Hi guys.

I have a Asus P5B Deluxe with "AC97" & "ADI® AD1988B 8-channel High Definition Audio"

The sound sucks. (really bad) I'll look for better drivers again.

Please suggest a low-profile PCI or PCIe-1x card that uses very little CPU power, easy to find drivers, as good as EAX (or whatever is most popular now), and works well with any game.

My speakers are just average (4 + sub), so I don't need a very high-end card.

Ok, thanks!

Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail

$28 shipped

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6829102002

Yeah, the audigy SE is a good choice, It doesn't have hardware acceleration (If you try to enable EAX or hardware acceleration, it either won't work or the sound will be weird) but it will make an enormous difference in music and the sound quality in games over on-board.

Thanks for the suggestions!
It seems the Audigy SE is better than AC97.

Creative Audigy 2.

Agreed, thats what I have in this rig. When you install the drivers I'd suggest NOT installing Creative's Media Source Go. Also if you use a Microphone then you'll have to set it in the mixer because it's not enabled by default.