Sound Cards

[maurices5000]

What price would be a reason for a decent basic sound card? No gaming

What companies might you recommend?

[saphalline]

If it's not for gaming or audio recording, why buy a sound card at all? Modern onboard audio is more than good enough for basic tasks. Heck, I still use onboard audio for gaming, too!

Unless this is a really old system? Like before the days of affordable onboard audio? In this case, I'd recommend a $20-25 sound card, like the Sound Blaster Live! (either the old 5.1 version or the newer 24-bit version).

[maurices5000]

Thanks! Its not for home use. this is a business i'm asking for and i think they've scaled down the models. I will get the model numbers and look them up on the internet. I forgot about onboard sound. Thanks!

[saphalline]

Hmmm... well in that case, these systems don't necessarily need a sound card. Windows is able to output its warning/error pings as beeps through the system speaker.

But if these are new systems, or relatively new within the last 2-3 years, then I'd almost guarantee that they have onboard audio. We hit this "wall" a few years ago where all of a sudden the latest chipsets had decent onboard audio solutions. Then it was like every new mobo had onboard audio - BAM! - overnight! That was weird...