Card for Aego M (music and games)

[sampo]

Card for Aego M? X Fi, M-audio, E-MU?

Guys,

Having just built my new system (6300 @ 3.4, 8800GTX etc) the only thing I'm missing is a decent sound card - I cannot put up with onboard for much longer.

I think my choices are the m-audi 2496 or the creative X-Fi. Music sound quality is most important to me, however I don't want my games to sound bad either.

So I guess what I want to know is how much better is the m-audio with music compared to the x-fi, and also what is it like with games? Remember this is going to be used with a set of 2.1 Aego M's. Or are there any better alternatives?

Thanks,

Chris

 

[sampo]

Or perhaps the E-MU 0404?

Music playback is definately the most important for me, I don't care much about fancy effects in games so long as the sound quality remains good.

Any opinions?