Moogle Stiltzkin
Gawd
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2004
- Messages
- 814
SCREENSHOTS OF THE CARD THAT JUST ARRIVED
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/6474/prelude001ma0.jpg
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/5176/prelude002jw7.jpg
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/3161/prelude003nm2.jpg
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/9427/prelude004yh3.jpg
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/7500/prelude005oi3.jpg
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/751/prelude006im1.jpg
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7492/prelude007vi8.jpg
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/7532/prelude008mb9.jpg
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/2164/prelude009dg5.jpg
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4710/prelude010jo6.jpg
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/5035/prelude011dz3.jpg
Someone at NCIX reported he just got his lucky bastard. Mine is ETA 2 weeks i estimate.
Another person from NCIX forum also posted a mini review
He might have posted more info over there ._.;
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/6474/prelude001ma0.jpg
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/5176/prelude002jw7.jpg
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/3161/prelude003nm2.jpg
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/9427/prelude004yh3.jpg
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/7500/prelude005oi3.jpg
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/751/prelude006im1.jpg
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7492/prelude007vi8.jpg
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/7532/prelude008mb9.jpg
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/2164/prelude009dg5.jpg
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4710/prelude010jo6.jpg
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/5035/prelude011dz3.jpg
Someone at NCIX reported he just got his lucky bastard. Mine is ETA 2 weeks i estimate.
Another person from NCIX forum also posted a mini review
Ok... so I picked up this card today expecting great things, installed it in my case, booted up Vista 32 bit Home Premium then.... nothing. Went to the control panel to see what I could find - just my integrated "High Definition Audio." Opened up my case again, jigged with the card to make sure it was in tight. Then I went into my BIOS and enabled PnP for PCI devices. Booted into Windows, then "voila": new device installation dialogue. Clicked cancel, inserted the driver CD and installed... a few minutes and confirmations later it was installed.
... in the meantime, I was reading the box label, and found some little typos and grammatical errors which makes me think whomever designed it did not have english as a first language.
Back to the card. On the rear there are 8 gold-plated inputs:
- 1 for line in.
- 1 for mic in
- 4 for front, side, rear, center/subwoofer
- 1 for S/PDIF in (combo coax/optical)
- 1 last one for S/PDIF out. (combo coax/optical)
I have a Creative digital decoder and some gigaworks speakers that I wanted to try the card out on. Unfortunately, the optical adapters are terrible. They are longer than the ones in the photo, and don't fit well into the holes. The slightest tug or pull, and they fall out. Had to use coax instead.
I loaded up iTunes and started playing some music. Sounded pretty good, but I wanted to try Crystallizer and the other effects. So I loaded up the X-Fi control console, which I must admit, is pretty slick. There are 3 different modes: game, entertainment, and music creation. I changed the settings on all three, but none seemed to make any difference to the sound that I was getting.
So, I switched out of my digital setup, and went to analog. OK, now I'm getting my effects! Looks like the effects don't get mixed into the digital output. I hope that this state of affairs changes soon... The analog audio quality is fine, but nothing spectacular. Am I going to have to go out and upgrade my OPAMP? I think so... which is kinda sucky (IMHO).
In any case, now on to the games test... which is what I really bought the card for in the first place. I need my EAX5! The game of my choosing is Battlefield 2142. Before I begin, I'm not sure I will switch back to digital. The likelihood that EAX will work over the digital output is next to nil at this point. In any case, FPS gaming is best done with headphones so who cares about S/PDIF!?
I hope that older games will recognize this card as an X-Fi. Heck, I hope that newer games recognize this as an X-Fi. I'll let you know after I play a couple of rounds. More to come in a couple of hours...
He might have posted more info over there ._.;