Upgrade Guide

Here's our sound advice: If you spend much time listening to your PC--running multimedia presentations, playing games, experimenting with digital music, or humming along with audio CDs while you work--you owe yourself some up-to-date sound hardware.

Older sound cards, especially the bare-bones models bundled with many PCs, often suffer from distortion, limited frequency range, and low signal-to-noise ratios (which means you hear hissing, humming, or clicking). These limitations can make PC audio less pleasurable, or even downright fatiguing. Installing a new sound card is a quick and relatively cheap fix, providing top-quality sound and features--such as "3D" Surround Sound--to support the latest programs.

Choosing a new sound card can be confusing. Your local computer store or favorite mail-order firm will offer an extensive selection, usually starting in the $50-75 range and going all the way to $300 or more. (Most of these cards use the ISA bus; PCI sound cards are just entering the consumer market.) Stay away from the low end, and figure on paying $150 or $200 for a card like the Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold from Creative Labs. Another major supplier is Turtle Beach Systems, a subsidiary of Voyetra Technologies.

Most sound cards include Musical Instrument Digital Interface capabilities you'll need for games and other sound-intensive applications. Make sure you invest in a card with wavetable MIDI synthesis, which generates the best-quality audio. The "16," "32," or "64" that is often part of a sound card's model number refers not to bits, but to the number of "voices" (notes) the card can play simultaneously. The more voices, the better the sound quality. Although all MIDI-equipped cards connect to MIDI-capable peripherals such as piano keyboards, the higher-end cards usually include composition software for budding songwriters.

Before you buy a sound card, peek inside your PC to see if the CD-ROM drive's data cable connects to your old card. If it does, you'll need to buy a sound card that has an on-board CD-ROM interface; Turtle Beach offers some. If your CD-ROM drive is old and slow, consider purchasing a combination sound card/CD-ROM drive upgrade kit like the $250 Sound Blaster Discovery AWE64/24X.

Some new sound cards use a different internal CD-ROM audio connector than the old card. If your new card doesn't have the right cable, you'll need to buy one.

Most speakers bundled with off-the-shelf PCs are inexpensive--and sound that way. To hear what your new sound card can deliver, you should upgrade your speakers as well. For best results, figure on paying at least $150 to $250 for true high-fidelity multimedia speakers. Two well-regarded speaker makers are Altec Lansing and Cambridge Soundworks.

Sound cards can be tricky to install, although PCI models may make things easier. Here's how to install a new one.