M-AUDIO Audiophile 2496 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface 4-In-4-Out Professional Audio Card with MIDI

Pros: This a very high quality 2 channel soundcard. If your looking for a very clean, high quality, 2 channel digital/analong output or input with midi connectors, this card is very well priced. The 2 discrete RCA stereo outputs sound much better than any of the Creative card's 1/8 inch summed stereo outputs. So if your not looking for surround, this is a much better option sounding option. I've also done many stereo recordings with this card, and the sound is very clean and transparent, and the card provides a decent amount of digital patchbay/routing options.

Cons: No surround support but this card is more for people looking to do stereo recordings and the sound quality is much higher than most consumer surround cards.

Overall Review: None

Pros: High quality audio recording capability at a low price.

Cons: M-Audio is really lagging behind in driver support. As of this writing, they STILL only have Vista 64 bit drivers in a "private" beta. To be considered for this, you have to fill out a lengthy form and should expect to have your personal data harvested. I used to be a big supporter of M-Audio however I will never again buy a product from them after they fail to provide basic driver support over a year after Vista's release.

Overall Review: Luckily for me, I dual boot Linux along with Vista 64 bit (I got Vista 64 specifically to support 4 or 8 gigs of RAM). Ironically, this card is supported fully with drivers included with the standard Linux kernel, but still unsupported in Vista 64.