Ok, I've finally decided that my AC97 onboard needs replacing, for too long I have been messing about playing into Cubase and editing the notes afterwards, so I have decided to get a semi-decent sound card to take it's place.
I have been looking at both the Audiophile 192 and the Audiophile 2496, as well as some others, and can't decide on what card to get. It seems the 192 is a better card than the 2496 - but it lacks Asio2 support? (does this make any difference latency wise?)
What I need it to do:
Give me low latency for use with my controller and Reason, Cubase, etc
Play games as good as my AC97 (not a hard one!)
Preferably 5.1 surround support (I use 5.1 headphones in gaming, would be a shame to lose these - don't want to risk conflicts having my onboard card enabled along with whatever card I buy)
Price is also an issue, I don't have much to spend, but I would like as many features as possible. £120 is probably the highest I can go, but a little more might be do-able if the card is that much better.
Any recommendations would be great, there is so much conflicting information to be found on the net ;)
