which soundcard ?

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[size=-1][size=-1]Looking for a soundcard as i only have onboard sound on my motherboard.Looking at the 2 cards below.Which would be the best buy, or is there something better for the same price or lower ? Play games/music and watch dvds on the pc.Would appreciate any comments.[/size][/size]

Thx
[size=-1][size=-1][/size][/size]
[size=-1][size=-1][/size][/size]
[size=-1][size=-1]Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Retail (SC-024-CL) £84.60[/size][/size]

Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Retail (SC-034-CL) £82.19
 
Hi Lee,

Unless you really need /want a break out box I'd go for
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 4 7.1 EAX Sound Card - OEM (SC-037-CL)
£37.54 inc vat.
It's actually better than Audigy 2 ZS (albeit slightly) the main difference is that is has onboard DTS decoding for DVDS.

DinAlt
 
lee32uk said:
[size=-1][size=-1]Looking for a soundcard as i only have onboard sound on my motherboard.Looking at the 2 cards below.Which would be the best buy, or is there something better for the same price or lower ? Play games/music and watch dvds on the pc.Would appreciate any comments.[/size][/size]

Thx
[size=-1][size=-1][/size][/size]
[size=-1][size=-1][/size][/size]
[size=-1][size=-1]Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Retail (SC-024-CL) £84.60[/size][/size]

Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Retail (SC-034-CL) £82.19
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Retail (SC-034-CL) £82.19 really good card had mine for about a week ;)
 
Just been having a look on Creative forums and there are quite a few people having problems with X-Fi soundcards and Nforce based motherboards.Seeing as though my board has an Nvidia NF4 Ultra chipset im a bit wary of buying one of these soundcards, even though i would like one.
Does anyone know if the problems are still ongoing ? (i.e crackling/popping sounds etc) or are the latest cards now ok


thx
 
The XiFi did (does?) have a driver problem - certain hardware (the medusa 5.1 headphones for instance) didn't work with it - dunno if it's been sorted.
Personally I went with an Audigy 4 OEM - sounds very good to me - absolutely no added noise good separation on all the channels.
The pro version comes with an external break out box and a slightly higher S/N ratio but like the XiFi I'd only recommend them to someone who absolutely needs that extra level - semi pro musicians etc.

For games its fine - alternatively you can soft mod an Audigy 2 to Audigy 4 levels but if you're buying there's no point with the cost of an Audigy 4.

DinAlt
 
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