Good, basic sound card.

The onboard sound on my PC suddenly failed, and being the sensible fellow I am, I decided to get a sound card rather than pitch out the whole CPU.

Not wanting to spend huge amounts of cash on a fancy sound card that I didn't need, I looked for the best "cheap" card I could find... One that would simply restore the ability to get sound out of that infernal box.

The Audigy SE was offered by several local retailers, so I picked one up. The installation took all of a half an hour, at least part of which was spent vacuuming some dust out of the guts of my computer. I installed the software and downloaded the updates from Creative's site, and poof, I had sound.

I can't claim that the sound is radically improved from what I was experiencing before my "regular" sound went kaput, but it does seem to sound somewhat better than it did before (though, admittedly, this may be my mind justifying the $32 purchase).

Contrary to some reviews you will read elsewhere on the net, the Audigy SE was a cinch to install and it sounds good (just make sure you have an open port for the installation). No complaints.