10,000 MIPS, for what?

WAV--> MP3 is purely cpu.

Enhancing sound and adding effects is what your soundcard does.
It only influences the output to your speakers though.

Overall, the sound is a bit higher quality compared to built in and you have all those lovely EAX effects.
My creative audigy is sitting in its box currently, as i hate creative bloatware.

Built-in to the mobo 6.1 surround works fine for me.

Some people refuse to try the red pill. The X-Fi is an excellent card for consumer use and its higher-end version is even an option for creative professionals. I myself have whined about the $370 price. ...but if paying that price, for that version, is going to help Creative bring me the next latest PCI-Express mother-of-all consumer sound cards...than it may be a worthy investment in a company that I still believe in.

Good luck with that 400 dollar sound card...
For that much money you could have gone SLI.


Why would i waste my time putting in a sound card, that's a bitch about which pci slot its in... (it doesn't work in every slot)

When i have a perfectly good working sound card in my mobo?

Calling onboard sound perfectly good is a huge stretch. Thats like saying "My mobo has an IGP why do i need a sepereate video card?" The answer is simple, a seperate sound card is a huge increase in performance and quality over onboard just as an expansion video card is over onboard video. I used to have an audigy 2 zs, it beat the crap out of my onboard, and now I have an X-fi, I'd have to say it soundly beats the audigy 2 zs. As for bloated drivers, as someone else said install only what you need, I just have the audio driver itself installed on my computer, none of the peripherals.

I'm sure its not a difference i'd pay 400 dollars for...

you spent $370 now so that you can 'help' creative build a new sound card in the future and then spend another $370 (or more) on that one?

Seems a bit of an odd thing to do. If Ageia bought out a new physics card that you could bearly tell the diffrence on between it and the previous card they bought out, would you go and buy it anyway so that they might bring out a new card in the future?

If you have money to burn then go for it, I normally only upgrade when i know there is gonna be a gib difference, ie;- my last rig was an AMD athlon 2800, 1gig mem, geforce 5900. The jump i made to my new rig was amazing, i also got a cheap sound blaster live! 24bit. it left me enough money to get a 7.1 surrond speaker set!

Also (and i might be being a sound heathen here) i did not notice any diffrence between my old onboard sound quality and the sound blaster. I think the quality of my Mp3's is the main factor here, what level of encoding would i start to notice a diffrence at?

(I think my old on board sound only went to 5.1, so it was worth the upgrade and it was cheap, not some crazy $370 price {unless that includes speakers??})

A few months ago I bought a Creative X-Fi Music for $85 USD and I must say it beats the shit out of any sound card I've ever had before!!!!

My music now sounds amazing, I hooked it up to my Yamaha 5.1 Amp and my Mission speakers, same as all my previous sound cards. The 24 bit Crystalization makes a big differance, much richer sound, IMHO.

As for games, 128 voices in 3D is superb when the game supports it and all this with next to no CPU usage, superb.

I will say that I had an issue with the card squealing like a pig when I first got it, but I moved it to a new PCI Slot, one that wasn't shared with the SATA controller and it sorted it right out. As for the Creative drivers being bloated, it's true that the drivers on the CD that came with the card have plenty of bloatware on them, that's why I only install the drivers from their web page, they are lean and do the job very nicely.

The bottom line is, if you value good sound, have a decent set of speakers and your PC isn't already overloaded with expansion cards then I'd say get the X-Fi Music or better as your budget dictates, I don't know how big a differance the X-RAM would make.

Onboard sound is acceptable, nothing more, for basic jobs. It's funny to me that people will spend absolute fortunes on their Graphics subset and not spend a dime on their Audio subset...To me Audio is just as important and Video, and for sure I'd never settle for onboard Video to play my games, so why not spend $85 measly dollars for such an awesome sound experience?

JKay6969

Absolutely Amen. What's funny is that no one even questions spending $700+ on video boards, and yet spending $200 on the higher quality DAC & Pre-Amp that a soundcard is is seen by many as...not-so-bright. That's the world we live in though.

To be honest, I'm not really that sure that marketing would really do it for audio card makers...I believe with Video Cards there is something that you instantly see as being better, Eye candy sells games by the truckload, but it also, in effect sells truckloads of Graphics Cards that support the beautiful visuals...

Sound Cards on the other hand aren't something that are easily quantified as being better, the main limiting factor being the speakers that are plugged into the card. Because the difference between one sound card and the next is not instantly evident, or provable...My card is awesome because it supports 128 3D hardware channels in hardware...Sure it does, how do you convince your customers of the benefits? With Graphics it's relatively easy, post 2 screenshots as comparison between DX8 and DX9 and it's instantly obvious to the observer that there are significant benefits to the new card...How do you do that with sound cards? Not easily ;-)

The other benefit in 3D Card marketing is the rolling effect, because the last card was so much better, and that was so much better than the one before that, the next one must be so much better again, almost by default. This gives customers a pre set expectation of the next generation, this is again amplified by pretty visual demo's with plenty of eye candy, mostly stuff that would never be feasable to run in any game, but very pretty none the less...

Sound cards have the much harder challenge ahead of them, for this I salute Creative for releasing their Audigy and X-Fi ranges...These are cards that truly push the boundries of PC Audio, not only for games, but for music, movies and creation too...

Perhaps one day the masses will 'Get it' but till then, stuff 'em, they don't know what their missing, thier loss...

JKay6969

Audio quality, my friend. With a sound card like the Audigy, X-Fi, Revolution, etc. you get a very clear and discernable improvement in sound quality. With the $370 X-Fi EP you get an improved DAC (better sound, as long as you have high-resolution speakers or headhphones that can resolve the difference between that and the more economical variants, as well as more software and a nifty break-out box). You don't need to spend $370 to see an improvement over onboard sound though. You can get a $20 SoundBlaster Live! that will still give you a clear-discernable differennce in audio quality over onboard sound.

