  For physical processes which express themselves as a frequency, for example
magnetic field measurements using optically-pumped alkali-vapor magnetometers,
the precise extraction of the frequency from the noisy signal is a classical
problem. We describe herein a frequency measurement system based on an
inexpensive commercially available computer sound card coupled with a software
single-tone estimator which reaches Cram\'er--Rao limited performance, a
feature which commercial frequency counters often lack. Characterization of the
system and examples of its successful application to magnetometry are
presented.
