Ever think about changing mobo's..?? You can get a soyo dragon board with very high quality built in 5.1 surround sound that is not crap, but a high end, built in card that would cost ya around $100 if ya just bought it, nothing to do with the crappy ac97. So for the price of a normal card + $20-$30 you could have a new bad boy board. Just a thought. Check the reviews, everyone that I have read has nothing but praise for the built in sound of the soyo boards, I know I sure do love mine !!!