Raptor or X-fi? What would you buy?

Rain Man

Rain Man

Rain Man

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Basicly ive got about £80 for an upgrade. My system is pretty damn awesome and im always the first to load on BF2 but im still using onboard sound and an ATA 160GB drive lol.

so which bit shall i upgrade? Either buy a 74/36.7gb Raptor (from mm) or a X-fi Extreme Music sound card

what would you buy?

cheers
 
Raptor in a heartbeat IMHO. Sound quality is very hard to measure and is purely subjective. In order to distinguish betwixt a $100 sound card and a $200 sound card you'll need all sorts of high quality audio gear. Do you really want to spend all that =money so that you can hear grunts, explosions, and grenades better? :D

A high-performance hard disk can make the whole system run quicker becasue access to the paging file is quicker.
 
thats a fair point but ive got a nice set of speakers and i do listen to music A LOT so im still a bit sceptical. Ive heard people say the upgrade from an audigy 2 zs to X-FI is amazing nevermind from onboard.
 
If your using any sort of complex audio in games, its a no brainer.

Take here for example and look what CPU Realtek ALC850 codec uses.

Looks to me like in some instances nearly a third of your power is gone.

You aint gonna get that back with a raptor.

Think the X-fi Extreme Music sound card is a bit of an overkill though.
 
split said:
Take here for example and look what CPU Realtek ALC850 codec uses.
Click to expand...

Didn't realise the Karagen audio on the DFI's was that good :) cool.
I would probably go for the Raptor as general use in windows and loading files will be much quicker
 
It seems to be 2-1 for the raptor but the only raptor i can really afford right now is the 36.7gb one. I may go for the X-FI and get the raptor next month. Keep the opinions coming though its all welcome

cheers
 
depends on how good your current onboard sound is, and how much you value sound quality. I don't rate these £200 sound cards, I do rate the raptor however ;)
 
Hmmmm, amazing music/sound effects etc (dependant on good speakers/headphones) or having to wait 1 second less than usual.

But if you have an Audigy 2 then i guess a Raptor would be a sweet buy.
 
well im using the 850 sound chipset *eek* atm and my middle speaker doesnt work because it isnt configured propperly or something. ive seen an x-fi extreme music for about £80 which isnt bad

like i said before im 99% of the time first on the server anyway cos of my 3.0ghz opty and 2gb ram
 
PinkFloyd said:
Didn't realise the Karagen audio on the DFI's was that good :) cool.
I would probably go for the Raptor as general use in windows and loading files will be much quicker
Click to expand...

Looks to me like you have a DFI motherboard tho.
Poster has EPOX with Realtek ALC850 codec (looking at sig), so you cant really compare the two.
3D audio looks like a real cycle hog, and you think what you paid for those cycles.
Can also move it along to next PC etc as sound cards don't really date.

Would also deopend on what audio you actually use in games.
 
split said:
Looks to me like you have a DFI motherboard tho.
Poster has EPOX with Realtek ALC850 codec (looking at sig), so you cant really compare the two.
3D audio looks like a real cycle hog, and you think what you paid for those cycles.
Can also move it along to next PC etc as sound cards don't really date.

Would also deopend on what audio you actually use in games.
Click to expand...

i use onbard ALC850 set to 5.1 but like i said the middle speaker doesnt like to work :(
 
Raptors are extremely expensive, when i bought a new sound card and speakers it made no end of difference. Buy an Xfi and speakers and you'll still have enough left to buy a Samsung SpinPoint or a Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 they are pretty fast and have a much larger storage capacity.
 
ben_j_davis said:
Raptors are extremely expensive, when i bought a new sound card and speakers it made no end of difference. Buy an Xfi and speakers and you'll still have enough left to buy a Samsung SpinPoint or a Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 they are pretty fast and have a much larger storage capacity.
Click to expand...

thats done it im getting an x-fi :P. think ill get a 74gb raptor in a couple of months or something but i just cant justify buying one now to boot into windows quicker and to make bf2 load quicker when im first on any server anyway

thanks for the help guys
 
I just don't like onboard sound period (not entirely true as my daughters ABIT Nforce 2 is pretty good)

I use the MSI Nforce3 with the same onboard chip as yours, and my old SB live card leaves the onboard sound on the MSI for dead.
There is a HUGE difference in sound quality IMO.

So its just not all CPU cycles, they do actually sound a lot better.
I expect you could get one for about £20 odd that would give you the cycles back, and better sound to boot.
 
Rain Man said:
thats done it im getting an x-fi :P. think ill get a 74gb raptor in a couple of months or something but i just cant justify buying one now to boot into windows quicker and to make bf2 load quicker when im first on any server anyway

thanks for the help guys
Click to expand...

Only just noticed you were after the old Raptors, so you might not be able to buy a HD after you've got the sound card and speakers, still most Non Raptor HD's are still very cheap.

But you have made the right decision :) at least you can appreciate your purchase when not playing games as well.
 
ben_j_davis said:
Only just noticed you were after the old Raptors, so you might not be able to buy a HD after you've got the sound card and speakers, still most Non Raptor HD's are still very cheap.

But you have made the right decision :) at least you can appreciate your purchase when not playing games as well.
Click to expand...

already got an okish 5.1 speakers set, can go very load and after some reading of the sound threads people are sayin theres a MASSIVE difference between an X-FI and an audigy 2 zs. coming from people who have made this upgrade
 
Old 74 gig raptors are still going for over £100, dont think its worth it really, for under £70 you can get a Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB and these are very fast, pretty sure they are faster than the old raptors.
 
Heya,

I would also say get the raptor, sound isnt very noticle nor is it very vital to be amazinbg unless your using ure comp for recording.

I think you would notice the hard driver over sound quallity. On board sound is normally fine anyway.

Dave
 
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