Audio/Networking 

Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live! Value
$40.00

Just because you're building a value system doesn't mean your ears have to suffer. For only $40 we can get ourselves a pretty damn sweet Creative Live! Value sound card. That gives us EAX support for 3D sound, perfect for games, especially since A3D's future is so uncertain. 

For most users, even hardcore gamers, there really isn't much the Live! doesn't have that you'd need. It's got the 3d sound support, support for 4 speakers, and for everyone but the audiophiles out there the sound quality should be plenty good. Again, in the value market for gaming sound solutions there really isn't all that much competition, at least nothing that can compete with Creative's reputation and price. Lets face it, these guys came up with the SoundBlaster... it's a legacy. 

Speakers: Labtec SS-11
$3.49

Ok, so these are likely crap... but they're only $3.49 and when I tallied all the stuff up at the end I had $4.30 left to spend. I'm hoping all of you out there already have decent speakers, or at least a stereo to run your gaming system through so you don't have to suffer through what is likely horrible sound from such a low end set of speakers. ;

I mean when you think about it this is a great price for speakers, but just not speakers that would really measure up to gaming... my advice, plug your sound output into your stereo and use these as your rear channels for 3d sound... it won't be great, but I challenge you to find better for under $4.30!

Network Card: Linksys Etherfast 10/100 PCI

$14.44A network card really isn't something you can go wrong with in this segment. Most games don't use enough bandwidth to even justify 100MBit, but you might as well have it for those, er, picture transfers at LAN parties. 

Linksys makes good stuff, I've never had a problem with their cards, and they're nice and cheap for our value conscious mindset. Plug in some RJ-45 and you're set to go, gaming should be golden and file transfers at 100MBit can't be beat on a LAN. Integrated LAN on the motherboard would have been nice in this case, would have saved us a few bucks, but unfortunately a no go for our board... are you listening ABIT? ;) 

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