Best gaming soundcard for windows 7

[Canuck250]

With the new year on me and my 15 year old soundcard sputtering to its death, what card would be best for a windows 7 gaming machine, mainly playing counter-strike source?

 

[IvanAwfulitch]

I'll try to put this as simply as I can. As long as the sound card is by Creative Labs, and the sound card fits in a slot you have available on your motherboard, then it barely matters what you get. I get excellent sound from my card. My card is a PCI Creative Soundblaster Audigy SE that I got a year or two ago for $30. Driver support for it with Windows 7 gave me a little bit of trouble, but I got it to work anyway. It's an old card...what can I say? Driver issues are to be expected in such a case.

Regardless though, the general rule of thumb still stands. Just let me know how much you're willing to spend and what slot you have and I can link you to an appropriate card if you like. Cards go for anything between $30 and $300 bucks. There are PCI-Express versions and PCI versions as I'm sure you're aware.

If there's anything that needs further explanation, please ask. I'll be happy to answer.

 

[slh28]

If you mean best of the best, there are several hundred dollar soundcards for audiophiles, but as it sounds like your situation is mainly for gaming, I would recommend the Creative X-fi Xtreme Gamer - it uses a PCI-E x1 slot, sounds great when playing games and drivers work with Windows 7.

 

[dividebyzero]

This could be worth a look-just been released...
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/01/prweb3420054.htm

PCIe x1 , EAX 5.0, 122dB (DAC), 118dB (ADC) etc, etc....

 

[Canuck250]

thanks for the responses, my main concern is surround sound in my headphones, as in I want to hear exactly where that footstep was.