This high quality 7.1 surround sound PCI sound card is the ideal audio solution for gaming and media based computers, supporting full-duplex operation with 8 outbound streams and 2 simultaneous input streams. Offering everything you need to take your multimedia experience to the next level, the 7.1 surround sound card supports the latest Dolby Digital EX and DTS 7.1 Channel DVD soundtracks, digital coax out, and 96Khz/24bit analog audio playback. The PCI sound card includes Windows WDM supported drivers, which save both time and installation hassle, allowing you to add high quality 7.1 channel surround sound audio in minutes. This high quality 7.1 Surround Sound card is backed by StarTech.com’s 2-year warranty and free lifetime technical support.
$ 13.99
works fine,
If you have a older computer tha only has PCI slots and you are running windows 7 this card is for you. It installed and works perfectly without any problems.
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|Installed perfectly on Windows 7/64 bit,
I have an “Old” Dell Vostro 410. It’s definitely not old enough to retire. It came with Vista, and I upgraded to Windows 7/64 bit a while back. Dell does not have any updated Windows 7 audio drivers.
(Edit: If Dell is orphaning their machines in order to get customers to buy another one, I think they are mistaken. I paid pretty good money for this unit and I upgrdaded the processor and video card, to save on the price Dell wanted for their fastest upgrade. I have other machines including Acer, HP, and Lenovo and each of these machines upgraded to Windows 7 just fine. I guess they are all a little newer than the Vostro 410 which I bought in the middle of 2008.)
That said, I still had sound and line-in recording with the Windows 7 drivers. I just could not record off of the PC itself. I like to record audio off of my TiVo with the cableco’s Music Choice music channels. For some reason, lately, the music keeps cutting in and out. A search of the Internet came up with an online version of Musicchoice.com. It allows you to stream as long as you are an authorized subscriber, based on your IP address. Perfect, I can stream music choice right to my PC.
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Then the dilemma. Because of the outdated drivers, I had no recording device. This Startech card (and it’s drivers) create a recording device called “Stereo Mixer”. The only quirk I found with installing on Windows 7 was that by simply updating the driver, it will not setup everything needed for you to record. (Although, it is possible that you just have to reboot first, since I was forced to reboot after installing with the enclosed CD.)
Once I installed with the CD, A new Audio control is placed in the systray, which pretty much overrides Windows own audio control. They do work together OK, Though. If you use the Windows audio output control it does adjust the volume fine.
So, for what I wanted, it works fine. I have not tried any of the surround sound capabilities, but I’m sure they work fine. All in all, a perfect sound card for a computer that has a built in soundcard with no available drivers.
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|Good for the money,
Works well. For a basic soundcard it’s all I could ask for. I use other Startech products and have learned to trust the name.
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