of them are great cards, and have decent drivers (because with Aureon you can use Audiotrak's drivers which are good, and M-Audio drivers aren't bad either). The prices should be around 100$.

zerodamage · May 5, 2004, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by RIV@NVX
Have you considered M-Audio Revolution 7.1 (or Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 or TerraTec Aureon 7.1 Space, they all use the same chip)? All of them are great cards, and have decent drivers (because with Aureon you can use Audiotrak's drivers which are good, and M-Audio drivers aren't bad either). The prices should be around 100$.

The Digifire is what I am looking at right now to be honest. This card you mentioned had me very interested until the gaming section in this Review made me wonder. http://www.speedy3d.com/doc/article....Auto=18&page=3

I am still looking at reviews for it to see if this has been fixed since August of Last year.

Judas · May 5, 2004, 05:20 PM

Zero.... if you decide to go Digifire... give the Fortissimo a gander (not review wise cause there the same)...... digifire cost more due to having some extra features like firewire ports and internal firewire support along with a package of software that REALLY isn't need (all i use it PowerDVD 4.0 EX and that's it)....

zerodamage · May 5, 2004, 05:47 PM

what i've noticed is a lack of sound card reviews and discussion compared to video cards. People demand high quality sound and low processor usage and high performance sound while gaming. Digifire while there is some PR tactics involved with the sound quality, the performance is actually quite good. (16-bit according to Techreport.com).

Judas · May 5, 2004, 06:01 PM

well it uses some 18 bit and i think even a 20 bit additionals... but the output is 16 bit 48khz.... and hercules doesn't really push the "above 16 bit" at all.... so there isn't any real big tactics at all..... creative on the other hand....

Asmoday · May 5, 2004, 06:07 PM

I have the Hercules fortissimo III soundcard...and i am very pleased with it...

Judas · May 5, 2004, 06:10 PM

lol.. Super modified... and still running a hercules... woot!

~~HawK~~ · May 5, 2004, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Judas
lol.. Super modified... and still running a hercules... woot!

Why not it is an amazing card for it's price.. Creativ with the same Quality will cost $100 more
and I'm not even talking about drivers,
anyone with a FortissimoIII 7.1 ever had soundproblems, in games or else?
I love mine, a great and "warm" sound!, and the seperate Headphone plug is sooo easy in use..

Asmoday · May 5, 2004, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by HawK
Why not it is an amazing card for it's price.. Creativ with the same Quality will cost $100 more
and I'm not even talking about drivers,
anyone with a FortissimoIII 7.1 ever had soundproblems, in games or else?
I love mine, a great and "warm" sound!, and the seperate Headphone plug is sooo easy in use..

My thoughts exactly, ive never had a problem with it....

zerodamage · May 5, 2004, 06:56 PM

I am looking right now at the regular Audigy 2 ZS and the Hercules car mentioned above. Contemplating due to the fact the Audigy 2 is only 88 dollars on new egg. Hercules cards are not on NewEgg for whatever reason.

Actually, I am having a hard time finding the Digifire and the other one anywhere reputable right now. Very wierd.

Judas · May 6, 2004, 12:50 AM

wtf..... were'd they go? i swear last time i was on newegg.. which was rather quite awhile ago... the digifire was foing for like 50$ and then fortissimo was going for 30$

WAIT... newegg doesn't carry ANYTHING hercules at all.. just do a search for hercules.... nothing....

did a more thorough search and came across a heatsink/fan combo.... and the 9800 pro (hercules)... that's it....

zerodamage · May 6, 2004, 12:59 AM

Pricewatch.com has no mention of the Fortismo III or Digifire (The latest that is). Must be discontinued. I guess I will have to go with the Audigy 2 ZS.

Judas · May 6, 2004, 01:01 AM

http://www.google.ca/search?q=Hercul...-8&hl=en&meta=

http://europe.hercules.com/onlinestore.php?act=search

Brian48 · May 6, 2004, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by zerodamage
Pricewatch.com has no mention of the Fortismo III or Digifire (The latest that is). Must be discontinued. I guess I will have to go with the Audigy 2 ZS.

You are correct, both the Fortissimo and DigiFire have been discontinued and Cirrus Logic had officially declared the CS4624'a end of life cycle back in February of this year. That said, the Herc is still a very good, budget card if you can find one for cheap price on e-Bay. Except for the (very) few occassions where I might hear some minor crackling in my .mp3's while surfing, it's a solid all-around performer for games and music.

