It's gotten to the point where my onboard sound card will not cut it anymore. I constantly get popping and clicking in games (and sounds not being synced right in Source based games) and I'm in the market for a good sound card. However, I don't know much about sound cards (well, next to nothing really) and need some help picking one out, I need it to have at least 5.1 support (I'll take 7.1, but I only need 5.1). I'd like 24bit digital audio and a Line-in(or mic). I do not need a MIDI port, but if the card has one I won't mind.

Oh, and it's for a Vista machine. Anyone have any suggestions?

[EDIT]I was thinking this one, it looks like it has the best reviews for Vista, but I still want a few more opinions before I buy anything.[/EDIT]

Why do you want 24-bit audio? The only reason you could legitimately need it is for recording.

I do record through the line-in quite a bit for friends that want things put onto CDs, but it doesn't really matter if it's 16 or 24.

Besides that I couldn't find any cards on newegg with 16-bit audio that supported Vista. The three that newegg did have had some pretty bad reviews anyway.

Well, whatever. My point was that virtually all audio sources are 16-bit, which is more than enough. This is a measure of dynamic range. 16-bit audio can represent 96 dB of dynamic range. A concert hall usually won't exceed 80, and the limit of human hearing is about 140. Note this is not volume.

The only audio that's 24-bit is stuff like DVD-A, which is basically a crock of ****. No one needs more than 16-bit for listening purposes. Especially not when record producers go and waste it all.

Trying to find a decent sound card for Vista is like trying to find a straight man at the RNC.

Creative Xi-Fi's are pretty good. I still use my onboard and haven't bought a new sound card since I got my Sound Blaster Live.. so that's about all I know.

I thought pretty much anything Creative was the way to go with getting decent sound out of your PC. At least all the creative products I've used sound good. Speakers help.