Cheap 5.1 and 7.1 PCI soundcard support

[Satoshi]

Hey, guys, I'm having a hard time finding out whether some soundcards I'm considering buying are supported in linux.

I tried googling, the alsa 'supported cards' page, tried searching for chipset name (when I could find them out), and still I can't find it.

So, in general, does linux struggle with cheap low-end 5.1 or 7.1 PCI soundcards? I'd think not, but I never used an offboard soundcard before, so I have no idea.

I'm sorry for the general question, but I can't really find any specific information on the specific cards I'm looking into.

If anyone DOES know where to get that specific info, these are two examples of soundcards I might buy but wasn't able to find out if they are supported:

Encore ENM232-8VIA (7.1)

LeaderShip 1051 C-Media 6CH (I was not able to find out what specific chipset it uses)

[wcg]