Picking my first sound card - help please!

sbrown

sbrown

sbrown

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Hey guys,

I currently use the onboard sound card on my motherboard (Gigabyte DS3), which I believe is the Realtek ALC883 8 Channel Audio Codec. However, I've heard time and time again that onboard sound is terrible compared to dedicated sound cards, such as the range of X-Fi cards by Creative.

I'm thinking of getting the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer card, which I've heard delivers excellent sound quality. Is this a good card? Please bare in mind that I primarily use my computer to listen to music, watch the occasional film and play games (i.e. BF2/CS 1.6) through my headphones (A pair of Sennheiser HD485's), and Creative Gigaworks T20 2.0 Speaker System; no 7.1 surround sound or anything fancy like that.

My main question is will I see any noticeable benefits in sound quality when playing games and music when compared to my current onboard sound card? Also in your opinion, does this benefit warrant me spending £50.00? Will having a sound card affect my performance in games as well? I've heard that Creative are renound for driver issues.

Here's my current PC if it helps:
Core 2 Duo E6300 @ 3.1ghz
Gigabyte DS3
2gb PC6400 RAM
ATI Radeon X1800XT
WinXP SP2

Thanks in advance to anyone who helps me out. As I've said I have no experience in sound cards so any input is appreciated.
 
Go for the extreme music it's better than the extreme gamer and less
expensive which is really quite odd but true.
Yes you will notice a huge difference i am currently on realtek onboard as i sold my audigy 2 zs and am awaiting my xfi exreme music.
The onboard is the new realtek hd and it's absolute pants compared to even my audigy 2 can't even hear footsteps etc on cs source.
The audigy 2 zs blows away the onboard and i bought that in 2004 so the x-fi will probably blow it into orbit.It will improve performance not affect it.
Get extreme music or even get your hands on a 2nd hand audigy 2 zs around £15 it will blow you away compared to onboard.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-043-CL&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=

btw those speakers your looking at are nice but i heard bad things about their lack of bass i would consider these as a cheaper alternative http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SP-032-LG&groupid=702&catid=22&subcat=173
 
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I went from onboard to the Extreme Music, i have heard a difference in the sound quality :)

However it hasnt been a huge step up as some people have said, although its probably due to the fact that my speakers arent the best around.
 
sbrown said:
I'm thinking of getting the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer card, which I've heard delivers excellent sound quality. Is this a good card?

Click to expand...
I'm in the same boat as you, been using onboard audio for years but recently I started gaming again and I'm missing vital EAX hardware in my system!

Did a little homework and it came down to the X-Fi Xtreme Music vs X-Fi Xtreme Gamer, read a few reviews and decided to go for the Xtreme Gamer (retail - £57 delivered) :D
 
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Thanks all of your replies.

I'm still confused about which one to get after the mixed opinions. I've read reviews for both cards which say they're both excellent, but I can't find even one comparison between the two. One of the cards better than the other, or is it a matter of opinion?

Cheers guys.
 
The main reason I bought an X-fi is to get some EAX hardware in my system!
Both the X-Fi™ XtremeMusic or the X-Fi™ XtremeGamer offer this so from a gamers point of view you can't go wrong either way.

eaxadvancedhd50whitebgxf5.jpg


there isn't that many review that I could find but if you use the search function there is quite a lot of posts here on oc.co.uk forums.

Here is a comparison chart showing the basic tech specs of the cards. . .



I can't see that they differ that much, although it would seem that the X-Fi™ XtremeMusic offers the most connectivity options as you can buy an additional breakout box should you need it. The X-Fi™ XtremeGamer however offers connections to the INTEL-HD front panel connectors that are appearing on cases so that could be handy for some.

I think the X-Fi™ XtremeMusic offers better 'digital-out- options but I'm not 100%, I am just intending to connect either a analogue 5:1 speaker system or my Sennheiser PC150 stereo headphones so I'm not to concerned about that.

My X-Fi™ XtremeGamer wont be hear till next Wednesday as I opted for the free postage option from another vendor.

Hopefully some sound guru may read this thread and be able to enlighten us

[edit] just noticed Gibbo has put the X-Fi™ XtremeGamer on offer in this week only! (£52.86 inc VAT) :cool:
 
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Thanks for the post Wayne, that's helped clear the situation up.

Have a read of this response from another forum I sometimes visit:

"Sound cards only provide actual benefits to people who do audiophile work. They also provide a psychological benefit to people who have way too much money on their hands.

You play through headphones? Onboard sound is fine for you."

What do you guys think about that? My main reason for getting an X-Fi sound card is to achieve better sound quality through headphones and this guy is telling me its overkill. Is he a bitter/misinformed idiot or righteous?
 
Lol that guy sounds like a right grump!

I would have thought that if you use headphones there would be more emphasis on getting the best sound quality as a good set of cans can really pick up things you may not hear on a speaker system (unless its a phat system etc).

I remember when I listened to my MP3 collection on a decent set of Sennheiser headphones and for the first time I could hear the difference between those encoded at 128Kbps and the ones at 192-320Kpbs.

I have been using onboard sound for years, that means its half-decent these days and the last soundcard I owned was an SB-Live! Platinum. I can tell you straight that no onboard audio that I have used has ever managed to create 'Enviromental' effects like a dedicate soundcard (reverb etc) and positional audio doesn't work at all for me using onboard sound?.

