Hello all,
I recently got an old Dell t3400 and upon looking though the settings, I found that the motherboard does not have any support for surround sound or Realtek (What I used to use on my old mobo/computer). I have some pretty decent speakers but they are terribly balanced, I was using the Realtek equalizer but now I have no way of doing a systemwide eq balance.
Anyways, I was also thinking about setting up surround sound (5.1 or quadraphonic) in the future so I figured it was time to invest in a dedicated sound card. There are so many cards out there and I thought it would be better to ask the knowledgeable people on these forums to lead me in the right direction rather than sifting though tons of reviews and hoping I pick a good one myself. Here are my requirements:
1. Under $40
2. Has Drivers/ software that have a decent and easy to use equalizer.
2. 5.1 Surround support (or AT LEAST quadrophonic support)
3. PCI-e OR PCI is fine
4. Reliable
Having an optical audio output would be a huge bonus as well.
Also, would having a dedicated sound card take a noticeable load off of the cpu?
As always, thanks!
I recently got an old Dell t3400 and upon looking though the settings, I found that the motherboard does not have any support for surround sound or Realtek (What I used to use on my old mobo/computer). I have some pretty decent speakers but they are terribly balanced, I was using the Realtek equalizer but now I have no way of doing a systemwide eq balance.
Anyways, I was also thinking about setting up surround sound (5.1 or quadraphonic) in the future so I figured it was time to invest in a dedicated sound card. There are so many cards out there and I thought it would be better to ask the knowledgeable people on these forums to lead me in the right direction rather than sifting though tons of reviews and hoping I pick a good one myself. Here are my requirements:
1. Under $40
2. Has Drivers/ software that have a decent and easy to use equalizer.
2. 5.1 Surround support (or AT LEAST quadrophonic support)
3. PCI-e OR PCI is fine
4. Reliable
Having an optical audio output would be a huge bonus as well.
Also, would having a dedicated sound card take a noticeable load off of the cpu?
As always, thanks!