Need Sound Card Suggestions

[SoundQA]

Hi,

Can anyone suggest a sound card that is not only good as a 'general use' card (games, etc.), but also has respectable recording quality? Basically, I'm trying to avoid a situation of having both, say, an SB Audigy card (which I hear is horrible for recording) plus, say, an M Audio Audiophile 2496 card (which I hear is horrible for general use) in my machine at the same time. For general use, it doesn't have to be as fancy as an Audigy, and for recording purposes doesn't have to have multiple inputs, just a good clean signal.

Thanks!

[Justin]

Sounds like you're trying to dabble in audio on your gaming machine?
This is a difficult situation. Your professional grade soundcards are generally not
going to be good for double duty. You might consider getting a USB or Firewire based
audio card and leaving your PCI card in. It won't be the most optimal solution, but
you can always unhook the audio interface when you don't need it that way and free up some resources. You could also set up two system profiles in the windows control panel. I've seen this done with video rigs with a capture card and a Geforce card before.

[TeeCee]

I'm backing Justin here for sure. The nicer audio interfaces will not have gaming options like on-board synths and 3-D sound. And you'll possibly find that many of nicer cards do not want to live with a gaming card installed. You may want to look for a USB based gaming interface (hopefully they exist) and get a decent PCI card for your audio (like the Audiophile). You can then disconnect the USB interface if necessary when working on audio. It all depends on what you really want to do. If you had to choose between working on audio and playing games, which would you choose?

In other news, as many will tell you, your audio PC should only do audio. If you want it to work and be trouble free that is.

[NukleoN]

I can tell you that I use an M-Audio Delta 1010 and it's fine for games as well as great for music. If you're CD-ROM supports digital playback, you don't even need that little wire that normally connects from your CD-R to your sound card...and this means the Delta 1010 should be able to play CD's as well. I have an SB LIVE in my machine but haven't used it in a long time.

[FMMMMM]

From personal experience, games and computer just do not work out that well. Spend $200.00 on a gaming system to hook to your t.v. Maybe
even use web t.v. to play games. But if you ever get into serious recording, games will interfere. Games defragment you disk over long
periods of time. This is problem if you are running mixing and recording
software. Some of my friends dissagree with me, but they are calling
me with there problems. All of the ones with problems play games on
their computers.

[NukleoN]

Ummm....you're actually recommending Web TV? Ok I can safely ignore your advice then. Sorry..no really..games are ok..just defrag your disks once in a while. :D

Also, you can't compare console games to PC games...different interfaces and well, I don't play console games...nothing beats a mouse for first person shooters.