I could do with picking up a soundcard this weekend, will be in cambridge so the dv24-7 store comes to mind.
can anyone recommend one? i’d say my budget is probably up to £100 maybe a little more if need be. am i right in saying that a lot i have seen online are now external ones? or is the interface purely external and a card is still on the board using pci or something similar?
the card needs to have at least 2 of the 1/4" (i think?) jacks for input on.
thanks in advance
cheeky bump on this one, hoping to get a new card this weekend if any advice can be given 
External means external nowadays, it would be rare to get a PCI internal card with a breakout box. The ‘audio interface’ will usually be USB plug and play (or firewire). The techie in me seems to remember that the firewire offers a faster transfer rate but dunno how accurate this is or whether it even makes a difference. I’m pretty sure the USB ones are fine. Great for laptop usage also.
I can’t recommend any in particular as I’ve had an M-Audio 2494 in my PC for a while but you should get a decent one for under £100. Make sure it’s 24 bit. The guys at DV will see you right I’m sure.
[quote]matt mara (09/06/2010)[hr]I could do with picking up a soundcard this weekend, will be in cambridge so the dv24-7 store comes to mind.
can anyone recommend one? i’d say my budget is probably up to £100 maybe a little more if need be. am i right in saying that a lot i have seen online are now external ones? or is the interface purely external and a card is still on the board using pci or something similar?
the card needs to have at least 2 of the 1/4" (i think?) jacks for input on.
thanks in advance[/quote]
The Maudio410 is basic but will do the trick !!! Great box
i’ve got an M-Audio FireWire 410 and i love it. Might be a bit on the pricey side though, I paid about 300 USD for mine but that was 4 or 5 years ago so i’m sure they’ve come down in price.
thanks guys, from a quick search can’t really find the 410 for sale or at least in stock anywhere! there are a few ebay listings for it though.
i’m waiting for dv247 to come back to me on a few suggestions so will see what they say.
currently got my eyes on these ones…
http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/e-mu-0202-usb-2-0-audio-interface--35905
http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/alesis-io|2-portable-2-channel-24-bit-48khz-usb-audio-interface--30382
http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/m-audio-mobile-pre-usb-usb-bus-powered-preamp-and-audio-interface--9473
usb 3.0 owns firewire.
USB 3.0 is capable of transferring files at an impressive 4.8Gbps (gigabits per second), which is considerably faster than FireWire’s capabilities. The USB folks have made sure that the new USB is backwards compatible with USB 2.0, and although you can’t get USB 3.0 speeds without new hardware, you will still be able to run everything just the same.
just reserved this one for tomorrow, seems pretty good and appears to do everything i need!
http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/m-audio-mobile-pre-usb-usb-bus-powered-preamp-and-audio-interface--9473
Novation nio 2/4 looks like a good budget interface. Won a value award from Future Music Mag and is rated 6th in their top 10. Focusrite saffire range is excellent and the new saffire 6 looks the shizzle if u can stretch ur budget a bit more.