I’m picking this up after work today. I found it for $30 on austin.craigslist. It will go in my gaming machine and hopefully lower CPU useage (thus giving me more FPS), since I’m currently using onboard audio and this card has an onboard processor.
I read a couple of reviews on this card and supposedly it’s great for gaming. I believe it’s the best of the Audigy 2 series. I’ve never cared much about sound cards since I’m skeptical that the sound is “that much better” but I do have good ears so I’m anxious to see, er, hear, the difference in audio quality. Oh, and now I can use all those EAX settings that I couldn’t before.
07-12-2007 update:
I’m not sure if it lowered my FPS because I change video settings quite often (especially after upgrading to the 8800 GTS). The sound is noticeably much better, though, so I’d say that I got a great deal for a new sound card. I played a little BF2 and it’s as if different (higher quality) samples were used for the weapons. For example, the PKM sounds much different than it did before. Even though the card supports 7.1, I believe, I’m still just using 2 speakers. I may connect another couple of rear speakers to take advantage of surround capabilities.