Soundcard Advice!

Well the world of soundcards never really interested me until I saw a set of 5.1 Creative speakers going dirt cheap, £25 quid, the box had been opened in the store (but everything was there and intact) hence the low price. I couldn't resist. I got home only to realise that my new motherboard didn't have the orange & black jacks like my old one had. The only option was to go buy a soundcard. That I did, I bought this:
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=1191&category_id=130&manufacturer_id=0

It looks like a crappy piece of junk, and I have never heard of the brand in my life. It cost the best part of £10 when I got it and it worked just fine for about 8 months, now it has died on me, can't find the receipt but I guess it would cost me more than its worth to send it back under warranty by post so...
I was wondering if any of you could recommend a decent sound piece, I don't want to be spending anywhere near the region of 3 digits, preferably under 50 quid (one weeks uni budget down the drain), but I don't mind going a couple of quid over if it's really worth it.

The thing is that my ears are not as finely tuned as a musician's, but I can tell the difference between good and crap sound quality. What I had before this junk copped out was very good in my opinion, but can I get better? Would spending £55 on one of these give me a realistic improvement or are we talking about £100 before I get any benefit in spending the money? Give me some of your opinions and past experiences because I don't want to be wasting precious booze money on a card that's not going to out perform the £10 card I had before ^^

 

HI...i really dont know much about sound cards/prices but if you go to www.newegg.com and in the left menu scroll down to sound cards, they have some listed with Customer Ratings & reviews with them!

Hope this helps.

 

thanks mate, I will have a look, I would appriciate some more imput from gusy who know what there on about too, you can't always take customer reviews to seriously

 

Generally, when you choose a audio card pay attention to the following. Some may seem to hard to get but keep the undrlined parts in mind:
1)3D sound accelerator. Means the card has its own processor and does not use the CPU.
2)frequency range. Shows the range of the frequency the card can reproduce in a proof volume. Most cards have a range from 30Hz to 20Khz. Of course the bigger the range is the better the card performs.
3)Total Harmonic Distortion. The less the THD percentage is the better for you.
4)signal-to-noise ratio. Shows the volume of the sound we "want" to hear against the envirormen's "noise" (buzzing). The bigger the ratio is the better the card is. A good card must have a SNR above 90 decibels.

My suggestions:
Creative Soundblaster Audigy 4. SNR=100db, EAX advanced HD 4.0 65 Euros.
Creative Soundblaster Audigy SE. SNR=100db, EAX advanced 3.0, 25 Euros.
If you'd like something more cool check
Trust 510EX USB 5.1 External with 30 Euros.
As you can see with less than 50£ you can have dream cards.

 

So the Creative Soundblaster Audigy 4 prefroms well in video games? I was tempted by the X-Fi Xtreme Music card, but its going to cost about £60. Im in too places at the moment, spend more and get more or buy a budget card and get poor preformace :O

 

Audigy $ is not a budget card at all. I don't have one myself but others are very sutisfied with games. The EAX advanced technology makes the game effects more real. (Do I sound like I want to sell one of these?)

 

you say that the audigy 4 is 65 euros, may I ask where you saw that price? I can't fine one that cheap anywhere
anyone one would like to sell one if it made you money!

 

hmm another quick question, my speaker's Signal-to-Noise-Ratio is 75 dB, will I be able to tell the difference between a 75 dB & 100 dB card? My gut says no but theres always more than meets the eye

 

Ok I just cjecked and in UK it costs 56£. Here (Greece) the latest pricelist says 65Euros. Maybe the duty for inporting such things is high in UK and there goes the increased price.