Recommendations for Fedora 12 compatible sound card

[blankslash]

I have a Dell PowerEdge 840 that has no sound card. I would like to install a completely compatible sound card. I have not been able to find any recommendations for compatible sound cards on these forums, but I have learned that the C-Media chipset is supposed to be well-supported by Linux.

There are C-Media sound cards on e-bay for under $10. I was considering a 6ch c-media 5.1 surround sound 3D PCI sound card. I believe the chipset is CM8738. Does anyone know whether this card is supported in F12? Or does anyone care to share any recommendations for sound cards that are known to be compatible with Fedora 12?

My intention is to be able to install a decent, inexpensive, commodity sound card that is known to be compatible with Fedora 12. I would prefer to purchase and install one that I know works rather than guessing and then fiddling with it forever and asking a lot of questions that could have been avoided.

Surprisingly, this information has been very hard for me to find. I understand that there is no Fedora hardware compatibility list, but it seems that a very brief list of hardware that is know to be compatible with the most recent release or two of Fedora could save a lot of time and resources. The purpose of such a brief list wouldn't necessarily be to see if a certain piece of hardware is compatible, but to find a component that is know to be compatible, so as to easily be able to get a completely functional system up and running.

[Gödel]

I don't recall if I've used that chipset in fedora, but I've used plenty of soundblaster and audigy/audigy2 cards with few problems in fedora (there were issues with earlier versions of pulseaudio but it is now mature)

I've not tried to get surround sound working in linux for a while, so don't know how easy it is with pulseaudio, older guides are mostly alsa based eg http://www.halfgaar.net/surround-sound-in-linux

[blankslash]

Thanks. If I can't get the c-media card to work I will probably try a soundblaster.

[schotty]

I have banished soundblaster out of my place. I use the integrated stuff that are on my boards.

CMedia should work fine, as should maudio and turtle beach. all are good cards with great linux support.

Creative is a bunch of jerks who crap on the linux userbase and community. I find zero reason to overpay for a kick in the nuts. All the other pro-audio folks either adhere to standards, help make drivers, or publish the documents so others can. Creative just gets in the way.

[synic]

Also looking for a '100% compatible sound card that works out of the box. Or should I just stick with Onboard for my Media PC?

[dsio]

If you want something with decent quality, surround sound and digital inputs and outputs, the ASUS Xonar D2X has been surprisingly good, perfect support out of the box, nothing to do at all, full 5.1, high quality sound.

Before the Xonar I had a high end Creative X-Fi model, and the drivers sucked, the audio very good, but not as good as the Xonar D2X, and it cost far more. Can't express how glad I am with the purchase.