Help picking sound card.....

[RAR]

Need some help on which sound card to buy. Below are my two choices, which one should I get?

Hercules Fortissimo II PCI, Cirrus Logic CS4624 Sound Fusion Chipset, 8mb Yamaha SYXG50. 4 speaker out; Optical In/out! A3D, EAX, DS3D, Sensaura 3D Engine

or

CREATIVE LABS SOUND BLASTER LIVE! 5.1 - OEM Features: EMU10K1, Digital Signal processor EAX, advanced audio effects, Speaker mode / Creative Multi-Speaker Surround (CMSS) mode, and Dolby Digital 5.1 support


Both are $31.00.

Thanks in advance for any help/opinions.

[storm2k]

depends what you want to do with them. i personally like the soundblaster, i have an mp3+ 5.1 and it's been a great card! hercules aren't bad cards either. depends on what system you're putting them in, the sb lives can be a bit voracious on proc requirments, but i still prefer them myself.

[RAR]

I want it to sound good with music and games. Here are the specs of what I plan on putting the card in:

Foxconn case w/325W PS
40GB IBM 7200RPM Deskstar 120GXP
256MB PC2100 DDR RAM (Crucial)
ECS K7S5A Motherboard (has on-board sound)
AMD 1700+/1.47GHz Athlon XP
ATI Radeon 8500 64MB DDR Video Card

Hope this helps.

[Bob The Great]

Hard choice. I'd probably pick the Live! from the reviews of both cards I've read.

[jak]

hrmm you cant help but look at the optical in out though, i like that feature, i may get that as my next card cause i wanna run my system to a receiver instead of pc speakers, so dont overlook the optical in out , its the easiest way to keep yer 5.1 channels or whatever while running to a receiver, incase you watched dvds on your computer with dts

[Rhino]

Is the Hercules 5.1 compliant w/ optical out?

[jak]

i believe all of the hercules have optical out with 5.1 using the dvd's decoder

[VERT]

Originally posted by Rhino
Is the Hercules 5.1 compliant w/ optical out?

Your thinking of the Game Theatre XP

I would also take into consideration the Phillips Seismic Edge, while it costs a little more is leaves both the cards you have mentioned for dead + with the SB Audigy, these are the only 2 cards that do true 5.1 Dolby Digital/ DTS decoding (with the exception of the slighty more expensive model - Philips Acoustic Edge)

[Ming]

I think that a Philips card would provide incredible sound and plenty of good options. I love Philips' acoustic edge, and think that the accompanying Yamaha SYXG50 soft synth software is great with midi. If only given the two options mentioned, I would opt for the Hercules card.

[jak]

just a little fyi for yall the acoustic edge is only 70 bucks retail boxed!