I'm looking for some nice sound card to add to my computer. I don't like the on-board sound anymore, after all how can I enjoy the new 3D audio in games or try to program some cool things in DirectSound with on-board audio :) ? My first thought was to simply search the net for Sound Blaster cards and buy a decent one for the lowest price. But in the process of doing that I found that Creative is not the only make of good sound cards . With that said, anybody have any experience with cards from TurtleBeach? Mainly their Santa Cruz card? The URL for official product page:

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/soundcards/santacruz/

I've read that it is a great sound card.

Any opinions on this?

I'll defer this one to my son. I'm happy with my onboard 5.1 sound. I'm sure he'll have some tips on what to get.

I was happy with my onbard sound until I found out the experience of Digital Sourround 5.1 on XBOX. The difference is just astonishing.

In process of further investigation I found that the Santa Cruz card hasn't been really supported since mid-2003 because that's when the last official drivers were released. That is probably because the card is old and Turtle Beach came out with new ones which unfrtunately don't compare to Creative's in terms of specs even though the prices are considerably lower. This makes me lean over to Creative's side and their Audigy 2 ZS card.

Well, no matter what card I already ordered a set of nice 5.1 speakers. Logitech sells them for $80 but amazon has a HUGE deal on them, lowering the price to 46.94, even better then newegg.com's price. They are pretty good, support Digital Surround, and thats all I really want :). If anybody needs them (:)) then just search Amazon.com for Logitech Z-640, but do it fast because they might be out at some point, yesterday's amazon sales rank was 3!

since you're only going to be using 5.1 speakers i'd recommend the audigy 2 (non zs)

 

the zs basically just adds 7.1 support and gold plated connectors to my knowledge. besides you can find the audigy2 for about 75 bux.

 

as for competitors to look at, M-Audio has the revolution, i've heard many good things about these cards, can';t say whether or not they outperform the audigy 2 or not, but they're definately an alternative to look at. personally i'd go for the audigy2, creative has really good driver support, and they've never steared me wrong.

I looked at M-Audio too, but their prices a just a little bit more then what I want/can spend right now.

If I will go with Sound Blasters then I think Ill go with Audigy 2 ZS rather than Audigy 2. It has better features. And newegg.com has ZS for $88 which isnt that much over $75 like you said.

The difference between the Audigy and the Revolution is that the Audigy has actual onboard sound processors, whereas the Revolution delegates a lot of these tasks to the system processor. From reviews I've read, this isn't terribly noticable unless you set up a benchmark to specifically stress sound processing and CPU at the same time.

I decided to go with Audigy 2 ZS. It seems like a nice product. Now all I have to do is wait and wait for it to arrive :).

Finally got the card. It sounds great and I'm very happy with it. The good thing is that they provided full version games that present the Advanced EAX technology and it sounds great, even on my old speakers (still have to wait for the new ones to arrive).

Free games with hardware are great stuff :) Between video and sound cards over a 3 year period a while ago, I never actually bought an FPS game in a box because I'd gotten the promos.