Hi I build a lot of computers for people but this week I got my first request for a pc which will be used exclusively to produce music.. The future owner will be using various drumcomputers and sythesizers and I am wondering which card would be the most efficient..

Of course we want extremely good soundquality so I was thinking of the Audigy 2 Platinum Pro (€240,-) but I've been looking around and have seen that there are many other cards, specifically for music making, which cost less and might be better...

Many here recommend the M-Audio cards yet they are a tad bit expensive for what you get I find.. The Audiophile 2496 for instance has a bit limited connections.. I'm sure it's an amazing card though..

I also had a look at the Hercules DJ Console, which looked pretty funny.. It is limited to 24/48 however.. Would this really be noticable however? It's not like this guy's gonna be releasing cd's (maybe in the future?).. If this thing would work with FruityLoops it would be a real pro though!! Yet i have no idea if this is the case..

There are many brands out there I have no clue about, since I've never really kept up with prof. audio cards, since they are way out of my league

So if you guy's could help me out a bit that would be great..

I'm looking for something up to about €240...

Rest of the system:
AMD XP 2600+
512MB DDR400, Corsair
160GB 8Mb Cache Maxtor 7200rpm UDMA133
AsRock mobo

The M-Audio Revolution 7.1 is a reasonable card, though it doesn't have any MIDI/Joystick connections, so not the best for synthesizors.

Turtle Beach has various cards, but again the highest priced one has no MIDI or Joystock port, so I'm not sure what you customer would do about synthesizors. It seems more more focused on S/PDIF I/O's.

As you said, the Creative lines are pretty expensive, but the newer high-end Creative cards are pretty good for amateur recording, or at least I think so. Also, the built-in Dolby Digital/Dolby Digital-ES, DTS, DTS-ES and Neo:6 decoders are pretty nice for when you want to watch DVD movies on your computer.

One thing you should note, though. You siad you were considering the Audigy 2 something, however one of the Audigy 2 ZS cards would be a better choice, as they support ASIO drivers for low-latency recording and playback up to 24-bit/96khz, whereas the Audigy 2 only seems to have ASIO drivers for up to 16-bit/48khz.

http://www.music123.com/M-Audio-Delta-66-i24152.music