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    Sound Card Recommendations

    Yesterday I upgraded my system: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (O.C to 3Ghz), G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 1066, ASUS Striker II Formula MB, EVGA 512-P3-N867-AR GeForce 9600GT 512MB, ABS Tagan BZ800 PS, Antec 900 Case.

    Runs Kubuntu 8.04 great... Only one problem: The onboard sound doesn't currently work with ALSA (though it is recognized: snd_hda_intel). It's mostly contained on a daughterboard "SupremeFX II" riser card, which has no real processing power of its own anyway... so I'm not really interested in it. It looks cool because it's name lights up, and it has six jacks on it, but I would rather replace it now than wait years for it to be supported properly.

    So my question is this: What kind of sound cards are you other guys running? I've temporarily thrown in a spare Creative Labs Audigy SE (snd_ca0106) I had sitting around - which works fine for output... but it has no mic input! So, there goes teamspeak, skype, etc...

    I'm not running any huge complicated speaker setup at the moment (though it might be nice down the road). All I actually need is something that has a mic input, and preferably a headphone output in addition to the normal audio out (so I don't have to unplug stuff when I switch, which is every day). It should have a front panel hd audio or AC97 connector on it (the Antec 900 case has connections to work with either). It doesn't matter if the card is PCI and PCI-E - the only thing I want to stay away from is USB; I'd rather use the USBs for connecting devices that won't be connected forever. Price doesn't matter.

    Any experiences you can share with your own hardware would be appreciated. The suggested hardware in the ALSA wiki is all antiquated; nothing I can readily buy.

    For all of my research, I was thinking about the M-Audio Revolution 7.1... but I can't find any confirmation that the headphone output works (whereas people say all over that it does *not* work with the Revolution 5.1 - and they use the same driver).

    Thanks for reading my long-winded question.
    Specs:  Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (@3Ghz), G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 1066, ASUS Striker II Formula MB, Asus EN9800GTX+ Dark Knight, ABS Tagan BZ800 PS, Antec 900 Case.

    #2
    Re: Sound Card Recommendations

    I use a very simple and cheap Creative Live! 5.1. Very well supported.

    Mike

    http://www.google.com/products?q=SB+...tf-8&scoring=p
    http://monte48lowes.blogspot.com

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      #3
      Re: Sound Card Recommendations

      Thanks for the input Monte!

      Anyone else have any other input? If not, I'm probably going to follow Monte's advice and try to lay my hands on one of these old Live! 5.1's. They're so cheap, I have nothing to lose.
      Specs:  Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (@3Ghz), G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 1066, ASUS Striker II Formula MB, Asus EN9800GTX+ Dark Knight, ABS Tagan BZ800 PS, Antec 900 Case.

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        #4
        Re: Sound Card Recommendations

        I use the M-Audio Audiophile 2406 card myself. Hardy doesn't let go of the soundcard at anymoment though.. so I run both my onboard sound card and this one.

        It works very well with ALSA and provides me with broadcast quality rendering.

        Kev

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          #5
          Re: Sound Card Recommendations

          Couple of notions for your consideration:

          - I think I'd spend a little time trying to find out what is possible to get out of that onboard sound system. The Intel HDA sound can be pretty good (at least I like mine). Here's your troubleshooting link:

          http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205449

          - You mentioned Skype -- I totally bombed out trying to get Skype to work with the conventional sound system. Turns out it really wants to run a USB headset. Go to Radio Shack (if US) or similar (elsewhere) and spend the $40 USD for a "Skype Certified" USB headset and it works mindlessly and immediately.



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