Verdict: Cheap, cheerful and a bit of a funny shape

If we were to rate products by brand recognition alone the Innovision Audio Extreme 5.1 wouldn't stand much of a chance, unless we were based in Hong Kong, where Innovision is a very well-known company. It must sell the Extreme to Dabs for a ridiculously small amount, as it's sold under the Dabs Value moniker for just £15. And though you might not believe it, the card's not half bad, and for only £15, it's something of a steal.

The Extreme supports up to six channels, which, for most people, is more than enough. It's based on the C-Media CMI8738 chip, commonly found integrated into motherboards, but is actually a hardware audio device rather than an AC97 chip. The CMI8738 is capable of 24-bit playback (through the digital output only) and supports EAX 1 as well as A3D 1.0 and Microsoft DirectSound3D. It can also hardware decode Dolby Digital 5.1 signals.

The card itself is very small and has a large part of the PCB missing - quite literally a cost-cutting move. The connectors are colour coded and there's a midi/gameport on the back plate. Attached to a separate bracket are a set of optical and coaxial inputs and outputs - four connections in total. This gives a wealth of options for recording to, or outputting audio from, a wide range of sources. Sample rates are limited to either 44.1KHz or 48KHz.

The software bundle isn't overflowing, but it does include a six-channel version of InterVideo WinDVD 4 and WinRip for managing audio files. There's even a TOSLink to 3.5mm jack optical cable for connecting it to a Minidisc recorder. Driver installation was painless but there isn't much to look at in the control panel.

In testing, the Extreme sounded far better than a £15 sound card ought to. Positional audio wasn't as pronounced as the Creative cards, but should be good enough to satisfy a casual gamer. Speed-wise, the card also impressed, providing the smoothest frame rate in our Call of Duty test, though admittedly this was with EAX 1.

The Innovision Audio Extreme 5.1 is a cheap but cheerful package. There are no fripperies, its sound quality is pretty decent, and performance and connectivity are both excellent, and for just £15, you can't say fairer than that.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

• Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - Hard disks / storage
• Asus EAH4870 TOP - Graphics cards
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro - Sound cards
• Multiwinia - Games
• Zotac GeForce GTX 260² - Graphics cards
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 - Graphics cards
• Scan 3XS X58 Core i7 - Desktop PCs