PCI-E 1x Sound Card from Creative

[Red Falcon]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102016

Check out this new soundcard from Creative. For those who only have a PCI-E 1x slot remaining, this may be your choice of sound card.

I just recently found this, so if this is old news, I apologize.

Once I receive this card, I will post how well it performs in both analog and digital out.

Be warned however, not all mobos will identify this card, so do some research before buying.

 

[Whatsisname]

So you are replacing one shitty creative card with another creative card, which in all likelyhood will also be shitty. Sounds like a great idea.

 

[LoStMaTt]

So you are replacing one shitty creative card with another creative card, which in all likelyhood will also be shitty. Sounds like a great idea.

If you have nothing constructive to say, why say anything at all?

To the OP: I personally haven't heard of any reviews of the card and am interested in seeing them. It is about time they released a PCI-x version though.

 

[Menelmarar]

LOL, old news.

Be warned however, not all mobos will identify this card, so do some research before buying.

*IF* that isn't reason enough to run far away, I don't know what is.

But also, $50 for a card that has no hardware acceleration = MASSIVE LOSE! Might as well use onboard audio IMHO.

That particular "X-Fi" does not have the X-Fi sound processor, thus no hardware acceleration. Not really an X-Fi.

Creative Audigy SE 24-Bit

But then again, the card in your sig according to Wiki, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_Audigy#Sound_Blaster_Audigy_SE, is also one of Creative's red-headed step children that they castrated and didn't include hardware acceleration. So at best your side-grading... Grats!

 

[Menelmarar]

X-Fi Xtreme Audio

The entry-level model of the X-Fi series, the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio, does not actually have the EMU20K1 chip but is a re-branded Audigy SE, using the same family of chips (CA0106-WBTLF), and even the same drivers[2]. Thus, not only is all of the X-Fi–related processing performed in software, but it also lacks basic hardware acceleration just the like SB Live! 24 bit, the Audigy SE and other budget Soundblaster models.

LOLOLOLOLOL, you bought the exact same card you already have. According to Wiki the X-Fi audio is a rebranded Audigy SE. You got owned by Creative marketing! (pun intended)

 

[Red Falcon]

LOL, old news.

*IF* that isn't reason enough to run far away, I don't know what is.

But also, $50 for a card that has no hardware acceleration = MASSIVE LOSE! Might as well use onboard audio IMHO.

That particular "X-Fi" does not have the X-Fi sound processor, thus no hardware acceleration. Not really an X-Fi.



But then again, the card in your sig according to Wiki, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_Audigy#Sound_Blaster_Audigy_SE, is also one of Creative's red-headed step children that they castrated and didn't include hardware acceleration. So at best your side-grading... Grats!

LOL @ everyone's posts! I know this isn't a "true" X-Fi, I knew that when I bought it. It really is a side grade. The main reasons I bought this card is to see how it performs and to free up my much needed PCI legacy slot. Once I get it I will let everyone know how sh!tty it is.

Yeah, it won't be much better than my current card (which sux the biggest d!ck of all time), but I am willing to take that risk because I need that PCI slot for other cards (that at the moment I can't use because my craptastic sound card is hogging it up).

Oh, and no hardware acceleration does suck, but I'm using Vista so it doesn't matter that much to me anyways. I'm not even a casual gamer (only play on weekends), so having the best sound card in my case wouldn't make much sense. However, for most of the people here at [H]ard, I would NOT recommend this card unless you are in dire need of that PCI slot (like I am) or just have the sh!ttiest on board audio of all time.

If you are a gamer or one who edits audio clips and tests them, I would NOT buy this card.

I knew it was going to be crappy when I bought it, but it was worth it to me (and probably only to me) to free up that slot (very important).

So you are replacing one shitty creative card with another creative card, which in all likelyhood will also be shitty. Sounds like a great idea.

No, it's not a great idea, it's a [H]ard idea!

LOLOLOLOLOL, you bought the exact same card you already have. According to Wiki the X-Fi audio is a rebranded Audigy SE. You got owned by Creative marketing! (pun intended)

No, I got pwned by Creative when I bought the lame @$$ card in my sig. At least I will have an open PCI slot for use when I use this card instead. So for ~$55, I could use this card. If it really is the same card... at least I have an open PCI slot that I really, really need.

If you have nothing constructive to say, why say anything at all?

Heh, I shouldn't have posted this then! LOL!

Hopefully I will get it by Friday, then I can let everyone know how good/bad/fugly this card is. Enjoy!


EDIT: Before I bought the crappy card in my sig, I originally owned (or pwned in the end) an original Audigy 24-bit (the original). It's performance and options were WAY better and abundant than the lame SE model that replaced it. But then again, if I really needed the performance (or the Firewire port for that matter), I would just go over to my other machine and take it's Audigy 2 ZX (I really like that card). I do miss having the Firewire port on the sound card though. The analog audio out broke on my old Audigy though. I really should make the move to digital speakers... but then again, I just don't do enough sound/music editing or gaming to make it worth my time.

