All I am in the market for a new sound system. I was unindated with features on many of these boards. Most had to do with recording, MP3 stuff etc. Support for 5.1 and 6.1 surround. First of all, does FS take advantage of any surround sound? My birthday is here and I do have a very old 16 bit board and thought this would be a nice addition. So any help would be appreciated as I have no knowledge which opens the door for purchasing more than what I need. I do play some war games but really not sure what they support either. A little education would sure help.RegardsBobG

Hi Bob,How you doing?Just built myself a new system and installed the Audigy2 with 5.1 speakers. I must say it was well worth the price and well worth the upgrade. Total cost was around $170 from Newegg. Even tho FS doesn't support it, there is a big difference in sound as I had an old 16 bit also. I have had no problems at all with it and do recommend it.Ed

Hi EdIm doing fine and hope you are the same. Well thats a good quicky review and just what I was looking for. So do you have front and rear speakers? I was reading that there is also a center speaker setup although a bit of overkill I would say. I will check it out. I already have the speakers so the board is all I need. I will check it out. thanks againBobG

Check out Hercules (www.hercules.com). The Digifire 7.1 is about $80. I have a SB Live 5.1 and the WinXP drivers are crap. You have to disable hardware exceleration just to get rid of the crackle and pops, and that doesn't get rid of all of it. I've seen several people complaining of the same with the Audigy line of cards, and yet some don't. I just don't want to take that chance, especially when you consider how overpriced the Audigy is.

Hi Bob,Yep, comes with five speakers plus subwoofer. Great for listening to Dolby stereo. Never had anything like this before and am really enjoying it.Take care,Ed