I am wondering about sound cards...

[LowRideDuh]

I currently use the sound card that came in my H/P (HP521n) , and from what I can figure out, it's an integrated style... I mainly this computer for building my library of music...from cd sources and lp's... for my question...what sound card would You all recommend upgrading to?
I use Sound Forge XP 5 as my base software, and have installed a 200gb hard drive just for my music library...I enjoy building comps of music...however , after lurking about for sometime, and then joining this forum, I have decided that I need to upgrade my soundcard for better results . . .considering the time spent in recording lp's to wave files...I don't want to do this over and over.
Thank You All in Advance . . . Stephen

[Sckott]

$148 will buy you a 24/96 audiophile card (PCI internal) from M-Audio. A lot of members use it. I'm actually waiting to upgrade mine. I use an OEM SB Live! and have had great results with it, but there's many much better.

I think newegg.com has the best price for that card now. With your HP, once you get that card, you can disable the Crystal/ESS chip inside.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=1&submit=Go&description=2496

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/29-121-103-11.JPG

[LowRideDuh]

Thanks for Your input Sckott...I had over 1000 songs loaded before I dumped them when I installed the new hard drive...I dumped them, cause I wanted to start over with the songs all being recorded the same..lolol...at present I have around 600... Thanks Again

[Grant]

Thanks for the price tip, Sckott! I just may make it my next computer purchase.

But, that ESS sound has got to go! And, i'm no fan of any Creative cards for recording, either. I like my Santa Cruz card but it does have one little problem-the noise floor is only -78db. That's 15db higher than where I want to be. And, while I get super results from the 18-bit converters for recording, I want to step up to 24-bit resolution. At least, with Sound Forge and Cool Edit/Audition/Sound Forge, I can save those precious 18-bits to 32-bit for processing.

[-=Rudy=-]

I've never bought from this guy, but he's selling for $139, free shipping with money order/cashier's check or add $7 shipping for credit card purchases. 20 available as I write this.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3701&item=2755993226

I've been eyeballing this for months. :)

[LowRideDuh]

Rudy , I saw that listing also, however, until Sckott gave me a confirmation on the fact that it's a decent card...I was leary of it.
Stephen