Need Suggestion on Sound Card, and Speakers or Headset

[Shaker8]

Hey Guys,

Thought I would post here for this, if not the right place please just tell me where to post about sound cards.

Going to be building a new system which I have a thread in general hardware here My new build.

No on is helping on the Sound Card/SPeakers/Headset so thought I would try here.

Right now I have selected the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Linkand this headset TRITTON TRI-AI712 4 x 3.5mm Circumaural AX 51 - Gaming Headset Link

Now I am very confused about the sound cards This review Linkage show that the ASUS board can stand up to creative in EAX but apparently isn't 100% as good.

This Review show the PCI Express cards against each other and its the same ASUS card is better but not in EAX 2nd Review

What I would really like to see is a preformance test between the two cards in the new OpenAL games but no one seems to have done that, and I just read that EAX is no longer supported in Vista so creative created a program called ALchemy or something to play EAX affects from legacy games on vista, it converts them to OpenAL the new EAX or something and sometimes it doesn't work right on some games.

Considering Vista doesn't support EAX anymore should I even care? I like having EAX in BF2 and other games that supported it. I am just not sure if it worth it settling with creative's bad customer support and drivers just so I can have good EAX.

Would rather go with the ASUS card more expensive but so bad ass looking and also its ASUS which I trust more than Creative.

Not sure if I should care about EAX, Also I am concerned about vista compatibility. Basically I never been more confused by two one componet before.

Also I can't seem to find anyone who will definitely say get these headphones/speakers since I can't find a decent 5.1 speaker set right now I decided I would like headphones that would be great in gaming and chose the 5.1 ones above until i have time and money to get really good speaker.

Still not quite sure on the headphones they have some bad Newegg reviews but professional reviews say there rebranded Medusa that are supposed to be really good headphones from Europe .

So if anyone here can recomended a kickass set of headphone for around 100 bucks I would appreciate it. Sort of want 5.1? Not sure if it matter but heard that games are better in them.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[Christobevii3]

Get an ht-omega, azuntech, or blue gears card. Their drivers work correctly in vista and they have great sound quality. Creative cards in vista 64 only recently got working drivers and will never touch them for how crappy they have been about supporting their cards.

 

[Christobevii3]

Also, on the headphones. I purchased the medusa speedlink 5.1's from britain to use. The joint in the headphones failed on mine due to having a larger sized head. Keep that in mind if purchasing. I found them to be a bit noisy (think electrical static at times).

I've had great luck with the turtle beach hpa2's and found them to have better sound. I also just purchased the razers since the mic went out (they'll ship me one for free) and find them to be slightly above the quality of the turtle beach in the pads they use but otherwise basically the same outside the mic.

 

[potato28]

Originally posted by: Christobevii3
Also, on the headphones. I purchased the medusa speedlink 5.1's from britain to use. The joint in the headphones failed on mine due to having a larger sized head. Keep that in mind if purchasing. I found them to be a bit noisy (think electrical static at times).

I've had great luck with the turtle beach hpa2's and found them to have better sound. I also just purchased the razers since the mic went out (they'll ship me one for free) and find them to be slightly above the quality of the turtle beach in the pads they use but otherwise basically the same outside the mic.

Never get 5.1 headphones, they aren't as good as normal stereo headphones for a little more. For $100, look for a pair of used HD 555's, HD 595's or look into a pair of A500's. Then get a clip-on mic and there's a headset that kills the gaming headsets.

 

[Christobevii3]

I've ran $100 stereo headphones and 5.1 one headphones, I find the 5.1's are better for games still personally. If i was listening to music in them then yes, but I have some monitor speakers for that.

 

[potato28]

Originally posted by: Christobevii3
I've ran $100 stereo headphones and 5.1 one headphones, I find the 5.1's are better for games still personally. If i was listening to music in them then yes, but I have some monitor speakers for that.

What brand? If you want the scoop on headphones head over to Head-Fi. These are people that will spend $1000 on a cable and not even blink.