I still have mine, but to be honest, I'm holding onto it because I need DAT output for my JVC MD9000 mini-disc system. Since I don't want to spring for an A2/A2 ZS Platinum and I'm not happy with any of the budget VIA 24EnvyHT-S cards, the F3 is the best card of it's type for my purposes.

BWX · May 6, 2004, 04:46 PM

I bought my Fortissimo III at NewEgg when they still carried them. I just got the Creative Inspire T5400 speakers last week, and they sound awesome with the Fort III- Too bad they discontinued them at NewEgg, it's a great card, and the drivers are the best part- the reason I didn't get an Audigy is because of the bloated buggy drivers. I bought mine for 50 bucks more than a year ago.

zerodamage · May 6, 2004, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BWX
I bought my Fortissimo III at NewEgg when they still carried them. I just got the Creative Inspire T5400 speakers last week, and they sound awesome with the Fort III- Too bad they discontinued them at NewEgg, it's a great card, and the drivers are the best part- the reason I didn't get an Audigy is because of the bloated buggy drivers. I bought mine for 50 bucks more than a year ago.

That is my concern with the Audigy cards. The massive ammounts of system hogging crap. I just want the thing to work.

I probably would have a Fortismo or Digifire if I wasn't using the Soundstorm at the time. Best onboard sound ever made.

BiGBrOwNPimpsta · May 6, 2004, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by zerodamage
what i've noticed is a lack of sound card reviews and discussion compared to video cards.

exactly, next time we should do a review on some new sound cards and pit against each other.

zerodamage · May 6, 2004, 05:39 PM

Well... It seems the AN7 does have SoundStorm onboard. Originally finding info on whether or not it did was not easily accessable. It now seems I've found it and confirmed this. The original 3.13 drivers do not work by default. I had to Download a seperate file from Abit's site. I still may pick up a new sound card.... not sure just yet.

Judas · May 6, 2004, 05:41 PM

I've never experienced any sound problems at all.... and i have probably the worse case senario going.... not only am i surfing.... i'm playing games while playing mp3's... and not only that.. but i'm playing them from another server in my network.... Most issues i've ever experienced is trying to change winamp settings and resulting in worse quality sound.....

Judas · May 6, 2004, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by zerodamage
Well... It seems the AN7 does have SoundStorm onboard. Originally finding info on whether or not it did was not easily accessable. It now seems I've found it and confirmed this. The original 3.13 drivers do not work by default. I had to Download a seperate file from Abit's site. I still may pick up a new sound card.... not sure just yet.

might be a wise call if that board goes or for what ever reasons... you need a soundcard..

zerodamage · May 6, 2004, 06:25 PM

Until I get my payment for my job, which should be in the next week or two ($800) I will pick up an X800XT and probably RAM and a night on the town with the wife. Can't wait.

Just not sure if doing the Vid card is a good idea with PCI Express so close to coming. Gota think about it.

May 5, 2004, 12:48 AM	#1
zerodamage HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,478 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Sound Card recommendations Since I recently lost my motherboard which had Onboard Sound Storm, I now need to pick up a decent Sound Card. Most of the new Nforce2 mobo's do not have SoundStorm since Nvidia is no longer supporting it. So What I am looking for is decent sound card that doens't cost a lot and isn't dependant on the CPU like most onboard sound is. The replacement AC97 sound for SoundStorm is terrible and hurts your performance ingame due to CPU dependance. I am looking for Prices I am looking for Reviews with performance in regards to CPU use. While I would love to get an Audigy 2, the prices are less than bearable. I am open any ideas. Thanks ZD

May 5, 2004, 04:26 AM	#2
BiGBrOwNPimpsta HH's #1 Hustla and Pimp Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: The Dirty Dot Posts: 7,717 Rep Power: 107 System Specs	get the audigy 2 and use the audigy 2 zs drivers from the guide i put up lol. its great. __________________ Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music \| Logitech Z-5500 THX 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers \| 2 Lite-On 20x S-ATA Burners \| Logitech G700 Mouse \| Logitech MX5500 Bluetooth Keyboard

