By Luckee

To many hardcore gamers today, the most important things are: CPU speed, the graphics card, having a gang load of memory, and of course the sound card.  As many of us play these games, not only are we looking for the realism in the game, but realistic sound too.  With most flying games, shooters and sports games, it is really cool to setup a four point speaker system so you can really hear what the sound card is made of.  I’ve been a Creative Labs fan for years, but I truly think AOpen’s AW744 Pro, 4-channel sound card is one that could give other cards a run for their money, with a price tag that’s $50 cheaper. 

Today’s games are being developed to support surround sound and EAX Environmental Audio, and because of this, the sound card has become even more important in the game of realism. Most of the cards out there today that can give you the 3D surround sound experience cost around $99.  Today we will look at the AW744 Pro 4-channel sound card, a high-quality, yet inexpensive, card from AOpen that costs less than $50.  Although Creative Labs still makes the best overall sound cards on the market, there are several chipsets that are not far behind. One of these chipsets is the YMF744 from Yamaha, which AOpen decided to use in their latest offering.