Need a pcie sound card to replace asus D2

Jfan

Jfan

Jfan

Associate
Joined
22 Aug 2005
Posts
542
Hi

as title I'm looking for a pcie sound card to replace my pci asus d2

I love my D2 but I have got issues with available pci slots, the only one I have is in between my sli 780GTX and I think its causing airflow issues

also I think the card may be dying due to being cooked, sometimes I have to reboot to get my mic to work

I would just buy a d2x but driver updates don't happen very often, and also I think its just a D2 but with a pcie bridge to make it compatible with pcie

I have not really kept up to date with sound cards are the new creative cards any good?

I am looking to spend up to about £100 and it is for the best gaming focused card I can get, I don't really use my pc for listening to music, I want a card that has great gaming surround sound with my z5500's , and also probably dolby headphone for late at night gaming, I work shifts
 
Creative Sound blaster Z card is very good, PCI-e, below £100.00 has a built in headphone amp, and glows a lovely red colour too :). And importantly it gets driver support for Windows 8 and below.

The only caveat would be space, as it is a thick sound card because it has a gimmicky IO type shield to make it look good. But I believe the OEM version does not have it.
 
Thanks, think I might go back to the dark side and get a Sound blaster Z

I have plenty of space for a pcie card, so fat card wont be a problem
 
Ended up buying a soundblaster zx, as I can find a good use for the acr, plus it was in stock

Sound quality is pretty close two my d2, and my gpu temps are down so I'll keep it

Jeezus though what are creative thinking when it comes to crystalizer, extra bass and surround etc options, sounds damn awful with any of those options on, turn them off and it's alright though
 
I never used Crystalizer so wouldn't know - personally I had no use for the extras so the OEM was all I needed and I got to save £50 too :D
 
Hmm I also recently changed from a d2, but to a much older x-fi titanium fatality pro and the sound quality in games is much deeper and the 7.1 is more clear compared to the d2
 
Sound Blaster Z is a great sound card. I've only used Asus for years, but bought Sb Z and it's great. No external power needed either. I have both SB Z oem and shourd version. The latter gives a cool red led light in case.
 
Have the ZX myself it's good enough for gaming, some of the features are pointless but it does the job well. wihtout spending STX money I don't think you can get better than th ZX however whether the ZX is a better choice than the D2X is a tough call

D2X is excellent the only con is the molex power connector.

The ZX has a desktop headpohone connector with volume control and you can switch to speakers in the console without much hassle. Most devices will switch to speakers without needing an Restart too.

Found the built in desktop mic a bit crap on the ZX though.

Yes the D2X is just a pcie version of the D2 you know how good it is I don't think switching to creative with serve you any advantage. The ZX is the same as the d2x but with a headphone volume control on your desk, they have similar SNR same encoding and sample rate one uses EAX the other Core3d

Obviously the ZX is smaller so will allow disrupt airflow less. a con of the ZX is being unable to remove the red light too doesn't look good on systems that are green :D
 
Last edited:
I'm liking the zx a lot to be honest. It's a close call sound quality wise between the zx and my old d2. But I reckon the zx might just edge it. Hearing things I've not noticed before when gaming. Also the desktop volume control is coming in handy. Temps of the hotter gpu are lower aswell

Only reason I mentioned I wish I'd got an Rx rather than a zx. Is I think the Rx may be a newer card. Plus it's more hardware processing based than the zx. Also it supports cmss3d which used to be great on my old xfi card

Ps Yeh the red light is a bit bright on the zx
 
Last edited:
The RX is a newer card but it's based on much older technology and is basically an upgraded Audigy from 2002, while the Z is an upgrade of the Recon from 2012. It's signal to noise ratio is 106db vs 116db on the Soundblaster Z but one thing it does have that no modern cards have is EAC but seeing as no game has used that for a long time it's of very limited value.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom