The Diamond MX 300 is also known as the Monster II sound card. It's a Vortex 2 powered card and therefore supports Aureal's latest version of the 3D sound standard, A3D 2.0.

Installation was a simple matter, with Plug and Play working perfectly, and this is one smart sounding card. Particularly when it comes to games, as the A3D 2.0 sound is very good. Even the basic A3D demos provided with the MX 300 really show off the potential of the 3D sound standard, providing convincing surround sound even on a standard two speaker setup. A3D used to be streets ahead of EAX, though that's not the case these days as they're pretty much even in terms of sound quality.

So what else does this monster have to offer? Technically, it sports a pretty standard range of connections on the backing plate - 2 buffered stereo line outputs, a line in and a mic input, plus the obligatory game port. The MX 300 has a 320 voice wavetable setup, with 256 voices in software and 64 hardware voices, and 92 DirectSound channels.

But this really is a hardcore gamer's card, and a reasonably priced one at that. A3D 2.0 is still widely supported, with some games now moving on to version 3.0 of the 3D sound API, so the MX-300's chosen sound system undoubtedly has life in it yet. It also comes with a (fairly small) software selection, including a software DVD player, desktop based MIDI recording studio and MusicMatch Jukebox (an MP3 player and CD ripper).

It's also worth mentioning that this card has an MX-Link connector for a daughterboard upgrade, the MX25, which adds full Dolby 5.1 AC3 support and a range of digital connections for those DVD fans out there.

The MX 300 is a decent choice for gamers, and even movie buffs with the added daughterboard thrown into the equation.