Help: New Sound Card Needed

[J3DI]

Yeah, so in my efforts to do a clean re-install of Vista, my sound card crapped out on me. I was using a Creative SB Live card, which I'm sure everyone knows doesn't really work with Vista, but I used magic to get'er going. So the question, where do I go now?

My system:

P4 3GHz
1GB RAM (I know I'm getting more tomorrow)
Vista 32bit
GeForce FX 5200
no sound 5.1 speakers :(

[KingGorilla]

Other than On Board sound, which is utter ASS for 5.1, I cannot think of a sound card that reliably works well in Vista. This has been a major issue. Most of the articles I have seen from say Anandtech, are mostly bitch fests about driver support. You may need to find some anecdotes elsewhere.

[J3DI]

Say it ain't so Joe?!

[Khrymsyn]

Well, the problem with Vista and sound is that Vista no longer allows the type of direct access that XP used to allow (I think to fix a variety of buffer overrun errors). This in turn means that sound card drivers are very "hit or miss"

I can tell you I have a Razor Barracuda AC-1 and getting it to work was a complete pain in the ass under Vista64. Took me days of researching, installing, uninstalling, etc... Now that it works however? It's sweet. =)

[Karak]

I would have to agree. Soundcards and vista are hit and miss. I have 3 Vista machines. The Soundblaster live 5.1 works fine in one, snaps and crackles in another and my onboard sound is the only one that works right in all of them:(
Actually onboard has made strides so just use it.

[GigaFuzz]

My Auzentech X-Plosion (http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-plosion.php) works fine. Looks like they're doing a slightly upgraded one now.