I recently bought a set of Logitech Z5300 5.1 speakers to enjoy Doom 3 a bit more. Right now the onboard sound " AC97 2.2 6 Channel sound" on my Shuttle SB51G is driving them, and seems to do fine to give me surround sound in Doom 3 and a few other games.

So, what would buying a sound card like the Creative Audigy 2 ZS get me, beyond 200 megs of crap utilities? Anything noticible in the sound experience, or is EAX just marketing hype still? Last time I really paid attention to this was when I got my old Turtle Beach Montego II Quadzilla, and it did A3D, regarded at the time as better then EAX. Creative now has ensured they have crushed any competiting technology, resulting in only them for a true gamer sound card it seems. My only other solutiion would seem to be NVidia's Soundstorm, but thats an integrated solution that I hope to have with my next Shuttle mid next year.

some of the levels in UT2k4 with EAX effects sound phenomenal