What sound card?

[scopio]

I am totally confused about which sound card would be most suitable to compliment my self-build pc.

At present I am not able to record directly from the sound card as it is intergrated on the motherboard
and when I try to record the only option I get is through the Lifecam mic. which is of an unsuitable quality.
I'm looking to future when HDTV cards for satalite are more readily available for my area and requirements to
watch and possibly record HDTV transmissions.

I would like a sound card for downloading and recording music from the internet. The present speakers
system is an old BOSTON Acoustic 2.1 stereo with subwoofer, which I will replace in the future, as the speakers
on the monitor, although it has HDMI capability are not that good.


I am considering to purchase on of the following;

Creative Labs SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI-Express x1
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI-Express Retail
Asus Xonar DX 7.1 Channel PCI-Express Sound Card (is this suitable for pc as the specs I've seen does not
mention any I/O?)

I would appreciate any advice on these or any comparable card for my requirements.

Budget for the card up to £90.00

My system specs.
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit
OS Service Pack REGULARLY UPDATED-
Internet Explorer 8.0.7600.16385
DirectX DirectX 10.0

Motherboard:
CPU Type QuadCore AMD Phenom, 3200 MHz (16 x 200)
Motherboard Name ASUS M4A79-T Deluxe
Motherboard Chipset AMD 790FX, AMD K10
System Memory 3328 MB (DDR3-1333 DDR3 SDRAM)
DIMM1: Corsair XMS3 CM3X2G1333C9 2 GB DDR3-1333 DDR3 SDRAM
DIMM2: Corsair XMS3 CM3X2G1333C9 2 GB DDR3-1333 DDR3 SDRAM
BIOS Type AMI (06/10/09)

Display:
Video Adapter ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (2048 MB)
Video Adapter ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (2048 MB)
Monitor ASUS VH226H 22" (95LMQS033227)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter (onVideo card) ATI Radeon HDMI @ ATI RV770 - High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Adapter (ONboard) Realtek ALC888/1200 @ ATI SB700 - High Definition Audio Controller

Storage:
IDE Controller Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller
IDE Controller Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Disk Drive SAMSUNG HD103SJ ATA Device (931 GB, IDE)
Disk Drive Sony Storage Media USB Device (3 GB, USB)
Optical Drive HL-DT-ST BDDVDRW CH08LS10 ATA Device
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Expansion slots available:
2 PCI-Express-2 x16 (at max 16 link)
1 PCI-Express-2 x16 (at max 8 link)
1 PCI

 

[Terry1212]

Stay away from the Creative X-Fi series. The X-Fi drivers create a memory leak within Windows Vista and Windows 7's AudioDG.exe process. There are ways to "work around it", but it becomes a hassle. I hope Creative comes out with new drivers soon that will take care of this problem. This problem has been known for a while.

 

[scopio]

Stay away from the Creative X-Fi series. The X-Fi drivers create a memory leak within Windows Vista and Windows 7's AudioDG.exe process. There are ways to "work around it", but it becomes a hassle. I hope Creative comes out with new drivers soon that will take care of this problem. This problem has been known for a while.

Thanks for the advice.
I will strongly consider the issue of drivers for windows 7, not only for sound cards but for almost all components

 

[scopio]

Happy to say I no longer need a sound card, I'll spend the money on something else

Sorted Win 7 wave mixer hideout