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Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi SB0670 (Xtreme Music) $33.69

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The SB0460 is what I own. It's sold as a bare card (might come with the drivers CDs like it did in my case), but it's the same card you'd find in the retail boxed version. The software that you can get from the Creative website work with it without a hitch (the ones on the CD are too outdated to work properly with Vista). Mic input works perfectly.

Frys had a firesale on them a few months ago (for a bit less than that eBay price actually...), and I haven't seen them since.
 
so is this a good buy or not? I still don't understand if it will have full functionality with teh creative software and drivers.
 
Originally posted by: AmberClad
The SB0460 is what I own. It's sold as a bare card (might come with the drivers CDs like it did in my case), but it's the same card you'd find in the retail boxed version. The software that you can get from the Creative website work with it without a hitch (the ones on the CD are too outdated to work properly with Vista). Mic input works perfectly.

Frys had a firesale on them a few months ago (for a bit less than that eBay price actually...), and I haven't seen them since.
Click to expand...

True. My retail boxed Creative Platinum card is a SB0460
The Platinum is just a Xtrememusic with the I/O panel

The Geeks is a SB0670, with NO pins on the rear to attach the I/O panel, and from what I have read it has some other minor? board differences. I don't think you can get hardware Dolby or DTS decoding with this card ( you do with the SB0460 ), unless someone came up with drivers to do it. I'm not sure if the Pax forum fixes include the SB0670
Of course, you can use players like Power DVD to decode dolby or dts

I think there are drivers to get the Creative software to work with the SB0670.
Now, the SB0670 should have the same DACs that give you that really good analog output quality, and if you get the X-FI, in my opinion, you really want to use the analog outputs

Yep, it gets confusing..
 
Link

I think the thing to do is ask the guys over at the Pax forum about what features can and can not be enabled on this SB0670. They have pages of posts about custom X-Fi drivers for various models. I tried to register, but I am having difficulty get registered. Anyone else want to try to register and ask the question?
 
Just to let anyone know who is interested in doing the mods... I have done them myself on my xtrememusic that I bought from frys and this is my take:

The opamps mod: Results in very crisp highs & mids. Bass is more defined and tighter. I had to turn up my Logitech speakers as the output seemed to go down a little but the definition and "quality" of the sound was highly increased.

The cap mod: The sound still have the nice highs & mids. The bass is way more present and I had to turn the speakers back down as the output defiantly went back up. The sound was more warmer sounding in comparison to just the opamps being modded but the sound is way better then stock.

I haven't done the shielding mod yet but my take... the mods are defiantly REQUIRED with how little it costs. The sound is very nice with defined highs and mids... full sounding bass with very little distortion. The stage presence seemed to widen and become more "surround" sounding. All this from my meager 5.1 logitech setup. I can't wait up upgrade my setup to a dedicated amp speaker setup.
 
I bought a OEM xtreme music and got the retail software to work. Search for the thread. It was in hot deals section also. You modify a file so the software will recognize the OEM board like a retail version. It has a different device ID that the retail software won't recognize. That's the only difference between retail and OEM. If you use drivers from HP you won't be able to use flexijack or have the EQ and other functions.
 
Originally posted by: Shaq
I bought a OEM xtreme music and got the retail software to work. Search for the thread. It was in hot deals section also. You modify a file so the software will recognize the OEM board like a retail version. It has a different device ID that the retail software won't recognize. That's the only difference between retail and OEM. If you use drivers from HP you won't be able to use flexijack or have the EQ and other functions.
Click to expand...

Is it the Dell OEM or the Geeks OEM? they are different.
 
Got mine in the mail a few days ago. The driver on the product page didn't work so I went to Creative's site and downloaded the latest for Xtreme Music. It worked fine. I also downloaded the software package and about half of it worked. Some things worked fine and other stuff just woudn't open. I really didn't use most of the software that came with my old Audigy card anyway so I really didn't care. So far a good deal.........
 
Originally posted by: dani
Got mine in the mail a few days ago. The driver on the product page didn't work so I went to Creative's site and downloaded the latest for Xtreme Music. It worked fine. I also downloaded the software package and about half of it worked. Some things worked fine and other stuff just woudn't open. I really didn't use most of the software that came with my old Audigy card anyway so I really didn't care. So far a good deal.........
Click to expand...

OK, that's what I kinda expected. What part of the software did not work? Dolby and DTS?
 
Originally posted by: GeezerMan
Originally posted by: dani
Got mine in the mail a few days ago. The driver on the product page didn't work so I went to Creative's site and downloaded the latest for Xtreme Music. It worked fine. I also downloaded the software package and about half of it worked. Some things worked fine and other stuff just woudn't open. I really didn't use most of the software that came with my old Audigy card anyway so I really didn't care. So far a good deal.........
Click to expand...

