Sound Card

latest Creative Labs sound cards - X-Fi should be your choice - cheapest variation is Extreme music as far as i remember and it should be available around $100-120

last week i bought a new sound card for 10
(chipset ForteMedia FM801)

and it has everything i need and it works very well.
you only need a primary pci slot

5 ports:
mic in
line in
5.1 out

(game port and onboard connectors are not used)

edit:
oh and i think the X-FI has only 4 ports,

in my experiance Creative make the best sound cards out. im using a older SB Audigy card from creative and it do's my needs perfectly. Even has EAX supprot too, so my games sounds gr8, especially CoD2

X-Fi's are 8 channel ones (7.1 and can be used for smaller configurations too). 7.1 configurations use 4 cables as usual. I think good sound card is important cause some games really die no matter what is your PC if sound card is using your processor to calculate evrything.

yes i said that it has 4 ports ONLY

when you use 7.1 sound you dont have a mic or line in
sometimes you have the chance to use an internal connector on the board...

oh my 10 card has eax hardware support too
and sounds great X-)

first i wanted to buy the x-fi too, but then i found out that it is 100 more expensive and has one port less than a cheap 10 card

Okay, this is coming from an audiophile here. They suck for music. I don't think Creative implemented the DAC chip (CS4382) properly, leaving all the 0.1uF bypass capacitors out that Cirrus Logic recommended, and the amp stage is SHOTTY. An okay opamp implemented poorly. The ADC stage (what you use to record vinyl to computer) is even worse. I recommend an EMU 0404, EMU 1820 or one in the EMU series (professional section of creative) if you're planning to record vinyl over to the computer. EMU0404 is 99 dollars and affords you superior DACs and superior amp stage.

hi there

i think the sound cards from creative are the best that on the market