External Soundcard
 

Alright, I'm basically in the position of having to make a decision on a sound card. I'm buying an external one for my Dell Inspiron 9100, with the intention of hooking it up to a 5.1 Surround System.

As of now, these are the speakers I'm probably going to buy:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...4?ie=UTF8&s=pc

And these are the three soundcard options. The NX 2 isn't an option through Amazon, but I can buy it through Creative itself, so its not a big deal.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...4?ie=UTF8&s=pc
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...4?ie=UTF8&s=pc
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...4?ie=UTF8&s=pc


Basically, I want peoples opinions on which would be the best to get for the setup. The Live! is obviously the cheapest, although I'm wonderig whether it is as good as the Audigy 2 NX. Plus I liked the idea of a remote. I'm completely unsure about the Philips, although I've used their audio stuff in the past and it always works well. Opinions?

Since I'm litterally doing the same thing with my computer, I second this topic.

I've also been looking at this: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...3422&CatId=107 as well.

My actual computer is this: http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/t...ceghdgngdgnj.0

The detailed specs don't really give a lot of info on the sound, but while it's decent with stereo emulation the speakers are tinny and the sound quality is so-so, which is sort of expected for a computer.

I have an audigy card in my desktop, so I know it's pretty good quality, though I'm mostly a headphone listener. What do you guys suggest?

I have a Creative Extigy... It is a "24-bit" external soundcard connected USB. It works quite well, and I've been happy with it for many years. It does it's job, and its cool that it can run and decode 5.1 WITHOUT the computer being on, like if i sent it signal from a console. They do have their advantages.

I would recommend the NX2, if for nothing else than the remote and "extra" features. I've never heard of Phillips products for computer, so that one kinda scares me. And the turtle beach one seems cool, but I wouldnt trust a little plug-in as much and it is feature-less compared to Creative's products.