<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 4:29 AM, Carlo Nyto <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:carlonyto@gmail.com">carlonyto@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
I realized this question is frequently asked, but part of that is that<br>
the hard keeps changing faster than the drivers. I don't know of a<br>
venue more likely to find knowledegable people, I apologize if I have<br>
chosen the wrong one.<br>
<br>
I have two related (and perhaps redundant) questions:<br>
<br>
1) What sound card is best? I just need to send sound out of the<br>
computer and have it converted to SPDIF or Toslink. It would also be a<br>
great benefit to receive sound input at the same time via similar<br>
interfaces (full duplex). By "card" I don't limit myself to PCI/PCI-E<br>
cards, a USB device is completely acceptable. I am limited on slots<br>
and a device that only does something so low-bandwidth as sound seems<br>
silly.</blockquote><div><br>Turtle Beach Riviera PCI. Hands down. It just plain works out of the box, has optical SPDIF output and I've never had a problem with it. If you need low profile, find one based on the same chipset (I have one from AOpen - cobra something) that also works perfectly. <br>
</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
2) What video card is best? In my case,I have an 8x/16x PCI-E slot. I<br>
can not accept a binary-only kernel module. No one will support a<br>
kernel on a system running one, and I can't blame them for this. Even<br>
though I do not care about 3D performance, I do care about video<br>
performance, as it impacts the usability of the system. I require VGA<br>
and Component Video currently, but as I am in the progress of<br>
upgrading the display components, recommendations towards future<br>
upgrades would be appreciated.</blockquote><div><br>Something nvidia. I prefer the FX5200 but they're not PCIe. Try something in the 6200 range and it should be cheap and work just fine.<br><br>Kevin</div></div><br>
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