It's time to choose...

[Frylock]

I've looked long and hard for a new soundcard that will give me good quality and great sound in game. My Sound Blaster PCI 512 isn't cutting it anymore, and I've been looking to upgrade my soundcard for quite some time now. I have come to three soundcards and I'm not sure which one to get. Your input on this would be greatly appreciated.

Hercules Fortissimo III: Good price and stability, however there is apparently sound distortion at low volumes. (Which is a problem since I have non-amplified headphones which I use 100% of the time.)

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy X-Gamer: Great sound, but stability issues and critical stability issues.

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2: Top of the line with all the bells and whistles, but expensive. I'm not too sure about the stability of this card.

Which one should i get? Which one is the best with the least problems for my XP/AMD/VIA system?

If there's a card that I left out feel free to tell me about it.

PS: Sorry for the vague Half-Life reference, I just thought it would be fun to throw that in there with all the HL2 madness going round. :P

[aphremen]

I would go with whatever has the lowest cpu utilization. Very kickass handle/avatar.

[WhoGivesARatsAss]

Hercules as i have seen many ppl brag abt its performance.. as for audigy 2 its a cool card no doubt.. if u can afford it u should as driver updates are available and considering that i have had an sb live for so long and it still runs games fine.. with a few exceptions i wouldnt worry too much abt those games.. plus it has EAX 2 or 3 also which simply rocks.. best value for money if u have a 5.1.. if u have a 7.1 set i would recommend some other card.. for headphones i think even sb live is cool enuff.. and ofcourse its dirt cheap! and has 5.1 support

[Frylock]

Well I opened up my computer and I think I have a Soundblaster LIVE 5.1 or something... So you probably just saved me a lot of money. :D However, whenever I try to enable EAX in any game, the Soundblaster software decides to make everything in the game echo and reverb. I try disabling the reverb and echo, even in game, but seconds later the echo returns. This problem vexes me. A lot. Any solutions?

[Frylock]

Well I upgraded my drivers (turns out I do have a SB LIVE 5.1) and everything works perfectly. No echo in EAX games, just clean, clear, crisp sound. In fact I think my audio quality went up!!! Problem resolved, thanks for the help :)