Choosing a sound card upgrade

[new_rez]

Hey guys,
I want to upgrade my soundcard in my main PC, but im not sure which sound card I should get.
I have a budget of around £50(Great british pounds, not euros), which is around $100.
Im not sure if I should go for a creative X-fi the normal one or if I should go for a different make? I have a creative audigy 2 atm but the drivers are crap and all the features on my 5.1 surround sound speakers dont work with it.
Im really into my music and play a lot of games. Sound quality is important, and if anyone can recommend any other cards I have left out it would be appreciated. I also dont mind if they are a little over the budget.

I've been looking at this card. Im tempted by it -

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-045-CL&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=

Thanks,
Harry

 

[Skyguy]

Excellent card right there.....I run an X-Fi and am very happy with it. Big boost in sound quality, drivers are great (Vista problems all fixed now too), full feature set.

Really can't go wrong with an X-Fi for that price.

 

[divinebaboon]

hmm...well RAzer Barracuda is going really hceap here in the united states,around 60$. Maybe you can find one similaryly priced on ebay and have it shipped to uk? $60 Barracuda

 

[SinxarKnights]

Ok. So is the X-Fi series fully compatible with Vista without having to use special programs like Alchemy? Because I need a new card and it MUST have at least a treble control. I tried an Audigy SE, to say the least - it is the worst sound card that I have ever purchased for the price. The sticker said "Windows Vista Certified" but there was only very basic functionality and no EQ or EAX in Vista - $40 wasted ($30 for card and $10 for Alchemy - that don't work).

Again: is the X-Fi series fully compatible with Vista without having to use special programs like Alchemy?

 

[Spacegoast]

well try to find one that has DSP (digital signal processor). basically that will handle the workload that your cpu would normally handle, thus freeing up the cpu for doing other things. im not too sure which ones are good any more as i havent been keeping up with the sound cards, lol. i hear those x-fi's are pretty nice as someone else already mentioned but thats about all i can say

 

[Nitro-Max]

Read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_X-Fi

 

[SinxarKnights]

Read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_X-Fi

Interesting read, but I don't use Win2000. Is it fully supported in Vista or no? The Audigy said it was fully Vista compatible but as we all know, its not.

 

[Skyguy]

My X-Fi is fully compatible in Vista, BUT...........I do use Alchemy. It's a free download though, dunno why you said $10? Am I missing something?

 

[SinxarKnights]

Ya it cost $10 now. The bad part is none of my games are supported by Alchemy. Most of them have an option to turn it on but it always said it wasn't supported or its just grayed out. I was unable to get Alchemy to work with "The Witcher", "Crysis", "UT3" or "Guild Wars". Well that really sucks. Is there any card that has native EAX (gaming) support in Vista, Like my SB Live! 5.1 did in XP?

In XP you just select EAX in game and it works.

Sorry new_rez. I didn't mean to jack your thread. I just need some sound card information before I make another bad purchase.

 

[new_rez]

Ya it cost $10 now. The bad part is none of my games are supported by Alchemy. Most of them have an option to turn it on but it always said it wasn't supported or its just grayed out. I was unable to get Alchemy to work with "The Witcher", "Crysis", "UT3" or "Guild Wars". Well that really sucks. Is there any card that has native EAX (gaming) support in Vista, Like my SB Live! 5.1 did in XP?

In XP you just select EAX in game and it works.

Sorry new_rez. I didn't mean to jack your thread. I just need some sound card information before I make another bad purchase.

No worries. You asked some questions i didnt think about.

 

[new_rez]

hmm...well RAzer Barracuda is going really hceap here in the united states,around 60$. Maybe you can find one similaryly priced on ebay and have it shipped to uk? $60 Barracuda

lol you're lucky then! Cheapest one i can find in the uk is £116 which is about $232

 

[FlipIt]

Well i always thought this X-FI cards are only for those professionals and who write music and stuff i guess the on board sound cards are great too but if you really dont have on what to spend the money... you could go with the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook 7.1 24-bit/96kHz or the Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1 24-bit/96kHz they are at same price but you could save $20 by buying the Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 24-bit/96kHz

 

[SinxarKnights]

But both of those require the use of Alchemy for EAX in Vista...

 

[Jimmy 2004]

Uhh... Alchemy is free for X-Fi cards. It's only Audigy cards you need to pay for. Admittedly it won't help you with the lack of support in your games, but I thought I'd clear that up.

 

[imperialreign]

The X-Fi's will work in Vista, and Creative has most of the issues squared away with the drivers . . .

. . . what won't work, though, is EAX and any other hardware acceleration DSPs that rely on DirectSound. This is due to how MS designed the Vista OS, and has nothing to do with Creative (contrary to popular Creative bashing belief), and every audio card manufacturer has been having Vista related issues/complaints. To enable EAX properly, you'll have to run the ALchemy drivers, and the OpenAL API.

As far as I know, this goes for any soundcard capable of running EAX. Although, if you want support for any version of EAX past 2.0, you'd have to buy a Creative product as it's their technology. Creative is the only manufacturer that I know of that currently has a workaround for the loss of DirectSound in Vista.



Anyhow, to the original post - the Xtreme Gamer is a good card, great sound quality plus all the benefits for gaming. If you're willing to spend a little more, I'd recommend the Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Pro; fastest audio card on the market right now.

The Razer Barracuda AC-1 is also a fast card, and has slightly better audio quality than the Fatal1ty, but, a lot of reports tend to indicate that for the best audio experience, it should be used with Razer's HP-1 headset as well. The AC-1 is only capable of EAX 2.0, though, and is typically priced higher than Creative's cards.


Just to give everyone an idea as to how old EAX2.0 is - it was designed for support with the Sound Blaster Live! series . . . all the way back in 1998.