[fyrfytrhoges]

I have a friend who recently bought a HP Pavillion 304W computer from walmart. He is interested in burning cds with a dvd rom drive. The question I have is where the law of diminishing returns sets in for this level of computer with regards to soundcards. I told him I thought spending more than 60 - 80 $ would be wasting his money because with his modest computer he would not be reaping the benefits of a more expensive soundcard. Any thoughts on this, any advice on a specific card that might be good for this system? I know nothing about soundcards but I know many of you guys are good with this stuff so help me out with some advice.

 

[blessingx]

There's a bunch here to discuss, but the quality of the computer plays far less (assuming he has the processing power to play files without skipping, etc.) than the soundcard, external device, etc. He could probably spend several hundred (decent card or USB & an external DAC), use uncompressed (WAV/AIFF) or lossless compressed (FLAC, etc.) files and get great sound. For his listening habits, etc. this may not apply. A $99 Revolution may be great and enough. Just depends.

The M-Audio's cards and USBs are pretty respected here. The ART DI/O seems much liked for a relatively cheap DAC (now $125 from NewEgg).

 

[lan]

Since when did newegg start selling ART DI/Os?

Anyway, a modern computer whether budget or top of the line can utilize a great soundcard to it's fullest. The more limiting factor is what are his headphones and speakers. Also what does he intend on doing with this computer? If it's gaming, Audigy2 is the only real option. If it's just music and movies then M-Audio Revo is best bang for buck option.

 

[blessingx]

My bad. It's Full Compass. Wonder why I keep getting those two confused?

Thanks for the catch, Ian.

 

[picklgreen]

A computer has nothing to do with the soundcard capabilites! If its soudn quality he is after than any soundcard will still be a worthy upgrade regardless of the computer itself! The way a sound card works is it uses the OS to tak to the sound card and than is up to the sound card to creat the sound. As long as the computer handles the current drivers for that sound card it does not matter at all how old that coputer is or how cheap it is etc!

Now the only thing that the computer itself will effect is the speed at which the sound card can rip mp3's, etc, but when playing a cd or reproducing sounds from a game, etc., that wont be effected by the computers speed. Also remember if you listen to cd's from a computer, the speed of the player doesnt matter either....cd's are read a 1x speed.