Hi everyone,

I'm a bit new here, so I apologize if this isn't the right place to be posting this thread (let me know where I should move it to if it isn't). I've got a fun smaller optiplex gx280 as I mentioned in the title, and I think the last thing it needs is a decent soundcard. I'm a bit new to the soundcard world, and while I plan to try to do some more research on my own, I thought it couldn't hurt to ask some soundcard veterans their advice as well.

Current System Specs:
CPU: Pentium 4 651 (65W Cedar Mill)
RAM: 3GB DDR2
Storage: 120GB SSD
GPU: Radeon HD 5570 (low profile)
OS: Windows 2000

As for the soundcard, it just needs to be compatible with windows 2k, and be an appropriate size PCI card to fit in my case (see the attached photo for the mounting bracket, I don't know if there's a naming convention for PCI card sizes so I apologize for that). I'm not looking for some crazy high end card, just something that's a decent step up from what's integrated on the motherboard. I got this computer for $20 with the ram and SSD, and I personally upgraded the CPU and GPU, so I'm trying to avoid spending over $20 on the card ideally...

If anyone's got good recommendations for budget soundcards from around 2000-2004, definitely let me know! And if you have any suggestions for other things to put in the 2nd PCI slot, I'd love to hear those too. Thanks,

-Rubdub