Sound-Blaster X-Gamer 5.1 and GE-Force II

[DougFrippon]

Theres a few things I would like you guys to help me with.

1. I heard that Sound-Blaster X-Gamer 5.1, is the SAME THING as a SB LIVE! but there is a few software coming with it the X, and X-Gamer is double price..... Is that true?? Does it worth to buy a X-Gamer if I'm a fan of Q3 & Counter-Strike HL Mod.

2. About GE-FORCE II.... I can pay FULL Price for a video card.. And I'd like to know. What are the most POWERFUL GE-FORCES II !?!?

 

[WDCentral]

The Sound Blaster X-Gamer includes the regular SBLive software plus about 5 games including Unreal Tournament (NOTE: Get the CREATIVE Patch for this when updating!), Theif 2, Deus Ex, MD2K, and I think one other. I got mine for 85. The most powerful GeForce2 out there would be the GeForce2 Ultra which will run you close to $500. I have an MX and love it, but I would reccomend at least a GTS.

 

[MichaelD]

Hi Doug,

I happen to own both of things you're talking about. X-Gamer 5.1 and Creative Labs Annihilator 2 (GeForce 2 GTS) They work very well together.

As far as the xgamer being the same thing as a Sound Blaster live, I couldn't tell you. I think (not sure though) that the X comes with the EAX surround sound and the Live doesnt'. Others will clarify, I'm sure. I paid $100, retail, for mine. It came with four full-version games, 3 of which I didn't own. I'm very happy with it. The software requires some tweaking as it takes over your system. It becomes the default for everything, and the start up programs load themsevles and hog your system resources. Took a few days to figure out how to disable everything (msconfig is a great thing!) but now it's awesome.

AS far as the most powerful GForce2, that would be any current 64mb DDR card. Currently retailing for around $450 USD. Ouch. Honestly (my opinion) for half that, you can get a GEforce2 32mb DDR and get about 75% of the performance. Besides, unless you have the CPU and memory to take advantage of a 64mb card, it won't look much differnet than the 32mb anyway. I went from a 16mb Voodoo3000 PCI to what Ihave now and it was like day and night. Ok, I've yapped enough.

 

[DougFrippon]

Hmmmmm.........
This may require some reflexion......

For the X-Gamer.. I think I will take it anyway, it isnt that expensive... I can have it for 145$ CAN.. witch is.... about 96$ US

But.. I had heard that 64 megs vid cards were useless right now... But I asked the best GE-FORCE II.. because I want to buy a system... and be happy with it with .. like 2 years...... and I dont want to have to UPGRADE...

(Note that I said a system witch want to be happy with it for 2 years...... not a system that will kick ass for 2 years)

So I just gotta think about it.......... about 500$ for the ULTRA with 64 megs OR about 300$ for v7700 Ge-Force II 32megs Deluxe... + 2x 6foot Subway (hmmmmmmmmmmm submarinee......)