I am currently playing through Doom3 for the first time, even though its a few years old It certainly looks very impressive when run at max settings but the onboard audio leaves a lot to be desired, I can hear footsteps but have no idea what direction they are coming from etc.

So if one is on a budget I can see how onboard audio appeals, but if one is trying to 'get in the game' I think it makes sense to spend a little extra to maximise your gaming experience!
 
Onboard is absolute pants compared to a dedicated card
that guy is on drugs this best sums it up this is the difference to me
it's like listening to music on a small bush / saisho ghetto blaster
then listening to it on a £1000 seperates system the difference is that
big to me onboard is empty and flat.
You just won't know the difference unless you have had an audigy 2/x-fi
then gone back to onboard.It's like losing a limb.
 
The points here are very true, that guy on the other forum would be right if you are using headphones that came free with an mp3 player. But if you have the headphones/speakers to do it justice then you will certainly notice the difference and remember you want EAX for the games ;)
It used to also be a bonus to take the load of the system and do the sound on a dedicated card but I suppose thats not so important wiith the rigs we have now.

Edit, Also when buying creative watch out for the OEM driver issue.
With retail cards you can download the drivers from the net, if you get an OEM you can only use the drivers you get on the disk that comes with it. A lot of people have had to buy new cards when they found they lost the disk after a reinstall. :(
 
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you are deaf if you dont notice the diffence xfi gamer and audio is the same if shop around for best price.
 
tim_enchanter said:
when buying creative watch out for the OEM driver issue.
With retail cards you can download the drivers from the net, if you get an OEM you can only use the drivers you get on the disk that comes with it. A lot of people have had to buy new cards when they found they lost the disk after a reinstall. :(
Click to expand...
Is that true?

I went for the retail myself for an extra £6 I thought why not, seems maybe I made a good choice for once lol . .
 
Yeah it's true, I used to get loads of the old soundblaster live cards given to me when working on pcs, some were retail and others oem, trying to get the right driver set wasted so much of my time.
Do a google for creative oem drivers and you'll soon find out
 
Just got my Logitech Z4's today and all i can say is GET THESE £45 delivered
if you look around incredible value and sound quality.
 
tim_enchanter said:
The points here are very true, that guy on the other forum would be right if you are using headphones that came free with an mp3 player. But if you have the headphones/speakers to do it justice then you will certainly notice the difference and remember you want EAX for the games ;)
It used to also be a bonus to take the load of the system and do the sound on a dedicated card but I suppose thats not so important wiith the rigs we have now.

Edit, Also when buying creative watch out for the OEM driver issue.
With retail cards you can download the drivers from the net, if you get an OEM you can only use the drivers you get on the disk that comes with it. A lot of people have had to buy new cards when they found they lost the disk after a reinstall. :(
Click to expand...
i have checked this out it's complete nonsense latest drivers work with oem cards and the original disc you can download here
http://files.filefront.com/ISO_SB_X_Fi_series/;5020773;;/fileinfo.html
 
C64 said:
i have checked this out it's complete nonsense latest drivers work with oem cards and the original disc you can download here
http://files.filefront.com/ISO_SB_X_Fi_series/;5020773;;/fileinfo.html
Click to expand...

Not quite. Some OEM X-Fi XtremeMusic's are Dell or HP 'tweaked' cards, which means that the original X-Fi install cd doesn't recognise them properly. You need to use the Dell / HP / Youp-Pax drivers for these iirc.

If the serial number ( not model number ) contains SB0467, instead of SB0460, you have a Dell OEM X-Fi.
 
sbrown said:
Thanks for the post Wayne, that's helped clear the situation up.

Have a read of this response from another forum I sometimes visit:

"Sound cards only provide actual benefits to people who do audiophile work. They also provide a psychological benefit to people who have way too much money on their hands.

You play through headphones? Onboard sound is fine for you."

What do you guys think about that? My main reason for getting an X-Fi sound card is to achieve better sound quality through headphones and this guy is telling me its overkill. Is he a bitter/misinformed idiot or righteous?
Click to expand...

like big wayne said, the guy's a moron. and he was right about the headphones as well. a decent set of cans would be hard to beat by thousands of pounds worth of gear.
 
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I recently bought an xfi extreme gamer and I have to say I have noticed an improvement, and it has made a decent improvement over onboard sound (realtek hd audio).

With mp3's the sound is a lot clearer and you can distinguish much better between different parts of the song (i.e. bass, guitar, vocals etc) and i've even noticed small parts that i never even heard before in some songs with the onboard sound.

I play battlefield 2142 mainly and the sound in that was pretty much the same except I could tell where sounds were coming from much better. So if there was a walker in the distance i would know about it and where it was.

HOWEVER, as i'm on vista the drivers aren't great and so with EAX enabled and Xfi enabled I get lots of intermittent sound distortion and crackling when in game, it seems to only occur with artillery fire. To get rid of this you have to disable xfi and eax which then completely defies the point of it.

conclusion: good for mp3's and the concept is good as well. I just wish it had better driver support for vista.


So that's what to expect with that one and some of the cons aswell, hope it helps!
 
I cannot see how you could possibly get a hewlit packard or dell extreme music
unless you bought a prebuilt pc.
 
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