Cheapest XFI for Vista32?

FatRakoon · 8 Sep 2007 at 17:13

Mate of mine is a cheapskate.

Asked me what is the cheapest XFI?

I said about £25 give or take, but he says that the cheap ones are not Vista compatible?

WTF? Sure, I see that some people are having issues with their cards, but surely there isnt a load of specific ones that are incompatible surely?

So, what is the cheapest XFI card out there, thats fully compatible with Vista?

This is Vista32 Ultimate by the way.

Thanks.

helmutcheese · 8 Sep 2007 at 17:52

The only one I would get at a budget is a Extreme Music, the Extreme Gamer is said to have cheaper DAC's, CAP's and thats from a Geek Audio site who mod the cards, I dont know what Creative are playing at with all these recent models, even the Modders like YouPAX and Classic Leon agree its a joke.

FatRakoon · 8 Sep 2007 at 18:16

Ok thanks.

Yeah , I agree... Silly to have so many different models.

I can see that budget, id and High end would be a good idea, btu Im sure there is well over a dozen different cards now!?!??!?! - No wonder Creative try to justify such expensive junk half the time.

FatRakoon · 12 Sep 2007 at 03:34

FWIW... I gave him the option of the extreme Music, but he said about being a gamer, would the extreme gamer be better?

Ok, why not, stuff him.

He is more than chuffed though.

Considering he is currently using an OnBoard solution, I dare say that anything would be a boost for him, but as I said, we opted for the EG in the end and so everythign turned out good.

Thanks HC

helmutcheese · 12 Sep 2007 at 13:18

The Gamer is basic (basically for games not nice music, not saying it dont sound ok though), the Music one does same + more.

MeatLoaf · 12 Sep 2007 at 13:21

The PCI-E X-Fi works perfect in Vista - doesnt even need the driver CD

helmutcheese · 12 Sep 2007 at 13:32

The PCI-E card was a joke IMO same as all these other weird models they have brought out.

Its funny why they did not make a top of the range PCI-E Souncard, probably as of the reasons they stated last year about latency and the PCI-E 2.0 bus being more suited to Soundcards.

Always best to use the REAL Creative Drivers to get best out of it.

FatRakoon · 12 Sep 2007 at 14:43

helmutcheese said:
The Gamer is basic (basically for games not nice music, not saying it dont sound ok though), the Music one does same + more.

Yes, but he does gaming more than plays music.

That said, he is so chuffed with his new purchase that he is now blasting his music out etc etc etc, so all round, its obviously a much better option than his OnBoard Audio.

Im happy for him.

MeatLoaf said:
The PCI-E X-Fi works perfect in Vista - doesnt even need the driver CD

In thuis PC here, Im running an ATI X800 GTO2 @ X850 and under XP64 it runs better with the MS Drivers on the CD than it does with the Catalysts.

I have not yet installed them in fact and I do have a couple of games that require it, possibly for the OpenGL perhaps, but BF2, Company Of Heroes, Need For Speed etc are all running peachy as is.