Verdict
Since this sound card can be purchased for around $65 I’m going to end up dishing it a 9.0 for price. Its almost identical to an Mx300 for a fraction of the price, if you buy retail that is. The most important rating for the card is Performance or Sound Quality which are the same thing. I will be flipping it a 8.5 for Performance because it was just an average A3D 2.0 Vortex 2 sound card. An average Vortex2 chipset sound card is still a good sound card, but nothing above the rest of the pack. So average in fact that you can download the drivers from Aureal’s web page without losing any of the functionality of the sound card. A3D 2.0 is good, but I found myself always craving for a little more or better sound here and there. But it does offer a digital S/P-DIF(TOSLINK) outlet which is a definite plus.

Overall I’m dishing this sound card a 9.0. How can that be? Well besides the fact that it didn’t have a great price or awesome sound quality, it did have a good bundle. Future Beat 3D was excellent and so are all the things you can do within the Sonic Max Properties. It far out paces the control panel of any other sound card on the market today. VideoLogic’s Sonic Vortex2 is above the pack in offering a good useful bundle. By using the Vortex2 chipset they are providing good sound quality for games and anything else you listen to. If you are in the market for an Sound Card that supports A3D 2.0, has a decent price, and need to convert sound files to MP-3’s, then I have a board for you. The Sonic Vortex2 from VideoLogic is the board you are looking for. You can purchase this card for $70 at the Outpost (www.outpost.com) by typing in VideoLogic in the search area.

by Kevin Perko

Price - 9.0 Performance - 8.5 Overall - 9.0

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