X-Fi sound cards (or others?)

[KyleY]

Hi All,
Would there be much benefit to getting a sound card with SPDIF out (for games, music, etc. - not home theater)? Would it be of any benefit with Z-5500 or Klipsch ProMedia Ultra (do they have SPDIF inputs)? I've been thinking about getting a new sound card (currently just an Audigy). I may get one of the new X-Fi cards - are they worth it? I don't think I need the breakout box, but with the current rebates on ZipZoomFly and NewEgg, the price for the Fatal1ty breakout box is the same as the one without! Are there any differences between these cards otherwise?

The 3 cards I'm considering are:
X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series w/ breakout box
X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series w/o breakout box (same price - same card?)
X-Fi XtremeGamer - just quite a bit cheaper - are the others worth the $?

Are there better cards to consider? Would they still be compatible with current games? Thanks guys,
--Kyle

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Stick with analog

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Stick with analog

Go Go digital audio thread!

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Stick with analog

Go Go digital audio thread!

:laugh:

 

[KyleY]

Thanks for the excellent article, YOyoYOhowsDAjello, and for the link to it. I'll stick with analog and go with one of the 3 X-Fi sound cards I listed. Not sure which yet. Do you know if there's any difference between the two X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series cards (the one w/ and w/o the breakout box)? I wouldn't think so, but different specs are listed for the two on NewEgg's site:
X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS 70SB046600002 7.1 Channels (w/ breakout box) - $133 after $50 rebate:
--Sample Rate: 96KHz

X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series 70SB046A00000 7.1 Channels (no breakout box) - $126 after $20 instant savings:
--Sample Rate: 192KHz

X-Fi XtremeGamer 70SB073A00000 7.1 Channels (no breakout box) - $70 after $20 instant savings:
--Sample Rate: 96KHz
--No X-RAM

So, are the listed specs wrong and is there really no difference between these 3 cards (other than the lack of X-RAM on the cheapest)? Ugh, I noticed in the specifications -> features of the cheapest XtremeGamer it even says "Boost audio performance even further in games that support X-RAM" - it doesn't have X-RAM though, right? I wouldn't get the breakout box one, but if it has some extra / improved features and is about the same price after rebate, it might be worth it...

As for the speakers, I think I'm going to go with the Z-5500 b/c of price and a lot of reviews seem to prefer them over Klipsch anyway. At the least, it sounds like they may be better for my use (games). Thanks again,
--Kyle

 

[andrewbabcock]

Just get an extreme music and be done with it. You don't need all that crap that the higher end ones have. Newegg Linkage /thread

 

[KyleY]

What's the diff. between that and the XtremeGamer that's $3 less and no mail in rebate required? Obviously the two look a lot different tho - the Music is a larger card for one thing... Thanks,
--Kyle

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: KyleY
Thanks for the excellent article, YOyoYOhowsDAjello, and for the link to it. I'll stick with analog and go with one of the 3 X-Fi sound cards I listed. Not sure which yet. Do you know if there's any difference between the two X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series cards (the one w/ and w/o the breakout box)? I wouldn't think so, but different specs are listed for the two on NewEgg's site:
X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS 70SB046600002 7.1 Channels (w/ breakout box) - $133 after $50 rebate:
--Sample Rate: 96KHz

X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series 70SB046A00000 7.1 Channels (no breakout box) - $126 after $20 instant savings:
--Sample Rate: 192KHz

X-Fi XtremeGamer 70SB073A00000 7.1 Channels (no breakout box) - $70 after $20 instant savings:
--Sample Rate: 96KHz
--No X-RAM

So, are the listed specs wrong and is there really no difference between these 3 cards (other than the lack of X-RAM on the cheapest)? Ugh, I noticed in the specifications -> features of the cheapest XtremeGamer it even says "Boost audio performance even further in games that support X-RAM" - it doesn't have X-RAM though, right? I wouldn't get the breakout box one, but if it has some extra / improved features and is about the same price after rebate, it might be worth it...

As for the speakers, I think I'm going to go with the Z-5500 b/c of price and a lot of reviews seem to prefer them over Klipsch anyway. At the least, it sounds like they may be better for my use (games). Thanks again,
--Kyle

Creative says they all have the same sample rate abilities. Looks like the 96 vs 192 confusion is due to the cards having different sample rates for different types of conversion, but for each type of conversion they do the same sample rate. I don't know if that made any sense... Check out the specs on Creative's site if you want to know what I'm talking about.

Creative does not mention the XtremeGamer as having X-Ram.

Any of these cards should work well with either the Promedias or the z-5500s. Either the Xtreme Music or the Xtreme Gamer is probably a good bet. X-Ram doesn't seem worth it to justify the price increase to the other cards. The breakout box doesn't seem very useful for most people either.

 

[Ika]

I'm by no means an audio expert, but if you had a DAC, having SPDIF would be greatly beneficial, at least for music. Though I really don't know how well DACs work with speakers, I'm a headphone-only junkie

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Aflac
I'm by no means an audio expert, but if you had a DAC, having SPDIF would be greatly beneficial, at least for music. Though I really don't know how well DACs work with speakers, I'm a headphone-only junkie

The deal is that the DACs on a z-5500 set for example will not get you better results than you could get from analog output from the X-Fi. That coupled with the issues of trying to get digital to work with games leaves X-Fi analog is a pretty darn good solution for now.