003 said:The creative subwoofer SUCKS. I used to have that EXACT speaker system. I found out, that nothing ever uses 7.1, 5.1 is more than enough. It will also be a bit more powerful as it won't have 2 extra speakers to power. Here would be a much nicer setup for his budget:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836121121
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829118106
The Logitech THX Z-5300e 280W 5.1 speakers, and the Turtle Beach CATALINA sound card. Totals out to $190.
Hah, you dont even get real 5.1 for that matter.. At least not with a crappy audio card made by creative.. When their cards do the rear channel encoding all it does is take the front 2 channels flip flops them, and shoots the signal to the rear speaker. Go get a Y adapter and plug both front and rear speakers into the adapter that is plugged into the primary output. You will not notice a difference in the sound (other than the channels wont be flip flopped)
M-Audio revolution 7.1 (for gaming/music) is the only way to go. Higher quality components, better design, and has more experienced team of audio gurus developing the devices. Creative has been caught lying about their products to push them before.. And im sure will do so in the future. They have NO products that can do 96k, they have NO products that do surround sound properly, and they also have NO products that are truly >16bit.
Unless of course you have 400$ to spend on an m-audio firewire-410.. It's the best audio device on the market that still uses wdm drivers.