Anyone Know Anything About Sound Cards?

[Teac23]

Hi.

Looking to buy a Sound Card

Must have (optical digital out for connecting to home cinema systems.)

I was thinking of buying the following

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer - Sound card - 24-bit - 192 kHz - 109 dB SNR - 7.1 channel surround - PCI - Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity - low profile

http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&sku=...186&lid=121454

Can i get anything better or the same cheaper then £70

I Would like some help from anyone who knows about this stuff. I'd be grateful for some opinions!

Thanks

[Nelson37]

Optical digital out not very common.

I have that card plus another similar one. Hard to go wrong with Creative Labs.

It also has the capability to capture surround sound as a digital wav thru the SPDIF connector.

You may have to get the optional extra front panel attachment in order to get optical out.

[Soopafresh]

Turtle Beach makes very good audio cards.

Turtle Beach Montego DDL 7 has all the features you requested and is quite affordable (as long as you're referring to SPDIF as digital-out) The only thing to be aware of is that it currently has no drivers for Vista.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829118006

M-Audio also makes excellent audio cards

M-AUDIO Revolution 5.1 (as long as you only need 5.1). Great card, look at the Digital Out connection on it to be certain you have the proper connector:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829121122

[DB83]

Here :-

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4R6Z&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=creative&...ationKey=50450

As my friend has already said, and confirmed by the reviews, you will need some extra component for home-theatre and that will push up the cost.

[Teac23]

Thanks to all that replied for your time and help much appreciated!