I've finally got my Mandrake 9.2 machine totally working (or almost totally click here ), connected to the internet, updated and with all the apps I want, and it's beautiful.

Except for one thing.
The machine it's running on doesn't have a sound card, and now I really miss having tunes while I doodle about on the internet. I really don't want to start up my typhoon of a windows rig (it's insanely noisy for a computer) just to listen to some Rage Against The Machine.
So what I'm looking for is a cheap sound card that won't give me problems if I try to install it in Mandrake 9.2 (or at least not many problems--I somewhat enjoy having puzzles to work through).

sblive! is cheap now and gives decent sound.

Dammit!
That's the sound card I have in my Windows machine. I guess I should buy a slightly-swankier card to put in my windows rig.

The best (lowest noise on recordings) I have found is the Santa Cruz Turtle Beach which I have in my main Linux box.

I use the el-chepo sblive! I picked up somewhere ($25?) in my Windows box because games seem to prefer the sblive! over the Turtle Beach.

I'm not going to say that it's good nor bad. But I just got rid of a SB Live! Value card that Dell put in my box, because it was not a "REAL" SB card, but a special kluge that Creative Labs is putting together for Dell. To replace it, I put in MADDOG Prowler 4.1DSP, which uses the CMI 8738 MX DSP chip. The MadDog was real inexpensive, and it works! Now I can hear the sound experience in Windows, and Linux. The one that Dell sold me was designed to only work with Win**.

Good Luck!

Also, never try to replace a Dell case, motherboard, cpu fan or power supply with anything generic as you face the possibility of burning something out or not having it fit.

Bad news is when you hear, "You got a Dell, dude!"

Get the extended service contract as the friends of mine with Dells have had several failures.

You can try Creative SoundBlaster 4.1 Digital. Its a lot cheaper that SB Live Value.

Well, the really obvious way to choose one is to look at the hardware compatability list for Sound cards support, rummage through the junkbox and see if you got one, if not, get one.

lol

Thanks a bunch for the suggestions. I'll keep a sound card in mind when I do my next computer parts purchase. I'd really like to buy a nicer card to put in my windows box and move the SB Live! to my Linux machine, except that my speakers require digital out, which isn't a gauranteed option on a sound card, and it's something I couldn't get to work when I was dual booting Windows and Redhat 8 a while back.

Oh well. I guess I can't argue with $25 (plus a little more for some usable speakers).


About proprietary stuff: The last Gateway computer I bought (spring of 2001, was hot shit at 1.4 Ghz) is built such that it is impossible to replace the motherboard with a differently layed-out board because Gateway cut some costs and decided not to have a removable motherboard backplate (the little aluminum thing that the ports and crap stick through). Instead it's 1/16th inch sheet steel. I was tempted to go through it with a dremel, but decided to buy another case instead. A nifty side effect of that is, now I have two computers!