No actually requirement to remain on pci, other than not wanting to buy new hardware if I don’t have to (money is tight too, being disabled and all) - I’ve been using pci sound blaster cards for 20 years now, and one of the current two has been in my box for nearly (maybe actually) 15 years now? The SB Z, and SB AE-5. There’s also the slight preference of not having more stuff dangling out of the back of my box, but I could get over that I guess. I’ve never looked at USB solutions (or anything external really) so I don’t know anything about them, other than they exist.
I’d also like to retain software settings (I guess hardware switches, if available as an alternative) if at all possible, which as far as I can tell, I cannot on the cards I currently have (SB software is windows-only). Since currently my use case is gaming + music on the one card, while voice chat on the other, that way I can get clear voices on my headset at a lower volume while my 5.1 gives me louder, positional game audio. Both speakers and headset are 3.5mm, as I know the SB cards work well, so (at purchase) I wanted the only thing altering the signal was the SB card itself, instead of using say a Logitech USB headset with its own independent controls or something, bypassing. I swear off wireless headsets for this reason.
It basically comes down to ‘it’s what I’ve always used’ and ‘don’t fix what isn’t broken’, with a sprinkle of ‘I don’t trust anything else or know of what to look for’ :P
Got suggestions on where to start looking/brands to check into?
No actually requirement to remain on pci, other than not wanting to buy new hardware if I don’t have to (money is tight too, being disabled and all) - I’ve been using pci sound blaster cards for 20 years now, and one of the current two has been in my box for nearly (maybe actually) 15 years now? The SB Z, and SB AE-5. There’s also the slight preference of not having more stuff dangling out of the back of my box, but I could get over that I guess. I’ve never looked at USB solutions (or anything external really) so I don’t know anything about them, other than they exist.
I’d also like to retain software settings (I guess hardware switches, if available as an alternative) if at all possible, which as far as I can tell, I cannot on the cards I currently have (SB software is windows-only). Since currently my use case is gaming + music on the one card, while voice chat on the other, that way I can get clear voices on my headset at a lower volume while my 5.1 gives me louder, positional game audio. Both speakers and headset are 3.5mm, as I know the SB cards work well, so (at purchase) I wanted the only thing altering the signal was the SB card itself, instead of using say a Logitech USB headset with its own independent controls or something, bypassing. I swear off wireless headsets for this reason.
It basically comes down to ‘it’s what I’ve always used’ and ‘don’t fix what isn’t broken’, with a sprinkle of ‘I don’t trust anything else or know of what to look for’ :P
Got suggestions on where to start looking/brands to check into?
Thanks ^_^