Any difference between these 2 x-fi's?

Soldato
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8 Jun 2005
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Quick question.

Is there any difference between

Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Soundcard (PCI) - OEM

and

Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Soundcard (PCI-Express) - OEM

Besides the fact that one is PCI and the other PCI-e is there any other difference? Any reason why I should get one over the other?

Thanks.
 
Im running the PCI-E version myself. They should be/are identical just have a different interface.
The one you choose depends on what slots you have available, I was PCI-less so went for PCI-E.
I will say one thing about the drivers though, which I think is unique to the PCI-E version, the CD you get with it installs it fine on both XP and Vista but none of the updated drivers from creative's website see the card.

I don't know what the problem is there, maybe the drivers just don't look in the PCI-E slots :confused: but as I say works fine with the provided driver CD, very good sound card, if you do go for the PCI-E version, shop about and you can save yourself a few £.
 
Drivers not picking it up are likely to be due to a different device ID which isn't included in the standard mainstream drivers at the moment. All the old cards are PCI, whereas this is the only PCI-E in the range and hasnt been out very long, so its quite possible theres no upgrade drivers for it yet. Although the PCI-E and PCI cards offer the same features and share a name, they arent identical, as AFAIK Creative had to do some sort of redesign to get it running suitably on the PCI-E bus, so although it may seem like only the interface has changed, theres possibly a little more to it than that.

To be honest I wouldnt worry, Im not even sure there have been any updated drivers since the PCI-E card came out a couple of months ago.
 
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Hmm reason I asked is because I have no clue which one to get. Although with the current large PCI-e GFX cards, I'm thinking the PCI x-fi would be better as its further away on the mobo
 
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