Wanting to get a sound card

zxivate

zxivate

Geek Trainee
I want to buy a nice sound card but I really don't know what specs I need to look at. So when buying a sound card what exactly do I need to look at?
 
What do you want from it? Surround sound is standard really but do you need any other stuff like asio or midi etc?
 
I'm not sure what ASIO is but MIDI is, in general, a system used to communicate between computers and electrical sound instruments(electrical piano keyboard for example)... it gets more complicated than this i assume.

Unless you need a good sound card for professional purposes, i would only really look at the amount of audio ports it has and the brand (Creative are pretty good). Things you may want to look at:

SPDIF: used to connect stereo systems, dvd players and such accessories...
Sample Rate: A lot of audio cards come with 48khz and 96khz, but again if you need to output audio or media at a higher rate for better quality go for the more expensive 192khz.
O/S: If your using a 64-bit system i'd check to see if that audio card has 64-bit support
Interface: Its up to you whether you'd like a PCI interface or a PCI-E. PCI-E's are a bit faster but PCI's are fine as well.

In general, if your going to use a card for surround and gaming... don't bother with SOME of the specs besides the ones i recommended you look at and get a cheap Creative card.

Hope i helped ;)
 
Thanks man... that clears up somethings. If anyone else has any more info that can add to my knowledge then let me know.
 
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