£50 sound card help!

Girdag

Girdag

Girdag

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Joined
31 Jan 2007
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87
Hmm, not sure on this one.

I'm going to be building a new system around a Asus P5B-E motherboard, using Core2Duo and a DX10 graphics card (waiting until March/April to see if the R600s are any good). I'm going to use Logitech X-540 speakers, already got some from a old PC (the only peripheral that I'm going to keep, everything else was dire), and I'm looking for a soundcard in the £50 area to pair with them.

I use my PC for gaming, listening to music, and watching DVDs, just about in that order of priority, and this'll be taken off to Uni and form the media hub of my digs, so it'll probably see an increase in use for music and DVDs then.

So, what should I go for? Are the X-Fi's as good as everyone makes 'em out to be? Or should I go for one of the more 'audiophile' and less 'gaming' solutions?
 
1337z0r said:
XFI are very good even if your not gaming i really rate them.
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Except they have lots of compatbility problems, dunno what they're like on the newer motherboards though.

A proper audiophile soundcard will offer superior sound quality though. CL are just marketed the "best" but they're not really, they're just the most common.

Checkout the range of M-Audio soundcards. However they don't offer gaming features the CL include, such as hardware D3D mixing, EAX 5 etc.
 
squiffy said:
However they don't offer gaming features the CL include, such as hardware D3D mixing, EAX 5 etc.
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Do these make a massive difference? Or are they a bit of a 'gimmick'? I never worked out what they actually did, tbh.
 
They really help, especially over onboard software sound. If you are a big gamer i'd mostly recommend it. I love the 3D effect over my headphones.
However there are compatibility issues and some people just can't get them working or have niggling problems, like me. :(

M-audio and E-MU will be fantastic for listening to music and music production but not good for games. My E-MU wouldn't run some games at all. Not sure about gaming with M-Audio
Also, only the more expensive M-Audio card outputs 5.1 I think
 
Your HI-Fi knowledge will tell you that you spend money on the source downwards. Double your budget & get an Auzentech. You know it makes sense! ;)
 
Biscuity said:
Your HI-Fi knowledge will tell you that you spend money on the source downwards. Double your budget & get an Auzentech. You know it makes sense! ;)
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They look nice, but I've already overshot my budget in other areas, and shoving another £70 on (cheapest I can find the card) isn't really plausible.
 
Are these X-FI really as good as the hype? Their processing power is really equal to a P4 3.0GHz? People say there is a night and day difference between the old and the new Creative cards Aug --> X-FI? Takes a lot less cpu cycles than the Aug? And finally will we hear the difference if we are NOT running some 7.1 THX cert. sound system?
 
Eiromancer said:
Are these X-FI really as good as the hype? Their processing power is really equal to a P4 3.0GHz? People say there is a night and day difference between the old and the new Creative cards Aug --> X-FI? Takes a lot less cpu cycles than the Aug? And finally will we hear the difference if we are NOT running some 7.1 THX cert. sound system?
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When they work, the X-Fi's are good for gaming. But you can buy soundcards from other companies (M-Audio, Emu) that offer superior analogue stereo playback.
 
Psypher5 said:
girdag, you got yourself sorted?

If not contact me tomm @ bull3t.co.uk, got n xfi to go :)
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Just bought a X-Fi Music OEM @ £50. Granted not as a good as a 2496, but at least better than onboard and gaming card.
 
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