Cheers!

Perhaps after reading the contents of this link to our very own Toms Hardware Guide you will understand a little better what improvements are to be had with the Creative X-Fi series of Audio Processors...

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2005/08/18/creative_x/

From the wording of the posts, including the title of the thread, most don't seem to care about the specifications, unlike when it comes to Graphics cards where 24 Pixel pipelines are a must over 16 and the 48 of the X1900XTX are truly groundbreaking...blah, blah, blah...

So when reading this article, skip the techie stuff and read only the views and experiences of the reviewer to gain a better understanding of the difference between this series of cards and other less powerfull cards and of course the Audio Codecs that parade as onboard sound cards...When is hardware software, when it's a codec ;-) lol

I must say in defence of onboard audio that some of the mobo manufacturers are slowly getting the idea and installing proper audio cards on board, although this is still the exception and not the rule...

I guess many people still don't appreciate, or realise they appreciate, good sound. Why do we go to the cinema? Is it truly just for the big screen? Or is it a combination of big picture and immersive sound? Or hadn't you thought about it that way?

JKay6969

I understand that you are quite an audiophile, a person who truly appreciates good quality audio, and audio enviroments. There are sadly not enough likeminded fellows in the PC gaming scene, and this is a travesty as this is where most of the money that drives the PC's evolution exists...

I hope that over time people will learn...no...grow to appreciate how large a part good quality audio will be in the evolution of the PC.

In the coming 'Digital Age' the focus of the PC will widen to the point where it will no longer be considered as simply an Office or Gaming machine. I believe the PC will become an essential part of the modern home. I feel that in time people will realise what the PC can truly offer them, Flexibility.

How about a home with a Silent HTPC in the lounge/Living room that is spec'ed out with a Passively cooled HD 3D Graphics card with HDMI output connected to their 42" HD ready TV, a Creative Labs X-Fi music connected to their DTS receiver, a Dual HD-DVB-t TV tuner, a low power near passively cooled AMD AM2 X2 CPU with a couple of Gig's RAM and a couple of Samsung Spinpoint 250GB SATA2 HDD's in RAID to host their most played Digital Audio and Video, running Vista Ultimate connected to their Gigabit LAN. In a closet would be their media server also running Vista but with the spec played down in favour of a series of large SATA2 HDD's in RAID to store the rest of their digital catalogue. In the Kids room would be a PC set up as a games machine with a Creative Labs X-Fi Pro to allow connection of a guitar and mic's to allow creation of high quality music, but with LAN access to all the A/V content. In the Home Office would be their Laptop also connected to the LAN with full access to the network.

The above idea is very possible and gives an idea of how the PC can currently be used in different ways within an enviroment. The key is using the right components to allow proper implementation. Sure an onboard soundcard could be used to connect a guitar to a PC, but the result would not be as good as with an X-Fi, much longer delay between striking the string and the note being played, double that if any effects are used, poor quality recording as well as the lack of features to allow sound placement and mixing. Equally an onboard soundcard could be used to play music and movies but again, the results would not be quite as impressive as with an X-Fi.

JKay6969

You don't have to spend $400!

A Turtle Beach Montego for $80 will sound hugely better than on-board sound. Bearing in mind of course you WILL need a decent pair of speakers. I have a the $80 card and a $150 set of Altec Lansing's with subwoofer. Tried to use on-board sound on everyone of my last 8 builds, and everytime my Turtle Beach card would literally demolish what came from the on-board sound. Big, big difference.

The thing is.. unless you swap that card in and out every week you'll forget that your speakers can sound better and you'll get used to it.

At first when i pulled out the audigy and plugged in my 5.1 klipsch ultras into onboard, it sound a little muted.
After a week though i totally forgot about it and i could care less.

Its not that big of a difference.

Just my oppinion, you don't have to agree.

Well I agree with you on that point. What one person says is great, the next might think is terrible. It's definetly what you are used to. After using the sound card for so many years, and suddenly trying the onboard sound I was really unimpressed and the sound card went right back in with every new build.
I am still using a ATI 700x Pro Video card, but heck my system does everything I need to do and rock solid, so for me it's fine.

So basically Ignorance is bliss in other words.

Not aimed at jkay69, aimed at every loser putting other things down before trying.

TOO many god dam idiots in here, dont flame what you dont have or cannot afford.

Try it dont like it return it in your 30days consumer rights. LOL.

I find that the HD audio codec (like the Realtek ALC880 built into my laptop) sounds significantly better than non-HD codecs. Although optical SPDIF isn't exclusive to HD codecs, it sure is nice to use with my home theater receiver.
Unfortunately I don't own a dedicated sound card and the only time I got to listen to one was on a rig whose owner knew nothing about sound. He had an Audigy 2 Platinum I think, but he had seriously messed with the equilizer (in a bad way) and had some pretty lousy headphones so I wasn't impressed. Sadly, after getting a new car my computer budget is basically $0 unless something were to die on me.

-mcg

Because a $500 GPU offers a larger benefit/performance increase than a $300 "APU" does. Seeing as you can get an X-Fi Xtreme Music from Newegg for $80 right now, a $300 "APU" has almost no improvement over the $80 version.

But an $80 X-Fi would give a nice increase in Audio Quality and a small gain in system performance so would be a good investment for a good PC IMHO.

I was not trying to make the point over the $300 X-Fi, I couldn't justify that on my budget, simply pointing out that even the $80 X-Fi would be worth the investment, not just for improved audio quality, but improved Audio realism in games, complementing the $500 GPU nicely...

JKay6969