Getting a 5.1 System
 

Alright, I've had to ask this before, although I'm finally on the verge of getting it done and thus need to get this certain.

I have a Dell 9100 Laptop, and am looking to buy a 5.1 Sound system for it. However, the computer doesn't really have any sound outputs besides the headphones jack. What would I need to buy to be able to plug the system in and actually get some worth out of it? Preferably, below $100, as cheap as possible really, as I'm only going to buy a $100 sound system anyways.

The only thing I can think of is a sound card of some sort which supports a 5.1 system. I do not think that laptops usually have support for systems like that.

There are probably some good PCMCIA and USB soundcards out there which offer these feature, but since I do not have a laptop, I am not too knowledgeable on the details or brands.

Well, Creative Labs seems to be the way to go for gaming hardware. I don't know how good it is, but this card is listed on their site for $99.99 and claims to support 5.1 sound. However, even though Creative Labs is popular for making sound cards, some of the audiophiles on Gamingforce say their cards are not the best in terms of actual sound quality. I can't really help you out there, but do some searching (try Newegg.com) for PCMCIA sound cards since that ultimately seems to be what you're after.

The thing is though, both USB or PCMCIA soundcards will require a lot of CPU usage for sound, rendering the machine vritually unusable with games. If you want 5.1 for DVD playback, I recommend using a software that supports Dolby Headphone or SRS (emulates 5.1 through any decent stereo headphone and sounds impressive).

For less than $100, you won't enjoy "true" 5.1 very much. It's pointless.

If you are planning on buying a good quality sound card for your laptop, I would recommend buying an USB/Firewire sound card rather than a PCMCIA CardBus card. The sound cards are usually very expensive, and if you buy a good one it will probably last for a very long time; USB/Firewire interface ensures that you will be able to use the sound card if you were to move to a desktop. These cards are also even more expensive because they are much smaller, so getting a 5 channel PCMCIA sound card would be very expensive. Also, the PCMCIA CardBus bus is slowly becoming more obsolete as the newer, hot-pluggable ExpressCard bus is being phased in.

On to the sound card itself; what you buy really depends on what you want to use the sound card for. For gaming, nothing can beat Creative Labs sound cards; which is rather poor at music because the sampling rate is locked at 48KHz. (Normal CD audio has a sample rate of 44.1KHz.) It has horrendous drivers, but custom kX drivers are available.

For music listening, then cards by M-Audio, E-MU, and Terratec are all good choices. (I'm not that experienced with audiophile cards, so you should consult someone with more in-depth knowledge; namely Arainach.) Also, you must bear in mind that for dedicated music listening then stereo speakers is superior to surround-sound speakers.

After taking a look at some Firewire cards, there aren't any that fits within your budget that also has 5-channels. The Edirol FA-66 seems like to be a card you're looking for, but it is way over your budget at £200. (Cheapest in the US is $350) With ASIO support, both the latency and CPU usage should be very low.

Thanks a lot everyone. I figured out about what I'm going to get, looks like I can get either a Creative or Phillips card for a pretty good price off Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...Fencoding=UTF8

or

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...Fencoding=UTF8