USB Sound Card

I'm looking for a good USB Sound Card for my HP DV8000T. Can any of you guys recommend a good one you know of. My budget for this would be 150.00 USD, but 100.00 USD would be preferable.

I am going to use this sound card for music/movies and video games such as BF 2142. I also intend to use headphones with it, so it needfs to have a headphone jack.

Thanks!

Edit:

I am currently looking at these two USB Sound Cards

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main.html

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/audioadv/roadie/producthome.asp

Which do you guys think is better, and I am definitely open to more options, if you guys know any great USB Sound Cards please do tell!

 

The M-Audio Transit is great for music and movies... since its professional audio.

The Turtle Beach is probably not as good for music/movies, but would probably be better for games since its consumer level.

 

Thanks for the advice, does anyone else have some input on this issue of finding a nice USB Sound Card? Perhaps a nice model I missed, the only two decent ones I found with USB 2.0 support were the two above, that and they have to work in games.

Thanks!

 

I'll agree with Gophn, but add that though they are not as high quality, creative does offer a decent usb soundcard, but If you were already considering M-Audio then I would go with that.
In the end it all boils down to want you desire most in a sound card.......I don't know if they still do but I know that creative used to offer an all arounder soundcard......not particularly superior in any field but adequate in all. I'm not trying to sound like a fanboy or anything....just trying to give some insight to a variety of brands and so on.

 

Well my most important feature would honestly be how it sounds in games, I have already looked at all the Creative brands and even though I normally go with them myself, I guess I could be considered somewhat a fanbio of them, there mobile solutions are just utter garbage from all of the reviews I've heard. The only nice one the Audigy 2 NX has been discontinued so I'm forced to look towards everything except creative.

Again though my main concern would be in games, such as Half Life 2, Battlefield 2142 and etc!

Thanks!

 

I was concidering purchasing a USB 2.0 Sound Card for my gaming needs for my Laptop, because it is lacking a PCMCIA slot.

But I had a question first, I have heard from a few sources and seen on a few reviews that USB 2.0 Sound Cards have issues in Video Games?

Can anyone who is running a USB Sound Card confirm/deny how it works in recent games like Battlefield 2142, Half Life 2 etc?

Thanks!

 

So that's why I couldn't find the NX anywhere...I have to agree, I bought a Live! 5.1 and it can't even support 4.1 output at 24bit because of bandwidth issues =S

 

Yeah thats a side effect of it only supporting USB 1.1, I am only planning on using this for 2 laptop speakers and headphones though so I should be ok no matter what.

Coincidentally The M-Audio Card and Turtle Beach card above also both run on USB 1.1 interfaces as well.

 

Please do not double-post the same questions in multiple forums. Your thread in the Gaming forum has been merged with this one.

 

Sorry, they were on a similar topic but totally different questions, so I thought it was appropriate to make a seperate post.

One topic I was asking for advice on a USB Sound Card to pick, the other I was asking if anyone had ever had positive experiences with USB Sound Cards in recent games. Didn't mean to clutter the forums though, thanks I guess.

 

There are few USB2.0 sound cards out there. There are some professional cards by E-MU and other brands, but if gaming is your preferred use for a sound card, then go with anything for gaming (Creative). You won't notice a quality difference between 24bit and 16bit output. I've used my Transit USB for gaming and it works great, but keep in mind it does not have any of the gaming effects that Creative cards offer.