Cheap PCIe card that works with Sonar/asio

I need to get a PCIe card for a collaborator in California (I'm in New York). He only has PCIe slots in his newer oem computer... so I can't just grab a used xtreme music like I'm using (plain old pci), which works well with asio4all. Any recommendations on a solid but cheaper pcie sound card that works well with asio4all? Only need to playback a handful of tracks in Sonar, and record a single track at a time (single vocal mic input from a mixer). The computer is up to the task, but his crappy realtek onboard sound is having fits.

On board sound really isn't as crappy as it used to be. There is very little separating an on board solution from a mid range discreet card right now.

I'm using my onboard to output 24/96 ASIO through Foobar2000 without problem at all. It's a Realtek 888 I believe.

That said, if he's having problems you should be able to pick up any PCIE 1x sound card that has SPDIF output. There are a couple options on Newegg for $40, a couple better ones around $60-80 then you start getting into the higher end stuff at $150+.

Doing music production is a tad more taxing than converting music files.

I've already had experience with my own realtek and trying to fix his remotely that confirms the onboard solutions don't cut it for music production/multi-tracking. It's common knowledge in the home recording circles.

Just hoping someone here might have had some experience along these lines already. It's been so long since I had to look for a new sound card I'm out of touch with what PCIe varieties will accomplish what I need.

actually i popped in an old SB audigy sound card in my sandy mobo just to see how the difference was, and even on that old of a card it was a night and day difference.

here's a list of pci sound cards i aint too sure on what ones are the best or worst if some one else could point him in that direction
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...7&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=100

Has to be PCI express.

I didn't see you mentioned recording a track. In that case, you may need a pro audio card instead of consumer playback card. There are still fairly cheap pro audio cards so don't write them off, but they are built differently. As for suggestions I have no idea. You may need to go to a media production forum for suggestions there.

The only one I am familiar with at all is the M-Audio line. I only know of them because I looked at their consumer level cards years back. Check them out.

Maxvla said:

I didn't see you mentioned recording a track. In that case, you may need a pro audio card instead of consumer playback card. There are still fairly cheap pro audio cards so don't write them off, but they are built differently. As for suggestions I have no idea. You may need to go to a media production forum for suggestions there.

The only one I am familiar with at all is the M-Audio line. I only know of them because I looked at their consumer level cards years back. Check them out.

Click to expand...

I'm doing multitrack recording with my older PCI x-fi (xtreme music) using the asio4all driver. Unfortunately they stopped making these and the $50+ x-fi pci express line-up doesn't excite me much. I can get my PCI card for $30 used right now.

At this point I'm going to have to settle for finding a used card (probably a Xonar or X-fi xtreme audio).

M-audio cards are good, but entry into them is $100+ and really, for the extra money, their low-end cards don't do anything the x-fi wouldn't do.

oh haha my bad i thought he wanted pci not pci express i need to read moar!