cheap good quality sound card

[mig]

can anyone recommend a good quality sound card that is good for gaming, watching movies and listening to music? i am currently using the onboard sound on my elitegroup k7s5a motherboard and am looking to upgrade to a sound card, preferably with audio outputs to go with the tv out on my graphics card. uk pounds only please!
current pc specs:
elitegroup k7s5a motherboard
2000+ athlon xp cpu
256mb ddr 2100 ram
ati radeon 7500 64mb ddr graphics card
10gig 5400 hard drive (going to add a second 60gig hd shortly)
cd rewriter drive
dvd drive
using on board sound

mig
'the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didnt exist'

 

[Teq]

Not long ago there were a real glut of Sound Blaster PCI-128s floating around for about $20cdn (less than $17us)... good card, excellent midi rendering... if you can find one.



---> <b>Press ALT-F4 for IQ test</b><---

 

[r2k]

I don't know about the exact sound solution used in ECS K7S5A but remember that almost all cheap sound cards these days use the same chip/codec as those used onboard the newer mainboards (e.g. CMedia or Fortemedia chips/codecs). This means that you probably won't get anything new from buying very cheap cards.

For under $50, Hercules Fortissimo III is very good value with good quality sound and it performs well in games. Creative's Audigy (around $65) is another option that may do a bit better in newer games and is a very good sounding card for the price.

 

[Helpmostimes]

You Can Can try A Creative 512,Which worked really well for me for years.And you can still get them new.Im now useing a Audigy Gamer.Only Becuase im useing a 5.1 systom.I still have the 512 card after 5 years.When its hooked up to my old YST Yamaha 2.1 Speakers,It beats most of the new ones..Flat out as far as Loud and Driving.....128s get bashed a lot as far as Sound cards.Coming from a Loyal Creative Fan from day one.The 512 worked Very well with DVDs and Gameplay. Its just a thought.....

 

[SmokeDog]

I was using onboard sound. I just upgraded to the Hercules Fortissimo III. It sounds great. I bought it online from NewEgg for $48 dollars (including shipping). There are certainly cheaper cards on the market, but this seems well worth the price.

It did take some tuning to get it to work though. I have a VIA chipset and had to download the latest drivers to make it work. In all fairness downloading the latest drivers was probably something that I should have done anyway.

 

[Mi_kal]

Another vote for the Fortissmo III. I use it with my MSI 745 SIS chipset motherboard and an XP1800. It works flawlessly. Big improvement over the onboard sound. BF1942 became a different game with this sound card-I was missing alot of sounds with the onboard sound. Music is also much improved.

Mikal