Try the built in soundcard first, Russ.

Many of them today tout some rather good specs, time marches on.

I think that the majority of PC users want to be able to have good sound for multimedia uses, and the designers and mfrs have been responding to that.

Playback with the newer built in sound devices is pretty darn good -- and many of the newer boards have *much* quieter and otherwise better Inputs on them as well, especially the Line Inputs.

Only reason to go aftermarket is if you really need multiple channels in many instances now.


--Mac