I’m getting a new computer.
After a whopping six years of continuous service, I think it’s about time to retire Old Faithful and upgrade to something a little more powerful than her PII 300. I mean, sure she was a good, speedy machine in her day, but that was back in the mid-nineties when her 8 gigabyte hard drive was considered gargantuan.
Today, that same hard drive won’t even hold Win XP and Office.
Don’t get me wrong, she still works. Rarely crashes, too. In fact, just before the move, I cracked open her case to make sure everything was properly connected and I saw Billy, my resident gremlin, sitting in his rocking chair, smoking a pipe and smiling to himself. At first he was blinded by the light of day, but as soon as his eyes adjusted he looked up at me, smiled and said, “Good to see you again, boss. Sorry I haven’t been doing my job lately, but I’m a tad too old for that now. Guess all good things must come to an end, eh?”
Then he had a heart attack and died.
So now, after putting it off for the last two years, I’ve finally made the plunge and ordered myself a new computer. I’m buying a custom job, built with love by my friendly, fly-by-night, faceless & soulless internet computer store. It’ll have an AMD 2200+ processor, 512MB of PC3700 DDR Ram, a Radeon 9000 pro video card, 80 GB hard drive (two 120GB hard drives to come later), 19” Flat Screen monitor, CD-RW, DVD, LAN, USB 2.0, Firewire and all the other bells and whistles that Geeks like me have wet dreams about. For aesthetic reasons I decided against the cutout window and sound activated neon light, but I am getting the silver case with matching keyboard and mouse. But the best part is that the whole she-bang’s only going to cost me $1,400.
My current machine cost me $4,800 back in 1996. And I bought two. Ouch.
Anywaste, this new machine is going to rock. I’m happy about making the purchase, but I do have one small problem. You see, I’ve ordered this new toy without a sound card. I was hoping that I’d be able to find myself a nice, higher end (read; better than SoundBlaster LIVE) sound card with which I could rip my entire LP collection of over 3,000 records to the computer hard drive and then play back through the VEHTS.
Unfortunately, I know almost nothing about high end sound cards.
And this, my wonderful, intelligent and most of all helpful readership, is where you come in. I want you to suggest to me a PC sound card that I can use to hook up to my turntable and thus record my records to MP3/AAC/WMA/Whatever. Suggested sound card needs to also output audio to a high end sound system WITHOUT making the music sound emotionally dead, tinny, distorted or like it’s coming from a computer.
Standard L/R audio jacks will do, but digital output would be better.
Also, while we’re at it, does anyone have a suggestion on Jukebox software that will keep all of these music files organized? Not only by artist, title, year and whatnot, but also by beats per minute and compression ratio?
Come on people, throw me a frickin bone here.
I hate you.
Oh, GeekMan, sometimes you are just so funny! I mean, here you are expecting me???? to be able to help in the GeekToy department. How can that be possible?
If you ever want to know how to paint fish, give me a holler.
If I was going to get a sound card right now, I’d probably go for the Hercules Game Theater XP. It has an external rack with digital in and out (both optical and coaxial), 5.1 analog output, MIDI in and out and 4 USB ports.
I don’t know if it’s exactly what you’re looking for, but from what I’ve heard it’s really good. And I think you can even find it for under $100 now.
If you’re gonna throw away your old computer, can I have it? Please, please, I really need one. I’ll even pay you.
Seki – But, I love you!
JadedJu – How do you paint the fish? Doesn’t the water just wash the paint right off?
Josh – I had completely forgotten about Hercules cards. Unfortunately, their best card seems to output 20bit/48kHz at best, and I’m really looking for 24bit/96kHz. But thanks for reminding me about them. Any other suggestions?
Circuit-guy – I wasn’t planning on selling my current ‘puter, but if someone were to make me a good enough offer… Well, who knows. Right now, the plan was to turn it into a Linux server, but I might be swayed from that plan should someone nudge my wallet hard enough.
I knew there was some part of the specs I was forgetting about.
Well, there is the new Sound Blaster Audigy 2 coming out this month… and the original Audigy. They both output at 24bit/96kHz. And given that the Audigy has dropped in price, and will drop more when the Audigy 2 comes out, I’d probably go for it over the GTXP.
I was thinking there are some others too, but I can’t think of them right now.
I recommend the Audigy as well…
GeekMan: Go to the pier. Catch the fish. Bring it home. Put in the freezer. Remove from freezer and cover with paint. Lay paper or fabric over frozen fish. Remove paper or fabric. Throw away fish.
Alternatively: Go to fish bowl. Grab goldfish. Slather with paint. Lay paper or fabric over wiggling and suffocating fish. Remove paper or fabric. Place fish back in bowl and throw away bowl.
Thanks for your (ahem) help people. I’ve actually narrowed down my sound card search to the following three cards;
Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96
M-Audio Audiophile 2496
Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum (or Platinum EX) (Not yet released)
Any opinions on these?
I want to know where you got the new computer with DDR3700 RAM for $1,400. On your sound issue, it seems to me that your real problem is how to rip your vinyl, not how to play the sound back…
This one’s a no brainer!
You should definately get the Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum. If their was a Platinum ex around I would have gotten it, but I had to settle for the Audigy 2 Platinum. This is the best sound card ever and it’s reccomended by Lucasarts itself. It sounds soooo good! You will usually find this card for around $200. Forget all Hercules cards, as they don’t compare with the Creative sound cards. I highly recommend this card over all others!
Do youself a favor and don’t get the Audigy. I rue the day I ever heard of that demonic card! Yes, the specs look great, but it’s a nasty bugger on the software front, and can be VERY fickle about the machine it will run in.
Go for the M-audio 2496 on your list – it is deadly stable, covers all your listed requirements and is an amazing bargain. Unless you really need SoundFont support, the Audigy will only bring you pain and suffering – and it cannot output at 24 bit – A nice little tidbit we all found out after we had purchased it. The 24 bit spec is stricly an internal number, not what is output from either the analog or digital outputs.
Hope this helps
Lefters
Depends what you want to do w/ the card. Music, games-?
In gen. most the high end stuff doesn’t go in the computer anymore,but comes in the form of peripherals. e.g.= (M audio) etc.
If you want to see truly high end sound equip. ( notice I did not say cards!) quit screwing around w/ computer sites and go to a music supplier, like musicians friend, or American music supply or something. You don’t go to an Underware store to buy a car!
There, how’s that for an answer that is true to your gen. misdemeanor.