Sound Card suggestions for my rig?

[HellasVagabond]

Darren youre missing the point.....The X-Fi series right now are the best for gamers and thats that. The Auzentech cards are ok but they dont support EAX HD nor the Extra Characteristics that the X-Fi cards support. Noone says you wont get sound in an Auzentech card but you just wont get the Hardware Acceleration nor the High Quality the X-Fi series have.
And i wouldnt get the X-Fi Extreme Audio cause its the worse X-Fi of the line....

 

[Darren]

Darren youre missing the point.....The X-Fi series right now are the best for gamers and thats that. The Auzentech cards are ok but they dont support EAX HD nor the Extra Characteristics that the X-Fi cards support. Noone says you wont get sound in an Auzentech card but you just wont get the Hardware Acceleration nor the High Quality the X-Fi series have.
And i wouldnt get the X-Fi Extreme Audio cause its the worse X-Fi of the line....

Don't get me wrong I don't have a creative bias, if he had a regular 5.1 setup I would of sugguested a X-Fi, its just that I don't want him to waste the Z5500 logitech's decoder, espeically when every few games support EAX HD.

 

[HellasVagabond]

I have the Inspire 5.1 Digital 5700 , its a 5.1 with a DTS Decoder...The best at the time i got them and still one of the best PC Audio systems although not available...I dont think the decoder has anything to do with the hardware of the card.

 

[Wile E]

Don't get me wrong I don't have a creative bias, if he had a regular 5.1 setup I would of sugguested a X-Fi, its just that I don't want him to waste the Z5500 logitech's decoder, espeically when every few games support EAX HD.

The Creative Decoder sounds better, and has more features than the Logitech's anyway. I've compared both, back to back on my buddy's system. X-Fi's decoder quality is higher. Well at least on his system. I suppose there could be other factors involved, but I doubt it.

And who said I was a Creative fanboy? They are just the only way to get a true DSP and full EAX support, at the moment. As I mentioned in an earlier post, if I want my CPU to do the work, I'll use my onboard optical out, and buy a high quality stand alone DSP.

I love Auzentech cards. They're some of the highest quality cards Ive had the pleasure of working with. (Except, maybe, for some of the MOTU or E-Mu cards I've used, which are more targeted towards studio work anyway.) If Auzentech developed their own DSP, I'd be all over it. So, as a compromise, I'm waiting for Auzentech's X-Fi.

 

[Black Panther]

Which part of europe do you live in?

I'm in Malta, which is somewhat disadvantaged since it's on the boundary of Europe and shipping is always more expensive.

We do have well equipped computer shops but to buy a good product the price would be phenomenally high.

That's why I was searching for a reputable supplier who ships to here.

 

[Wile E]

Sorry that I can't help with finding a store for you, Panther, but I was just curious what you decided to buy.

 

[Darren]

Malta never heard of it, so I doubt I can help you locate a store either, and yes i'm also curious as to what you will buy.

 

[Chewy]

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer I heard is just as good as the fatality model, Fatality model has a midi port for musicians but is practically the same card (I know that the faitality has more ram too but its not really needed, from what I read).

Glad to hear the x-fi makes a diff over the gigabyte boards.. now to wait for a sale or Nicx to do a pricematch..

 

[Black Panther]

I'm searching online for a sound card hierarchy chart. I had no problem finding such charts for video cards but I can't find one for sound cards.

 

[Black Panther]

Ok, this is my suggestion then:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102005

I'm really liking that suggestion.

The X-Fi XtremeGamer Fata1ity Professional, from Newegg it's a reasonable price at $139.99.

So far I found only one local supplier who quotes it online (it's a small island here and we only have 4 or 5 'large' pc shops): http://www.nmsuperstores.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=1971

BUT their price is $210!!! (you multiply our currency x3 to convert to USD)
No way I'm going to buy from them! Robbers!

 

[HellasVagabond]

Panther you could wait until the new PCIx sound cards get released in a few months. Until then use the onboard card

 

[Black Panther]

Thanks for the suggestion neighbour!

Will the PCIx cards be using the same pci slots?

 

[HellasVagabond]

Nope, they will be using the small PCIx slots found in motherboards...If you have a motherboard less than 2 years old or you get a new one you will have at least 1 PCIx3 slot.

PS : The p5b has a PCIx slot

 

[devguy]

Meh, all Creative has announced for pcie 1x is an extreme audio with a pci->pcie bridge. The Asus sonar will come in a pcie 1x flavor, but it will not have the gaming features that Creative does.

