Sound card manufacturers

[Hidden Hippo]

I'm looking for a nice sound card to go with my rig, but can't decide which one to go for. I've been looking at the Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty or Platinum sound cards, but are the HDA ones found here any good? Can anyone recommend another type of sound card that I can get in the UK?

Thanks in advance.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

What kind of speakers did you have? Often times people spend too much on a soundcard in relation to what they have spent on speakers.

For the vast majority of cases where someone would be getting an X-Fi I'd say to get the cheapest version, the Xtreme Music. Unless you have a specific reason why you want to get the other versions, I think they are way too expensive for what they have over the basic card.

The main appeal of the HDA cards is their ability to encode DD / DTS in real time. The main point of this is if you wanted to hook up to a receiver as your sound system and did not want to use (or did not have) a 5.1 analog input on the unit. For hooking up to a normal set of computer speakers this has no real benefit.

 

[Hidden Hippo]

At the moment I'm just using my stereo speakers. I might get myself some nicer speakers in the future, but the main reason I want a sound card is to offload some of the processor load and get me some better sound quality when I invest in some nicer speakers. The only reason I would want to get one of the more expensive X-Fi cards is for the digital output (which to the best of my knowledge the Xtreme Music doesn't have) and the front input panel thing.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

If you're looking for game support and to offload CPU workload, X-Fi seems like the way to go.

As for the digital output, I would say in most cases that really doesn't make sense to use. Unless "Stereo speakers" means in the process of upgrading you're going with a really serious sound setup and would like to send digital to your receiver / pre to have it decode and convert to analog.

For computer speakers, you're going to be in better shape usually if you use analog. The analog output quality on a card like the X-Fi is going to be pretty darn good and should be better than conversions you'd get from sending digital to a set of computer speakers to have it change the signal to analog.
Anyway, I think you can configure the "flexijack" to output digital from the Xtreme Music.

For the front panel thing, I guess that might be useful to some people, but it sure doesn't seem to be worth it to me.

 

[Hidden Hippo]

Ok. Thanks for your input. I was leaning towards the Xtreme Music since the box really doesn't bother me that much (it's a nice gimmik but it's not a deal breaker). I also don't think I'll ever need to encode surround sound so the Xtreme Music does seem to be the best. The only reason why I was considering the digital output was that I could hook it up to a digital set of surround sound speakers, just to make games seem more realistic.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Hidden Hippo
Ok. Thanks for your input. I was leaning towards the Xtreme Music since the box really doesn't bother me that much (it's a nice gimmik but it's not a deal breaker). I also don't think I'll ever need to encode surround sound so the Xtreme Music does seem to be the best. The only reason why I was considering the digital output was that I could hook it up to a digital set of surround sound speakers, just to make games seem more realistic.

Linky to another thread you might want to look at:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1918392&enterthread=y

 

[Hidden Hippo]

Thanks for the link. It made for a very interesting read. I think I'll go for the X-Fi then and the Xtreme Music at that. Purely on what was said in the other thread, digital must be converted at some point so I may as well do it on the X-Fi (also, it looks like that box needs a big fat ribbon cable to connect it, which I don't want). Thanks for all the advice though.

 

[Ghouler]

hi hippo,
First off Xteme Music has digital output.

It is electrical SPDIF not optical SPDIF, but each is as good as the other. The question is what you have on the other end. Normally you have both. All X-Fi cards offload CPU when processing effects in games and support all the latest EAX in hardware.
Fatality and Elite Pro differ in hardware in that they have 64MB of RAM just for sounds. This is used in some, latest games for storing sound samples.

X-Fi can also process code written in OpenAL. Only games that use OpenAL can be hardware-accelerated in Vista, so this is another thing to keep in mind.
As for encoding to DTS this might be useful but keep in mind it does matter only with games. On the other hand if you go for card that supports encoding it will lack any newer EAX standards.

I have X-Fi Fatal1ty connected via analog to 5.1 set. Very good combination and will last years.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

The main drawback to the X-Fi seems to be some people have had some fairly major compatability problems with them. I'm not going to pretend to know what combinations work and what don't, but you should probably look into that to see if you can get any answers about your own hardware / software (OS) being compatable with the current driver version.

 

[Ghouler]

I have read about this. It was the case with some nForce4 boards but since then there were drivers and bios updates. Have not heard about it since. Works fine with my cheap sis mobo anyway.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Ghouler
I have read about this. It was the case with some nForce4 boards but since then there were drivers and bios updates. Have not heard about it since. Works fine with my cheap sis mobo anyway.

Yeah, I heard about the NF4 stuff but wasn't sure if it was isolated or taken care of yet.

 

[Hidden Hippo]

Well, I think it should be compatible with my hardware. I'll order one soon and try that I think. Thanks for all the advice you've given me, especially the Soundman.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Good luck. I'm not sure what they're going for over there, but $70-$80 is about what you should pay for an X-Fi in the states.

 

[Hidden Hippo]

At the moment, the OEM version is ~£60 and the retail version is ~£80. Also, what is the best one to go for? The OEM or the retail?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Hidden Hippo
At the moment, the OEM version is ~£60 and the retail version is ~£80. Also, what is the best one to go for? The OEM or the retail?

As long as the OEM card comes with all the creative software to use the card, seems like that would work fine.

 

[sandeep108]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Hidden Hippo
At the moment, the OEM version is ~£60 and the retail version is ~£80. Also, what is the best one to go for? The OEM or the retail?

As long as the OEM card comes with all the creative software to use the card, seems like that would work fine.

You can always download the drivers from Creative and save 20 quid. Warning - slow servers, large downloads. Nothing preventing you from downloading first and if successful, buy the OEM?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: sandeep108

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Hidden Hippo
At the moment, the OEM version is ~£60 and the retail version is ~£80. Also, what is the best one to go for? The OEM or the retail?

As long as the OEM card comes with all the creative software to use the card, seems like that would work fine.

You can always download the drivers from Creative and save 20 quid. Warning - slow servers, large downloads. Nothing preventing you from downloading first and if successful, buy the OEM?

I wasn't sure if creative still had it set up where it was best to have the original version and then update of if starting from scratch online worked.

 

[fire400]

Originally posted by: Ghouler

I have X-Fi Fatal1ty connected via analog to 5.1 set. Very good combination and will last years.

... to some of us, it will probably last a life time.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: fire400

Originally posted by: Ghouler

I have X-Fi Fatal1ty connected via analog to 5.1 set. Very good combination and will last years.

... to some of us, it will probably last a life time.

Ominous. Anyhoo, the driver and console package is all that is required to configure (not unlike a viddy card). The optional apps are largely fluff.

 

[mrbobdobalina81]

M-audio 24/96