Spec me an upgrade

Boozebeard · 1 Feb 2010 at 15:42

I want to upgrade my sound card, graphics card and will probably need to upgrade my motherboard to.

I'm running windows 7 64bit and my current sound card doesn't seem to like it very much. I've heard the newer creative ones work a lot better with vista and windows 7. I also know a lot of people would recommend me something other than a creative one but I game with headphones and my main use of the card is the 3DCMSS for headphones. So I guess I have to stick with creative.

The 2 obvious choices I found were:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-058-CL&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-062-CL&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat= / http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-065-CL&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat= (is the only difference that one doesn't come with powerdvd? :confused:

)

I've read some people saying that the fatal1ty cards are basically a rip off. Is there anything that really justifies spending the extra £40-£50?

As for for graphics card I want to be able to play the latest games on decent settings (currently bad company 2, although I know it's still beta and perforamce will probably change) and not have to upgrade for atleast a year. What's going to give me the best price to performance ratio? The seems 5850 popular.

Now my current mother board doesn't have a PCI-e (x1) slot. It only has one x16 for my card. So obviously if I want to get a PCI-e sound card my board isn't going to cut it. It would also be nice to have the possibility of crossfire/sli when I feel I need a performance boost.

I guess my budget is around £400. Really I just want to be able to do what was described above for as little as possible. I could, if I needed to, get by with mu current setup for a few months. So if you think it's worth waiting for fermi or anything else then I could. I could even get the motherboard and the sound card now and wait abit for the graphics card.

stulid · 1 Feb 2010 at 15:53

Do not spend 1large on a sound card.

Creative do x-fi in normal pci, I got one, you need to look harder.

stulid · 1 Feb 2010 at 15:57

If the rig in your sig is what you using.

ATI 5870/5850 will be huge increase. Or wait for nvidia next card, its coming in march.

Boozebeard · 1 Feb 2010 at 16:40

stulid said:
Do not spend 1large on a sound card.

Creative do x-fi in normal pci, I got one, you need to look harder.

I already got a PCI one but only the newer cards are performing properly in vista and win 7 and as far as I'm aware all the newer ones are PCI-e. Unless someone knows of a pci one that actually work properly in vista and 7?

stulid · 1 Feb 2010 at 17:45

Mine, and others on this forum have no problem using x-fi and win7 together.

Just the other day someone posted asking for a creative or alternative sound card for win7, he was basically told the same thing.

I'll try to find it.

Boozebeard · 1 Feb 2010 at 19:22

Mmm, I get crackley sound sometimes and I have to disable sound blaster enhancements or audiodg.exe will gradually take up more and more memory with every sound untill I have to reboot my pc.

stulid · 1 Feb 2010 at 19:26

Found it, in sound city forum, titled "YOUR OPINION REALLY MATTERS"

stulid · 1 Feb 2010 at 19:30

X-fi extreme audio is pci, just checked creative website 5seconds ago

Boozebeard · 1 Feb 2010 at 19:57

Well as long as it works properly in Windows 7. I'll post in the sound section to make sure.

pastymuncher · 1 Feb 2010 at 20:39

I have a PCI X-FI Extreme Gamer and it works perfectly in Vista 64bit.

Boozebeard · 1 Feb 2010 at 20:51

pastymuncher said:
I have a PCI X-FI Extreme Gamer and it works perfectly in Vista 64bit.

Mines an old fatal1ty one. All the new ones probably work fine then I suppose.
I was reading in the sound section in a thread about the Asus xonar and it mentioned something about virtual 3d sound. Do they have a similar feature to 3DCMSS?

stulid · 1 Feb 2010 at 21:28

I don't think there's much difference between x-fi and xonar, they all got special features and effects. Creatives best feature, atleast for me is the crystalizer, I quite like what the 3Dsurround does to live concerts using a pair of headphones.

Boozebeard · 1 Feb 2010 at 22:03

Well a helpfull fellow in the sound section told me that the 3d feature on the asus cards only replicates 5.1 on a horizontal whereass the 3DCMSS can do elevation and ofcourse does more than just replicate 5.1. He recommended the xtremegamer.

So I guess, I won't be needing a new mobo just yet and I'll wait for the nvidia cards before deciding on a new card.