Last Piece of the Puzzle: Soundcard

[arcubilis]

Hey folks,

I am building a new computer here and did a thorough amount of research; tracking items for the past year hoping to find the best time to buy.

I'm ready to pull the trigger and hope that some of you can take a look over my components here and see if i'm overlooking any important factors; compatibility issues, etc.

This computer will be mainly used for 3dsMax, photoshoping, music production and gaming - with a flexible budget of $1500 +/- $150.

$266 - Intel Core i7 2.66 GHz Processor

$53 - Titan Fenrir Universal CPU Cooler (Socket 1366 / 775 / AM2+ / AM2 / AM3 / 940 / 939 / 754 / K8) - (TTC-NK85TZ)

$145 - Corsair XMS3 6 GB ( 3 x 2 GB ) Memory - DIMM 240-pin - 1600 MHz ( PC3-12800 )
[should I bump to 12 GB?]

$212 - eVGA X58 SLI LE - motherboard - ATX - iX58 - LGA1366 Socket

$232 - eVGA GeForce GTX 280 Graphics adapter - 1 GB - GDDR3 SDRAM
[bump to gtx285?]

$224 - Antec Signature Series 850W PSU ( SG-850 )
[bump to 950?]

$206 - PIONEER BDR-203BK BDR-203 8x Blu-ray Drive (Double-layer) BD-R/RE 8x 2x 8x (BD) 16x 8x 16x (DVD) 32x 24x 40x (CD) Serial ATA Internal Black OEM

$87 - WD Caviar Black 1 TB Internal hard drive - 300 MBps - 7200 rpm

$128 - Zalman Tech GS1000SE Full Tower Enclosure

Current Total ~ $1,553

Now I do have one additional issue - I'm still looking for a good soundcard around $200. I record mainly acoustic guitar but would like to be able to record anything from trumpets to inputing electric guitar amps, etc. Any suggestions?

I'd like to keep the price close to what it is, so any recommendations on downgrading some components to be able to fit the soundcard in there is appreciated as well.

Thanks, guys.

 

[dokk2]

It's a nobrainer,, just go to newegg or tigerdirect and look at the cards in your price range and check out the user/buyer reviews,and/or check out reviews on the www..

 

[arcubilis]

Thoughts on the rest of the items?

Oh and by the way, the reviews on those sites are awful. Most of them are one-liners while I'm always concerned that the good ones are fake posts. Anyways, I heard there was a difference between PCI-E soundcards versus external adapters of some sort? Anyone shed light on this?

I'm now also considering a relatively cheap soundcard as my 'entry' into more evolved music production and perhaps i'll get a more expensive card later.

How about votes for the cheaper cards?