OK, that's what I kinda expected. What part of the software did not work? Dolby and DTS?
Click to expand...

When I open Media Source 5, I can't run the EQ, EAX console and some others. I can run the player, audio console and use the Wave Studio.
 
Originally posted by: GeezerMan
Originally posted by: Shaq
I bought a OEM xtreme music and got the retail software to work. Search for the thread. It was in hot deals section also. You modify a file so the software will recognize the OEM board like a retail version. It has a different device ID that the retail software won't recognize. That's the only difference between retail and OEM. If you use drivers from HP you won't be able to use flexijack or have the EQ and other functions.
Click to expand...

Is it the Dell OEM or the Geeks OEM? they are different.
Click to expand...

The Geeks OEM is definitely different than the previous hot deal.

The connections to plug in your speakers and what not are all gold for the previous hot deal.
Flexijack works with the modified installation software and you have the option of connecting the Live Drive 5 1/4" drive if you have one available.

I purchased an 5 1/4" for an audigy 2 zs and using it with my oem x-fi.

 
Originally posted by: Shaq
I bought a OEM xtreme music and got the retail software to work. Search for the thread. It was in hot deals section also. You modify a file so the software will recognize the OEM board like a retail version. It has a different device ID that the retail software won't recognize. That's the only difference between retail and OEM. If you use drivers from HP you won't be able to use flexijack or have the EQ and other functions.
Click to expand...

That actually sounds plausible -- several years ago I modded the CMI 8768 file that had just come out for new motherboard solutions to work with older 8738 stand alone cards so that I and other people could use the advanced software GUI that the newer c-media chips had, and all it took was allowing the hardware device ID in the CMI ini file in a few sections of the code.
 
Originally posted by: GeezerMan
I already have the Xtrememusic card that I love, but I'm thinking this would be neat to play with the mods that Bad Dude linked too. Need a steady hand to solder stuff that small.
I wonder if the guys in that thread successfully modded this OEM card and what differences they came up with compared to the xtrememusic card.
Click to expand...

I just successfully mod another retail Xtreme Music card I just bought. I am waiting for my audio capacitors. It sounds so good just like my first one that I am using. I replace all 4 Oamp chips. I used the antistatic bags to shield the card which is way cheaper than buying ESR paper which is $20 a small sheet.
I want to sell the card or should I keep it? 🙂
 
does the audio normalizer work with this (SB0670) card?

for me its under 'special effects', with my soundblaster 5.1 card.

thanks!
 
Originally posted by: GeezerMan
Originally posted by: Shaq
I bought a OEM xtreme music and got the retail software to work. Search for the thread. It was in hot deals section also. You modify a file so the software will recognize the OEM board like a retail version. It has a different device ID that the retail software won't recognize. That's the only difference between retail and OEM. If you use drivers from HP you won't be able to use flexijack or have the EQ and other functions.
Click to expand...

Is it the Dell OEM or the Geeks OEM? they are different.
Click to expand...

I believe it was actually the HP OEM but the modified .cab file has 3 or 4 new ID's which should include Dell with the HP and maybe that other one. Search for the thread I made in hot deals. All the functions work..EQ, EAX modes, Crystallizer, Game and Entertainment modes, flexijack etc. But yeah the DTS one doesn't work. Everything else I tried works.

Edit: The one at Geeks is a HP like mine so it should work fine with the modded driver.
 
Lack of Dolby and DTS is virtually insignificant. Not many folks would be using multi-channel analog output to a discrete amplifier. Even so, the software decoders are relatively basic -essentially for DVD and not advanced formats, and even if desired such are available for free these days. I, for one, have never used Creative's decoders (going back a decade) in favour of those included with PowerDVD, for instance, or other DirectShow decoders. Indeed, I would rather not pay for the extra licenses.
 
Frys has the X-fi extrememusic retail version for $35 AR, but how much is this really better than the AC888 onboard sound on the gigabyte p35 MB... is it even noticeable on a 4.1 klipsch speaker set?
 
You might actually tell a difference with the klipsch. I notice a difference with good headphones. Is it so much better that I can't live without it? No, but I do enjoy my ExtremeMusic.
 
The Egg had the top of the line X-FI Elite Pro, with headphones for 80.00 AR, but has no breakout box ( no big deal to me) . Excellent deal with much better DACs than the Xtrememusic.

IMO, the reason to get the X-FI cards is to use the analog outputs. If you just want digital out, get a cheaper card.
 
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