Need sound card advice for new build

[Tank]

I ordered a new system a few days ago, and originally, I had intended to run my old Audigy 2 ZS, and my XP 64 bit OS, on all my new hardware. The more I thought about it, XP just is not designed for use with new hardware and SSD's.

So, I find myself in need of choosing a sound card, by tonight sometime. I need to order before they ship the rest of my stuff and my Sound card misses the boat home.

75% of the time I will be listening to music, watching movies on Youtube and the other 25% of the time will be gaming. My speakers are 5 year old Logitech Z-5500s. Right now the sound quality I am used to is coming from a SB Audigy 2 ZS card.

I don't have $200 to blow on a ASUS card, so I need to know what a good option is under $150. The guy at the local store suggested the Sound Blaster X-FI Xtreme Gamer. I am worried whatever card I purchase will not work right with Windows 7 drivers. I have heard a lot of stories about all makes of current cards having issues with Windows 7.

Does this sound like a good card for running what I have described?

Thank you.

 

[Tmagic650]

So what did you decide on?

 

[Zilpha]

I'm more curious about what the driver issues he has been "hearing" about with Windows 7. Of all the OS's Microsoft has released to date, Windows 7 is probably the most stable in terms of playing nicely with hardware.

 

[Tmagic650]

I agree Zilpha,
the "generic" drivers included with Windows 7 work better than any other Windows version to date. I have only had issues with sound and video with Windows 7. A new add-on sound card or Video card compatible with DX11 solves most of these problems

 

[Tank]

I went with the AuzenTech X-FI Hometheater HD soundcard. It blew this build way out of budget, but quite frankly...I don't care haha. Can't put a price on top quality products.

 

[Tmagic650]

Great Tank, good luck with it!

 

[thysol]

I went with the AuzenTech X-FI Hometheater HD soundcard. It blew this build way out of budget, but quite frankly...I don't care haha. Can't put a price on top quality products.

The Soundcard is pretty good but your speakers are rubbish. You won't get the full potential out of your sound card if you don't buy better speakers.

 

[tweakboy]

Looks @ my sig rig

 

[SNGX1275]

I'm more curious about what the driver issues he has been "hearing" about with Windows 7. Of all the OS's Microsoft has released to date, Windows 7 is probably the most stable in terms of playing nicely with hardware.

Creative doesn't have drivers for Vista or 7 for a lot of their older cards, they just want you to buy a new card.

 

[Mizzou]

I went with the AuzenTech X-FI Hometheater HD soundcard. It blew this build way out of budget, but quite frankly...I don't care haha. Can't put a price on top quality products.

I have the AuzenTech X-FI HomeTheater HD card and think you will be very pleased with it.

Creative doesn't have drivers for Vista or 7 for a lot of their older cards, they just want you to buy a new card.

That's for sure, I used to have the Creative Audigy 2ZS Platinum Pro and although Creative finally released Vista drivers they didn't provide the full feature set for the card.

 

[Tmagic650]

I stopped using Creative sound cards a long time ago. The on-board Realtek HD sound rocks on it's own these days. Turtle Beach was cool in its day...

 

[SNGX1275]

I'm more curious about what the driver issues he has been "hearing" about with Windows 7. Of all the OS's Microsoft has released to date, Windows 7 is probably the most stable in terms of playing nicely with hardware.

Creative doesn't have drivers for Vista or 7 for a lot of their older cards, they just want you to buy a new card.

After more carefully reading Zilpha's post, I think I may not have been as clear as I could have been in my reply. Not only does Creative not support a lot of their older cards, there are no Microsoft made 'generic' drivers for them. So for example, I have an older HP desktop that I put Win 7 Starter on (for various reasons) and apparently the onboard sound is ran by Creative Soundblaster Live chipset. So no audio. I've looked into ones people have tried to write, as well as forcing XP drivers and none worked (although some custom made ones have gotten some sound, but its not usable).