X-Fi Sound Cards

[Soccer55]

I'm looking into getting a new sound card to replace my Santa Cruz and I've heard good things about the X-Fi line from Creative, so I was thinking about getting one. However, I found that there were something like 8 different versions available, and I've quickly become rather confused as to what one might suit me best.

I'm mainly going to use it for playing music (MP3 and the like) and games (Guild Wars mostly). After reading some of the older threads here and some reviews on other sites, I think I've narrowed my choice down to the Xtreme Music and Xtreme Gamer (non-Fatal1ty version). The only problem is that I don't quite understand what the differences are between these two cards. The only difference that I've been able to see is that the PCB of the Music appears to be full size while the PCB of the Gamer appears to be half size. Does that mean that there is something that the Xtreme Music offers that makes it preferable to the Xtreme Gamer? Vice Versa? Are there other cards that I should consider instead of these two?

Any information you guys could provide will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

-Tom

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Might want to look through this thread

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1957711&enterthread=y

I don't think there's a definitive answer yet.

 

[cr0ssfire]

From what I've read, the Xtremegamer doesn't support the X-Fi front I/O panel and it lacks digital something or other...I can't really remember what exactly. But really, with the Xtrememusic and the Xtremegamer being basically in the same price bracket, I would just spring for the Xtrememusic. That's what I did when the X-Fi series first came out, and later on I was able to buy the front I/O panel, remote, and their related goodies from someone here on the forums for just $40 - so now I've got a full-fledged X-Fi Platinum

I would say to buy the Xtrememusic now, since you know for certain that your card won't be potentially stripped of something useful, then do what I did and upgrade to a Platinum later on if you find the lack of front inputs bothersome.

 

[fire400]

Get the Xtreme Music. It's the mid range package. Something close to a hundred bucks for superior sound within a computer is pretty reasonable.

Remember our 5 senses. Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting. If you have the money, then don't limit yourself to how much you can possible feel good about.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: fire400

Remember our 5 senses. Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting. If you have the money, then don't limit yourself to how much you can possible feel good about.

Yeah, I'm about to upgrade my scent card and tongue port