I have onboard sound on my two main computers and have two sound cards that I can use. One is this
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/tec...&s=electronics
The other is a very similar mad dog clone of it. These cards are kind of old but work fine and I have never had a problem with them. I ran across one of these on clearance for 25$ at office depot and I had a store credit to use up.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102176
It almost looks like a cheaper card than my old cards but it seems to have some newer technology.
Could anyone farmiliar with sound cards give some input on if the new one is even worth keeping for 25$ over the ones I already have?

By the way, these are the speakers I will be using and most liklly will not upgrade any time soon unless they die or something.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=172282

I'd go for this one, http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...068176&CatId=0
//Danne

That one does look nicer. I have a store credit for office depot that has been sitting in my wallet for a while though, that I want to use up, and they never seem to have anything I want (for a resonable price anyway). I really don't need a new sound card but just wondered if this one was beter than what I had since it was on clearance cheap and at office depot where I had the store credit?

New drivers can be found here:
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx...0&SubCatID=107
//Danne

Sorry DiiZzY, which card are those drivers for? I'm not totally stupid but I couldn't figure from that link which card it was for (maybe I'm partially stupid, lol).
Just to be clear, I own the 512, I just bought the live 24 (just to use a store credit). these are my only two options. I do not need a beter card over the 512 (I think), but just got the live on an impulse (15 minute break, office depot is next door, I bought it and was late back from my break). Is the live card beter than the 512 (enough to justify paying for another card). Looking t the 512, it seems a more powerfull card (doesn't use a lot of cpu power). The new card has new features, like 7.1, but I will be using 4.1 speakers, so who cares. The new card has simulated suround from stereo (the only big feature I see). My frigging suround speakers have not spoke a peap in years (system not hooked up right I guess, or nothing I played was suround). It must have been hooked up right, cause starwars 4, had suround it could read and play. nothing else did though, ever..... Just call me a newbie cause I'm really lost.
I'm guessing that the new card dosn't have the processing power of the old card, so more cpu usage, but does it have usable features (like working suround for a dumb shit like me, even if it is symulated)???
I feel really stupid now. I am so knoledgable about other aspects of computers, I really dont give a shit about the sound card (I'm running MB sound right now even though I got the sound cards). I have never been able to get computer suround sound to work with the majority of my content. I guess I just gave up a while ago.
So if anyone can help, cause I'm totally stupid on this subject, I would really appreciate it. It the new sound blaster that much beter than the old one, and worth the money?
Can anyojnew tell me how to hook up suround to those altec lansings (cause in my entire life, I have only had computer suround once.....

Turtle Beach Catalina 7.1 Digital PCI Sound Card doesnt have hardware sound processing like all other Envy based soundcards. and "only" supports EAX up to 2.0 and A3D which is more or less a dead thing.
what the best soundcard is depends on what you use it for.
if your main thing is music and DVD playback then nothing beats a good Envy24HT based soundcard (personally i like the M-Audio revolution 7.1 because of the drivers and controlpanel)
if you're a gamer you pretty much "stuck" with a creative card. you'll find EAX >2.0 / advanced HD features only on creative cards. and the mid/high range creative cards are fully harware accelerated.
only con of creative is the software that comes with the hardware. still amazes me how they manage to get 650+Mb of software on your HD when you do a standard installation. doing a customized installation is a must.