With today's PCs often used as the heart of a home entertainment system, digital surround-sound cards are fast becoming a favourite upgrade.

Jumping ahead of its rivals Hercules has released the Gamesurround Fortissimo III, one of the first to offer 7.1 audio capabilities.

The Fortissimo card boasts six external jack sockets; three dedicated to main, centre, subwoofer and surround speakers, while the fourth doubles as a headphones and additional surround output.

The other two jacks provide microphone and line input, and there's an optical S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) connector for pumping a digital signal to a separate amplifier or recording device.

The provision of both headphone and front-speaker sockets means that both can be connected simultaneously. Onboard sockets allow audio from both CD and DVD-Rom drives to be mixed in, and an add-on plate housing a joystick/Midi port is supplied.

We would have preferred this to be integrated into the main card but, given the amount of other sockets, it simply wouldn't fit.

At the heart of the Fortissimo III is the same Cirrus Logic Soundfusion DSP found on the Fortissimo II. However, this card adds support for Dolby Digital EX decoding, as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Surround.

It is this EX compatibility that allows the card to work with eight speakers, through 7.1 independent audio channels.

Dolby Digital EX works like standard Dolby Digital 5.1, but provides for an additional stereo rear-surround channel. In an EX configuration extra speakers are placed at the back, allowing for a better surround-sound experience and smoother transitions.

Gamers should note that, with a lack of any EX-compatible titles on the market, this feature is aimed at DVD movie fans, and the bundled PowerDVD Pro EX software is needed to make use of it.

In addition, at the time of writing we couldn't find a 7.1 speaker system designed for use with PCs, although we're sure that Cambridge Soundworks has something up its sleeve.

As usual, video playback quality from the supplied PowerDVD Pro EX is excellent.

Games do benefit from Sensaura positional audio and the Fortissimo supports Microsoft's Directsound 3D, EAX, A3D and other formats. A set of 64 hardware voices combine with an 8MB General Midi sample set and Yamaha's S-YXG50 software synthesiser, delivering 676 instrument sounds and 21 drum kits.

Soundtracks created for 3D are played out across the speakers, while standard stereo and mono audio can be 'virtualised' for a 3D effect. With four-speaker set-ups the audio output is simply played out of both stereo pairs.

A relatively straightforward Control Panel means that settings are easily tweaked, and Hercules supplies its own Mediastation II application for working with multimedia files.

The Fortissimo also comes with Sonic Foundry's Acid Xpress, a simple loop-based music package requiring no more than a few samples for you to start composing, and 25 sample loops are included.

But installation isn't straightforward, as drivers and applications must be loaded one by one. Our test PC also had to be persuaded to trust the drivers as they weren't officially certified for use with XP.

During early tests with Quake III on our Athlon XP system some driver settings caused delays during sound playback. The audio on Quicktime movies was also distorted.

Re-installing the Yamaha XG software synthesiser managed to eliminate the problem, but this is something for Hercules to watch. In its defence, audio quality on both Wav and Midi files was top notch.

But perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Fortissimo III 7.1 is the price - just £49.99.

No doubt Hercules will produce a more expensive Game Theatre 7.1 complete with an external rack, but this standard card will be ideal for the majority of upgraders.

Specifications:

Price: £49.99 (£42.55 ex VAT)
Contact: Hercules 020 8665 1881
europe.hercules.com