I am pretty disgusted with Creative from a software/driver point of view, but for gaming, nothing beats their hardware. I'm happy with the Audigy 2 ZS I just purchased OEM new for $14 on ebay (yeah, $14, if you try you can get one yourself). I would also recommend the X-fi extremegamer as it has everthing the ExtremeMusic has, but is a half-height card.

 

[Sovereign]

I am pretty disgusted with Creative from a software/driver point of view, but for gaming, nothing beats their hardware. I'm happy with the Audigy 2 ZS I just purchased OEM new for $14 on ebay (yeah, $14, if you try you can get one yourself). I would also recommend the X-fi extremegamer as it has everthing the ExtremeMusic has, but is a half-height card.

Thats pretty much how I felt and the reason why I went with a VIA Envy24-HT audio card until the new ASUS, Auzentech and a few others are released! I just dont feel like putting up with Creative anymore and besides, My Envy24 card does a superb job durring gaming and the extra little hit I take due to decoding needed to be offloaded to the CPU instead of the audio card is almost a non factor when you consider that an X2 @ near 3Ghz is handling the work load.

 

[HellasVagabond]

Nvidia makes driver mistakes, ATi makes driver mistakes but Creative shouldnt ? Come on guys you know as well as i do that the variety of hardware and software is something no company can always have 100% compatibility over. For example 2 years ago Creative cards had an incompatibility with the Nforce 4 Ultra chipset.
Either way i aint dumping Creative just for some driver errors.
As for the PCIx cards, we will see not just the announced Xtreme audio card but also the next generation of sound cards from Creative. Just wait and youll get the idea

 

[Chewy]

I just got a x-fi xtremeGamer edition at a local store It might not be as big as the fatality edition but for gaming I've read that its just as good.. try finding one it will be cheaper than the fatality and the sound quality will be the same.

Im happy to have this, I will be able to use my front audio case connectors too because they can connect into the card xD.

 

[ktr]

get this: http://shop2.outpost.com/{jRbe88DfP...AYS5q8byA**.node2?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

the xtreme music is the same as the fatal1ty but with out the pointless xram. the xtreme music is more perfered over the fatal1ty.

 

[Ketxxx]

What drivers are you using with your Soundmax? If your not using them you really should try the 5.10.1.6110 drivers. When I used the ADI1988B CODEC with my Crosshair sound quality was friggin awesome, blew the crap out of a multitude of cards I compared it to, and I honestly couldnt hear the difference when I hooked my speakers up to a friends X-Fi.

 

[Ketxxx]

Nvidia makes driver mistakes, ATi makes driver mistakes but Creative shouldnt ? Come on guys you know as well as i do that the variety of hardware and software is something no company can always have 100% compatibility over. For example 2 years ago Creative cards had an incompatibility with the Nforce 4 Ultra chipset.
Either way i aint dumping Creative just for some driver errors.
As for the PCIx cards, we will see not just the announced Xtreme audio card but also the next generation of sound cards from Creative. Just wait and youll get the idea

Peoples problem with creative is the fact their tech support is crap, their drivers have known bugs, some of which quite major, yet creative just wont fix them. The sooner creative vanish from the face of the earth the better, there are plenty of alternatives which offer much better support and quality for a much less price, one example is the Prodigy 192.

 

[hat]

I would just use onboard. No point in buying some $200 sound card with X-RAM just so you can get 1-2 more FPS. I would buy more ram, better cpu, better video card, etc...

 

[Chewy]

I though thier cards were working fne with Vista from what I was told. they had problems to start but they've been sorted out now.

I use my comp for movies/tv shows, music and games., so Im still happy buying a sound card.. hopefully I notice a nice diff when listening to music.. I find my speakers give out to much bass not enough mids. xD

 

[HellasVagabond]

Yes the XRAM X-Fis are a fraud, but the normal ones no.
Currently theres not a single company capable of providing a better gaming sound card and thats a fact so no point in arguing about it.
As for Vista, creatives drivers work like a charm.

 

[Sovereign]

Peoples problem with creative is the fact their tech support is crap, their drivers have known bugs, some of which quite major, yet creative just wont fix them. The sooner creative vanish from the face of the earth the better, there are plenty of alternatives which offer much better support and quality for a much less price, one example is the Prodigy 192.

Couldn't have said it better myself...

 

[HellasVagabond]

Like i said Nvidia, Ati too have problems, Creative isnt an exception and its as big if not bigger than both of the companies i mentioned.