Manufacturer: Diamond Multimedia Tech: Aureal Vortex 2 Based PCI Soundcard Bundle: Software DVD Player, MusicMatch MP3 utility, Stereo Recording Session, MediaWorks98, Recoil, Half-Life. Price: $99

Diamond Multimedia's newest audio card builds on the foundation of the past to deliver a product well suited for the future. Combining Aureal's popular A3D 2.0 positional audio format with some serious hardware, the MX300 serves notice that it's not your father's audio card…

The Diamond Monster Sound MX300 is a full-force, DVD Dolby Digital-playing, 3D gaming monster. Equipped with Aureal's Vortex 2 (8830) audio controller at its heart, the MX300 allows for very high specifications regarding the playback and/or recording of sound. To give you an idea, here's a little look at the most important specs of the card, which give a general idea about its capacity: