[Stealth]

i'm pissed at my damn integrated sound at the moment, even though it's nvidia nnforce, which is better than most, but every thing i do, even if it's just loading a webpage, the sound skips and slurrs... i mean i've got a more powerful computer than 99% of people out there, but even my damn laptop doesn't do that, and it's got less than a quarter of the overall power of my desktop.  the only thing i can think why is because of my damn sound card.

so i need a new soundcard, and i want a top of the line soundcard.  what do you recommend.

[Liberator]

Creative Labs Audigy 2 "insert version here"

Creative's drivers are crap, but they still make the best soundcard for the cash involved.  You might also look at a Panasonic or something.  

You might also check out what these guys are talking about, they seem to know what they're talking about.

[Kosh]

I've got a SB Live and it provides decent sound at an excellent price, but watch out for its driver issue.

And I used to have an integrated AC'97 sound solution in my desktop and it never did that, even when playing FS2. And this was on a Celeron. I think you might have some other wierd problem going on in there.

[Turnsky]

SB audigy 2 Platinum ZS, (i think) it's a good soundcard, and it's way cheaper without the "livedrive" or whatever that thing is that fits in a 5.25" bay..

[Stealth]

Originally posted by Kosh

And I used to have an integrated AC'97 sound solution in my desktop and it never did that, even when playing FS2. And this was on a Celeron. I think you might have some other wierd problem going on in there.

"even when playing FS2".  well FS2 is a 6+ year old game, of course my card plays FS2 perfectly, but when it comes to MP3s, and a lot of new games (max payne 2, doom3, ravenshield, etc.) sounc messes up in various ways (in MP2:  characters talk REALLY fast, in ravenshield the crackling of the radios sounds distorted, etc.).  i'm pretty sure it's the sound, and i've been wantinga new soundcard anyway

[Trivial Psychic]

I too am considering a new sound card.  I used to play FSO on my system before a recent upgrade.  Soundwise, I never had ANY problems.  I had an SB-Live Value, but I was told that the integrated audio on my new ASUS A7V-600-X was better than the old card, so I agreed to use the integrated one.  Now, FSO will often suddenly switch sounds and music into a loud buzzing noise that's REALY anoying.  The general concensus from the FSO forums is bad drivers, but I'm running the very latest ones available for Win98SE.  I'm putting an SB-Audigy2 (even OEM) on my birthday/Xmas list, and hoping that someone gets me one.  Otherwise, it'll be in my PC sometime early next year, paid out of my pocket.

Later!

[Stealth]

hey, more opinions plz

[Setekh]

Sorry dude, I just have a SB Live! and it serves me fine.

[Grug]

You could try updating the drivers for your onboard sound.
Usually that's the problem, or if you have something else conflicting with it stealing resources...

[Taristin]

I have the integrated nvidia soundstorm card as well... and as you all know, I'm running a duron 600 and 128 MB single channel DDR. Music never skips, or anything, even under heavy load. It's usually everything else that hangs...

[Stealth]

well i've downloaded the latest drivers, still the same thing.

[Stealth]

here's what my integrated nvidia nforce makes some games sound like:

http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/stealth/hostedpictures/soundprblem.mp3