i/o boxes

[Stingray]

do all io boxes have to be attached to the sound card made for them. i know of a few that are internal and connect by the optical hookup on the sound card but still come with a sound card. coulkd you just buy the i/o seperatly and connect it to your current sound card. And anyways if i was gonna by an i/o sound card combination which would be the best to by

[JMX]

Check out the M-Audio Quattro


http://www.midiman.com/products/m-audio/quattro.php

[CrawlingEye]

It depends what you do, I suppose.

I'd get the SB Audigy Platinum, simply because I play a considerable amount of games, and would want the EAX for games, while having the i/o's for recording.