sound card for gamers?

[thecoffeeguy]

Had a nice month of bonuses so I have some extra $$$ and want to get a good sound card.

My computer is used primarily for gaming and for listening music. Breaking it down, 80% gaming, 20% music listening.

I was looking at the creative cards. Specifially, the Fatal1ty card and the Platnium card. Both are X-FI cards and pretty much identical, including remote, front panel, audio encoders, software etc.

The only difference is that the Fatal1ty card has XRAM.

Can anyone comment on these two cards and which would be better? Price is not a concern, but I have narrowed it to these cards.

I've heard some "reviews" on newegg where people had some problems, but it seems that most issues were resolved by updating drivers.

Anyone care to comment? Going to try and order today.

I appreciate it.

thecoffeeguy

 

[JAG87]

neither.

get the XtremeMusic, or if you want to really have the best the Elite Pro.

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Originally posted by: JAG87
neither.

get the XtremeMusic, or if you want to really have the best the Elite Pro.

why is that?
care to elaborate? I wouldn't mind having a front panel so I can plug in my headset and mic and then unplug with ease.

Appreciate it.

 

[happy medium]

I thought they made a Auidigy 2 ZS gamer card ?

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Originally posted by: happy medium
I thought they made a Auidigy 2 ZS gamer card ?

they do, but it is not X-Fi...the fatal1ty and top of the line card have the XRAM, which is supposed to make it better for gaming...

but that is what im trying to find out. )

 

[JAG87]

the front panel comes with a massive flat ribbon cable that rises from the sound card to one of the 5.25 inch bays making the front cold air intake completely useless. your components such as the video card, cpu and memory will get no airflow at all. And there is no way of passing this cable in a better way, its not very long, and its uneasy to flex.

all the cards are the same except the elite pro. xtrememusic, platinum, fatality, all give out the same sound quality and the same performance. the elite pro has better op amps I believe, and therefore a better signal to noise ratio. its a better card. so either go xtrememusic or elite pro depending on how much money u want to put into this.

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Originally posted by: JAG87
the front panel comes with a massive flat ribbon cable that rises from the sound card to one of the 5.25 inch bays making the front cold air intake completely useless. your components such as the video card, cpu and memory will get no airflow at all. And there is no way of passing this cable in a better way, its not very long, and its uneasy to flex.

all the cards are the same except the elite pro. xtrememusic, platinum, fatality, all give out the same sound quality and the same performance. the elite pro has better op amps I believe, and therefore a better signal to noise ratio. its a better card. so either go xtrememusic or elite pro depending on how much money u want to put into this.

Very interesting. Really appreciate the heads up on that.I don't like the idea of that big cord going right through the center of my rig and blocking air-flow. After all, I spent a lot of time doing some cable clean up to make sure I get max air flow.

I guess the only other question I would ask is, this XRAM they are pimping on this card and the top of the line card, make a difference at all? Doesn't even sound like games support it, except for a couple.

That would be my only thing I would be interested in. There is a version out of the Fatal1ty that is the exact as the Fatal1ty FPS, minus the front panel. It goes for about $130. That would be the other thing I would be interested in.

 

[happy medium]

This help? http://compreviews.about.com/cs/soundcards/tp/aatpsoundcards.htm

 

[Skott]

Low end = Audigy2 ZS
Middle Range = X-Fi XtremeMusic
High end = X-Fi Elite Pro

There are various variations of each of these but those are the main models. The X-Fi XtremeMusic seems to be the new standard now or at least the more popular.

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Thanks guys. Sounds good. Looks like the XtremeMusic is the way to go.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: thecoffeeguy
Thanks guys. Sounds good. Looks like the XtremeMusic is the way to go.

Yep, I have yet to see anything that will use the paultry 64mb of Xram and if something does come down the line that would use xram I cant see 64mb actually capable of much. Get the Xtrememusic.

 

[PianoMan]

AFAIK, BF2 utilizes the X-RAM on the Fatal1ty to offload the sound files from regular RAM, purportedly increasing performance. I think the game code needs to specifically use the X-RAM, else it's not even touched.

I was looking at it (since I play BF2 a lot), but it's just too much $$$. I don't recall many reviews that either support or thwart the Fatal1ty version's claim of better performance.

The XtremeMusic's just fine. If $$$ isn't an issue and you want better connectivity options, the Elite Pro looks like a nice upgrade.

PM

 

[Derik75]

At this moment in time there is not many games that benefit off XRam. As with all new technology the software needs to be patched and made compatible with this new technology.

Plus Fatality doesn't make the greatest of products, yet seems to charge you out the ass for them.