Motherboard or X-Fi Soundcard

[PeteRoy]

The Creative X-Fi soundcards costs a lot like motherboards, do you think they really cost more to manufacture than a motherboard?

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: PeteRoy
do you think they really cost more to manufacture than a motherboard?

No. The bill of materials is obviously going to be far less for the X-Fi card.

Creative has no real competitor in the gaming sound card market - it's their own standard that's widely accepted as the defacto standard, therefore they can charge a premium for it. Everyone else either has to license their technology (Auzentech), or have some sort of a hack that emulates it (ASUS).

Motherboards - you have plenty of competitors both in terms of chipsets (Intel, AMD, Nvidia, VIA, SiS, etc), and also in terms of manufacturers (ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, etc).

 

[Zap]

Cost is less, but volume is also less. If a motherboard manufacturer only makes $5/board but sells 200,000/quarter, they've made $4m. If Creative makes $50/board but sells only 500/quarter, they've only made $100k.

 

[plion]

Wait, so onboard sound cards like realtek/azaliahd or whatever don't pose a significant threat? Just curious..

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: plion
Wait, so onboard sound cards like realtek/azaliahd or whatever don't pose a significant threat? Just curious..

Well unless they come up with something to emulate EAX and be able to play/record audiophile like sound. Not really.