May 5, 2004, 06:23 AM	#8
BiGBrOwNPimpsta HH's #1 Hustla and Pimp Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: The Dirty Dot Posts: 7,717 Rep Power: 107 System Specs	i would say if your using an audigy 2+ you need some good speakers to compliment it either 2.1 or 5.1 at least. the audigy 2 shines on modes after 5.1. audigy 2 zs has some enhancements and definately the drivers have been cleaned up. quality is great with the card, i get no distortion with my inspire 5.1 5300's with 100 bass (with high bass redirection) only advantage you have with the digifire I would say is multiple sources, but if your using it for multimedia entertainment such as gaming, movies and music definately the audigy 2/zs is a fun card and crystal clear card. the drivers dont suck in terms of quality, they suck because its bulky and a few too many files to grab and update which they should fix up. they really cleaned it up from SB Live though omfg it was horrible. and for gaming EAX makes a diff and audigy 2 zs is the card that will keep your FPS the highest in games __________________ Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music \| Logitech Z-5500 THX 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers \| 2 Lite-On 20x S-ATA Burners \| Logitech G700 Mouse \| Logitech MX5500 Bluetooth Keyboard

May 5, 2004, 06:07 PM	#15
Asmoday Demonic Join Date: May 2002 Location: In the cold, dark north... Posts: 5,198 Rep Power: 92 System Specs	I have the Hercules fortissimo III soundcard...and i am very pleased with it... __________________ How You can help Hardwareheaven by using Digg

May 6, 2004, 04:46 PM	#24
BWX unplugged Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: USNY Posts: 19,669 Rep Power: 110 System Specs	I bought my Fortissimo III at NewEgg when they still carried them. I just got the Creative Inspire T5400 speakers last week, and they sound awesome with the Fort III- Too bad they discontinued them at NewEgg, it's a great card, and the drivers are the best part- the reason I didn't get an Audigy is because of the bloated buggy drivers. I bought mine for 50 bucks more than a year ago. __________________

May 5, 2004, 04:45 AM	Thread Starter #4
zerodamage HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,478 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Judas, you have any reviews for the Digifire? I've heard about it before but never checked it out. I didn't see it on Newegg at all. Thanks guys so far.

May 5, 2004, 04:49 AM	#5
Dom DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 12,940 Rep Power: 0	What about a Santa Cruz? I have one and love it, not as fancy as the Audigy, but nonetheless, a great card. Forty-bucks at NewEgg.

May 5, 2004, 04:53 AM	#6
Necrosis HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio Posts: 8,838 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	I'm going to say Fort III...though those new Turtle Beach cards sound nice.

May 5, 2004, 11:52 AM	#10
RIV@NVX Freedom is a feature. Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Croatia, Rijeka Posts: 4,476 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Have you considered M-Audio Revolution 7.1 (or Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1 or TerraTec Aureon 7.1 Space, they all use the same chip)? All of them are great cards, and have decent drivers (because with Aureon you can use Audiotrak's drivers which are good, and M-Audio drivers aren't bad either). The prices should be around 100$.

May 5, 2004, 05:47 PM	Thread Starter #13
zerodamage HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,478 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	what i've noticed is a lack of sound card reviews and discussion compared to video cards. People demand high quality sound and low processor usage and high performance sound while gaming. Digifire while there is some PR tactics involved with the sound quality, the performance is actually quite good. (16-bit according to Techreport.com).

May 5, 2004, 06:56 PM	Thread Starter #19
zerodamage HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,478 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	I am looking right now at the regular Audigy 2 ZS and the Hercules car mentioned above. Contemplating due to the fact the Audigy 2 is only 88 dollars on new egg. Hercules cards are not on NewEgg for whatever reason. Actually, I am having a hard time finding the Digifire and the other one anywhere reputable right now. Very wierd.

May 6, 2004, 12:59 AM	Thread Starter #21
zerodamage HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,478 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Pricewatch.com has no mention of the Fortismo III or Digifire (The latest that is). Must be discontinued. I guess I will have to go with the Audigy 2 ZS.

May 6, 2004, 05:39 PM	Thread Starter #27
zerodamage HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,478 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Well... It seems the AN7 does have SoundStorm onboard. Originally finding info on whether or not it did was not easily accessable. It now seems I've found it and confirmed this. The original 3.13 drivers do not work by default. I had to Download a seperate file from Abit's site. I still may pick up a new sound card.... not sure just yet.

May 6, 2004, 06:25 PM	Thread Starter #30
zerodamage HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,478 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Until I get my payment for my job, which should be in the next week or two ($800) I will pick up an X800XT and probably RAM and a night on the town with the wife. Can't wait. Just not sure if doing the Vid card is a good idea with PCI Express so close to coming. Gota think about it.