CHAINTECH AV-710 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card

Pros: Good overall sound, hooked up to my surround sound with digital cable and sounds good.

Cons: Had problems with Vista Ultimate, as of yet I cannot find any drivers to fix these problems. Anyone got any thoughts? (checked their website and what not)

Pros: Great sound, lots of ports, cheap, black PCB, optical, high sample rate, surround sound!

Cons: Icky drivers. I mean really icky.
DO NOT LET WINDOWS AUTO INSTALL THIS CARD. If you do uninstall and reinstall the 4.37b drivers.

Download the 4.37b drivers, ONLY.
Nothing above that.

Other Thoughts: Sound quality improved when I changed drivers, I can also now record Stereo Mix (Line In) from my computer!


For 4.37b drivers

Pros: Best value in a sound card with an optical SPDIF output. Worked immediately with Vista generic driver. Went ahead and updated with latest driver from the VIA website anyway. Used the included optical cable to get 5.1 DVD audio from my home theater receiver. Great sound quality.

Cons: Chaintech no longer supports this card so go to VIA for any future driver updates. Included cable is very lightweight but it works.

Other Thoughts: Budget route to adding SPDIF audio output to an older motherboard. Can't confirm 7.1 capability as my receiver is only 5.1.

Pros: NONE

Cons: DO NOT buy this card if you are using Vista. I have sound output, but NO input using a mic.

Other Thoughts: none

Pros: This card did what I wanted and worked perfectly. The S/PDIF out works great. I have not tried the analog connections out. This card works great in Vista however the included software does not. In passthrough mode this card works great and is perfectly decoded by my reciever.

Cons: Although newegg advertises this card as 7.1 out it is actually 5.1 via digital and 7.1 via analog. Not that big of a deal but I bought this card specifically for the 7.1 digital out so I was a little dissappointed. Also the included software for managing the settings sucks. The software will work in XP but not in Vista but its not a big deal because you can control the settings better using vistas sound controls anyway.

Other Thoughts: Good card for the money. I have owned a couple of the higher end cards and this one works just as good as they do so you might as well save the money. However if you are looking for 7.1 digital out this is not the card for you.

Pros: After researching to see if I could get a good sounding card for under a hundred bucks, I went straight for the Wolfson DAC's (the black output jack) on this bad-boy for 2.1 stereo, and haven't looked back... not at THIS price! I paid two smackers less than the current price as of 11-21, which makes it all the more sweet. To get a better sound for straight-up music listening, a crisp Benjamin is the starting point (i.e. EMU 1212). If you know how to use it, this card is worth twice it's price.

Cons: So far?... there are none whatsoever. No so-called "squeal of death" (who knows what's REALLY causing these complaints), no issues in XP SP2 (made sure to use the latest Envy24 drivers from viaarena), no conflicts with multiple, noise making apps running simultaneously, etc.

Other Thoughts: No, I do NOT work for Chanintech... lol.

Pros: The Box has a dolphin on it, and lots of lame programs.

Cons: No drivers released for Vista for the surround sound.

Other Thoughts: Currently Vista does not support surround sound for the majority of programs (ie, video games, itunes, etc) Find a video card that has DRIVERS for this problem...there are a few out there.

Pros: Great sound for a great price.

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: I've gone through several bad Creative cards, so I figured I'd try something different and have not been disappointed. Only note I'd make is be sure you get latest drivers from Via's website, and not Chaintech's.

Pros: Better than the on-board sound card I had. Easy installation and it's cheap.

Cons: Drivers can't be found on the Chaintech site but the drivers that came with the disc is fine. Sometimes, I get a sharp tinny buzzing sound when I boot up my computer. Although it happens once a week, it's not that bad.

Pros: Bought it as an upgrade to the onboard Intel HDA chip (Realtek 883) on my nVidia motherboard. Clear difference in quality and frequency ranges! Works perfectly with Linux, too. (Use the ice1724 driver.) Tested with Gentoo 2007.0.

For less than thirty bucks, this puts onboard sound chips to shame. I paired my AV710 with some Logitech X-230 2.1 speakers also from Newegg; as decent as those are, one could easily drop $200 or more on speakers and still not reach the limits of the sound card's performance.

Plus, Newegg had it here in two days! :)

Cons: Only has a line-in for recording purposes; no MIDI ports.

Other Thoughts: There's an exceptionally nice Wolfson DAC on the rear channels that you can route pure stereo/2.1 sound to for additional enjoyment; it's like getting two upgrades for the price of one.