I have been asked to add a sound card to a system owned
by a friend on a budget.
The local dealer has some sound cards for about $20. I
hypothesize that these cards probably would have been
state-of-the-art five years ago, and, therefore, would do
fine for her - as opposed to spending nearly $100 for a
current SB or the like, which would have all sorts of
bells and whistles that she does not need.
Am I correct, or are these cheapie sound cards likely to
turn out to be junk? (Sound-Quality wise.)
(Her system is a P100, 32meg, Windows 3.1, DOS 6.1)
I would advise her to bite the bullet and get a decent soundcard for a
number of reasons.
First and foremost, most cheap cards depend on the system processor to do
their work for them, meaning system performance can take a mean hit. On a
P100, where there isn't a whole lot of room for piggybacked operations, this
could get downright boggy. Other bad ideas include keeping samples and
instruments in system memory, another performance hit.
Second, a good card like a SB Live! (available for about $60-$70 online)
will have a WIDE range of compatibility, and will be a good sound card for
years to come, meaning your friend can use it in her next computer/upgrade.
Of course, if that price tag is out of the question, then you can probably
find a simple utilitarian soundcard out there, but I really would think
about getting a reliable workhorse card.
-Peter Ramins
PCBUILD maintains hundreds of useful files for download
visit our download web page at:
http://nospin.com/pc/files.html
|