So, having read http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19218, I went on a bit of a search for these c-media cards with the 8768 chipset - this, according to the article (if you can't be arsed to read it) is supposed to provide a similar functionality in terms of encoding to dolby 5.1 as soundstorm does - I am not entirely certain of this, but the "Dolby Digital Live" is listed on the specs page - how much of your CPU this would require and whether the PCI bus can handle it are two separate matters.
Now, with the amazing powers of google, I found this:
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=64850
So, is this Soundstorm featureset in a £10 card, or am I missing something here? Anyone prepared to throw ebuyer a tenner to test it when they get back in stock?
Edit: ah well. Never mind.