If anyone could find me a low priced 2.1 system that uses digital audio (digital or fibre optic), it would be much appreciated. Then I could use my old Audigy again. The only problem I had with that card though was that it was HUGE! It was bigger than some video cards (larger than my old BFGTech FX 5500OC in height and length)... but it was still better than the piece of @#!% in my sig!

rawr

 

[dj_taboo]

This could've been a pretty decent card, considering the PCI-x1. Lack of true X-Fi makes this feel like a rip off.

 

[Moofasa~]

A "true X-Fi" PCI-E card will be here by year's end. I would suggest if one is looking for a PCI-E sound card they should wait till then.

 

[RB30]

This Creative OEM sound card is not supported by Creative and not recognizable by some motherboard. Don't waste your money and time. I will wait for true X-Fi PCI-E or maybe Prelude by the end of year.

 

[Red Falcon]

Ok, as promised, I said I would let you know how this thing worked when it finally got here. Well, it finally got here.

It is the equivalent to an Audigy 2 SE (so better than the pos Audigy SE in my soon to be changed sig).

As far as sound goes, it is very high quality from the analog and digital (including fibre) channels. Since I'm using Vista, I can't really test this thing like I could in XP.

In games, there is no crackle or snapping sounds (Bioshock, Doom 3, Quake Wars demo, Diablo II {I uninstalled this soon after, DX6.1a, bleck}, etc.). OpenAL seems to be getting the job done as the position of the audio is still a nice feature, though there is no hardware audio rendering.

If you have around $50 to spend and can't obtain a full Audigy (1, 2/ZX, 4) or X-Fi card, then this will be by far your best option for low-end sound. The fibre in/out are also a plus, something that many (except for high-end or external) sound cards (including the SE cards) seem to be missing. In Vista, it also has many more options for the quality of the sound for digital/analog than the original Audigy and Audigy SE had. The sound quality is also much greater than that of the Audigy SE (you will notice a BIG difference)

While it is a nice feature that the card is on a PCI-E 1x slot, this extra bandwidth won't save this card in performance. A good analogy would be like taking a 7300GT and sticking 512MB on it. That extra memory buffer just won't help it much (if at all) in games or other 3D applications (video editing is a different story).

For recording, it is great (especially with the fibre in). For gaming, the other Audigy's (1,2/ZX,4) and "regular" X-Fi cards will kick this card's bus! (pun is present)

For $50 (now $45 on newegg... figures), this was worth it for me to "side-grade" in order to free my much needed PCI slot for various other goodies. So if a much needed PCI legacy slot is needed and a PCI-E 1x (or 4x, 8x, 16x) is free, then by all means go for it. But if performance is a factor, then dun get it.

Good luck to everyone who orders/owns/pwns this card.


Side note: this card comes with a driver CD which is necessary to install the "official" drivers for either XP or Vista. The card (if recognized by the mobo) will be installed instantly in Vista, but I would recommend the drivers from Creative for maximum stability. I didn't see any drivers or updates on the Creative website supporting this card, so make sure to backup the drivers on this disk incase you lose it.



BIG EDIT: Here is a thread that Sycraft (all credit goes to him). He found new ALchemy drivers for this sound card (as well as many others) just released today!

Here is the link to download them:.

I hope that these will fix any DirectSound/EAX issues that many X-Fi owner have been facing with games in 32-bit Vista. I will install these and make another update to see if there is a (if any) difference from the current drivers that I am using. Good luck to all!

 

[Red Falcon]

Sorry for the double post. If I edited my last post, it wouldn't bump it up.

I've tried the ALchemy drivers. They have made a noticable difference between what I was hearing before in Bioshock and what I hear now.

But this is just with my card, not an actually "hardware" X-Fi.

What do others think of the new drivers?


BTW, I switched my card from a PCI-E x1 slot to a x16 slot (card still runs at x1 speed). Worked like a charm. As long as the drivers are already installed, moving this card will just reinstall it as the same, regardless of the port. As stated above, it is backwards compatible with x1, x4, x8, and x16 slots (assuming your mobo already supports it as some don't).

If anyone else has this card, please (if you can and have the time) post some real world benchmarks in audio recording/rendering for apps and games. Even differences between the default disk drivers and the new ALchemy drivers.

I just simply do not have the time to research this properly beyond what I have stated in my above post. All thanks and appreciation are given in advance.

 

[Menelmarar]

I didn't have any issues before the driver update.
No issues afterwards. *shrug* X-Fi drivers have been behaving very well for me this round for Creative.