ALC882 or Audigy 2 ZS Platinum

[marshahu]

Until I can afford an X-Fi card and can make up my mind as to which X-Fi card I should get (see my previous post) I am stuck with this dialemmea. Should I go ahead and try to install the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum or should I just use the onboard audio? I have a set of Creative Surround speakers (6.1). I play games more than I listen to music or movies so I would fully use the newer EAX technologies (EAX 3/4) but the onboard HD audio seems tempting to use especially as the whole motherboard (Asrock 4CoreDual SATA) is dubbed as being Vista compatible.

Under XP it would be a no brainer - simply try out each card. But under Vista judging from the many horror stories getting a Creative Sound Card to work properly is as painful as having teeth out and I'm starting to wonder if its worth the hassle of getting my Audigy 2 ZS to work under Vista or whether I should just use the onboard audio until I get my X-Fi card.

Suggestions are welcome.

 

[chookman]

The audigy only worked under vista with a hacked driver... i think your best option for vista would be the onboard

 

[jumpman]

Well, at one point I was running Vista along with an Audigy 2 ZS(not the Platinum), and never had any problems at all. The drivers installed fine and I never had any issues with games. This was before SP1, too, though I only ran that OS for a few weeks.

 

[chookman]

was that with the hacked driver jumpman or straight from creative?