So I want an upgrade from basic motherboard audio. Before I ask for help, though, I would like to tell a little story.
Once upon a time I got a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE from Wal-Mart (Thank God it was Wal-Mart, as you will see later). Set me back a good thirty bucks, but I was sure it would be worth it.
Problems arose straight-away. To get it to work, I had to manually disable the onboard audio from the BIOS. It didn’t detect it and automatically disable like it should. But no biggie, now I can enjoy Thuper Thound in my Music and Games.
Yeah right… I played Halo to test it out, and the sound effects were amazing - when they actually played that is. Shoot a gun: bang bang b- ban- bang bang ba- -. (The bangs are the sound effect and the hyphens indicate the sound effect cutting off.) Needless to say, I was irritated, but not too much, as that problem only occurred in Halo, which after like a hundred times through it, I am tired of playing.
I was debating with myself whether I should return it, when, one morning, it decided for me. After whining and hissing for a few seconds, it popped - and died. No more sound from that thing.
So I returned it for a full money-back and am left baffled by the situation.
Well I had a look when you first posted, but all I could see in the US shops I know for under 50 bucks were Audigy SEs lol. Having a look again, I see they have this one Xi-Fi from Newegg which is 50 dollars - I assume the quality is ok. It uses a pci-e interface, so you’d need to check if you got one that’s free. There’s another normal pci xi-fi for 65 bucks I believe. Otherwise, you could try and find an Audigy that is not the SE version, since you had a bad experience with the Audigy SE.
I really don’t know anything about other audio chip vendors though, however for me the integrated Intel HD Audio on my mobo is more than enough - I wouldn’t notice the difference between that and a higher end card. But I’m no audiophile, that’s why I thought I’d leave it to others to give some advice.