HTPC sound card question... (1 Viewer)

[Joe Hsu]

First off, I was wondering what most people in here use...does everyone have the nicest cards (m-audio), or do some of you find it acceptable to go with an Audigy, Santa Cruz, something from Hercules, or even, onboard c-media!? I was just really curious, for two reasons: 1.) If I were to build an HTPC, or a PC with HT capabilities and 2.) If I were to build one to sell later on.
Lastly, I was wondering if there has been any talk of the new VIA Envy24 audio chipset, here. Seems like it would be a nice addition to the selection of sound cards.
Thanks all...I'm sure someone'll tell me to do a search for what sound cards are used, but I have at least one legitimate question in here.

 

[AllenD]

I use the Maudio AP2496. Can't imagine using anything else...

 

[Dave E H]

Check out this:
http://tech-report.com/reviews/2002q...s/index.x?pg=1

 

[Joe Hsu]

Yeah, that's what sparked the question, I'm up to date with all computer parts, i was just curious what people here use. I'm building my g/f a miniPC for her grad present, and I might build myself one and use it as a divx/dvd/mp3/data server...I wanted to know exactly what people are putting in their HTPCs these days, since I was hoping that I could build one and sell it off.

(I'm CE at UM)

 

[Max Leung]

I use the onboard audio from my Asus A7N266-C, which has an NVIDIA nForce chipset. Same chip used in the Xbox for real-time hardware DD5.1 audio encoding!
It's really cool to listen to a concert DVD in DD5.1 and hear Windows desktop sounds mixed in real-time at only 5% CPU usage.
Even better: Listen to a DTS 5.1 CD while playing a 3D audio supported computer game with hardly any CPU hit...silly I know, but it's great.
I only wish it would encode DTS in realtime though, heh.