For a measly £30 you'd have every right to expect a soundcard to sound like a budget performer.

In the Aureon 5.1 Fun, however, we found nothing to suggest a down-market product. It claims to support all the major sound standards for gamers and movie fans for less than the cost of a tank of petrol.

Often, budget hardware falls down when it comes to installing the product. While the hardware is fine, the driver support and software can cause reliability problems and generally be a problem.

Not here though. Terratec may not be as familiar as some soundcard manufacturers but it has been around a long time and knows what it is doing.

Installation went without incident and we were up and jiving straight away. The correct speakers are required to make use of the surround sound but once plugged in, users can enjoy full cinema sound from DVD movies.

It's worth considering the Aureon for music recording, although it struggled with some of the more strenuous processing tasks. The inclusion of optical digital in and outputs was a pleasant surprise at the price.

Contact: Terratec 0118 982 1612
www.terratec.co.uk