Okay guys, I need you all to help me pick a sound card and a video card for this thing. 😀 So let's have a little face-off:

Round 1: Audio Cards

Left side: SB Audigy2 ZS Gold (SB0350)
+ EMU10k variant (source: ALSA driver), although not branded as such
+ Was top-of-the-range
+ Name brand appeal
+ Beautiful brown & gold PCB (not that you'd see it inside the case)
+ SPDIF out (and maybe in??) with pinheader bracket (not the one in the picture, but I've got it somewhere)
+ MIDI in/out with pinheader bracket (I have that one somewhere too)
+ Firewire port
+ Multichannel audio outs
+ 24-bit / 192kHz support
~ Unknown Linux support (ALSA has a driver at least ... I haven't tried it)
+ Some possible level of DOS support if I need that for whatever reason
- I found it in my closet and don't know if it works
-- Not sure if it has the same 44.1 kHz recording problem as the SB Live - anyone have more info on this??

Right side: M-Audio Audiophile 24/96
+ More 'professionally' oriented
~ Wasn't top-of-the-range
+ Reasonably good Linux support
+ RCA ins & outs
+ DIN5 MIDI outs (dongle)
+ SPDIF in & out (dongle)
~ 24-bit / 96kHz support as it says (honestly I still use 44/24 or 44/16 99% of the time)
+ I know it works
+ I used it lots under Linux and know the driver behaves well
~ Clunky mixer support
+ I actually paid money for it at one time

Round 2: Video Cards

Left side: Radeon HD4850
- 512MB RAM
- Older card
- Clocked slower
+ Higher end model when new
+ Seems to be faster in some benchmarks
- Huge, probably noisy
- I found it in my closet and don't know if it works
---- Will block one of my other PCI slots

Right side: Radeon HD4670
+ 1GB RAM
+ Newer card
+ Clocked faster
- Mid-range model when new
- Some benchmarks (e.g. GPU Boss) report it as slower
+ Slim, quiet
+ I know it works

Those are my understandings anyway ... I'm leaning to the 4670 for video and it's a toss-up on the sound card. My motherboard also has onboard audio but that's just boring. I welcome your opinions. 😀