Sound Card Decision - Please Help!

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DocG2828

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Dec 5, 2006
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I've read some of the posts on here and other articles aboutr sound cards. Alot of the technical jargon on sound cards is way beyond my knowledge right now. I could study more and I'm sure become knowledgeable about all of this, but I just got some Xmas money and am itching to spend it. So I'm looking at getting a new sound card.

I have a HP Duo 6300, 2g DDR2 533 ram, 6600gs vid

I'm looking at the X-Fi series, specifically the Gamers. I'm somewhat limited to Best Buy because some of my funds are a gift card to there. I'm leaning towards the Gamer with the ram, I guess its the Fatal1ty model....its $150 vs. the standard Gamer that is $100.

I do mostly gaming and music with my HTPC. I just use my standalone for watching DVD's and one day will probably just buy a standalone HD-DVD player instead of making this this play HD DVD's. I also have the audio running to a Kenwood VR-507 receiver via coax digital right now. I will be switching to the 5.1 analogue outputs when I purchase another card to get the best sound. The receiver claims to be capable of 96khz but I'm only getting sound when I have my onboard sound at 44khz using a coax dig output. Once HD audio modes become more popular, I will be getting a new home theater receiver with full HD audio and HDMI switching.

So....with what I'm looking to do....is this a good card? Is it worth the extra 50 bucks for the Fatal1ty? If this card is a bad choice, I could always buy something else at BB and wait until I have the money to shop elsewhere.
 
Get the X-fi xtreme music. The difference the ram will make is barely noticeably, if it even is in your case.
 
From what I've read, the only difference between the Fatality and the Xtrememusic is that the Fat features built in RAM, something which is used on just two games atm and which boosts your fps by 3 or abouts...

imo it's not worth the extra money at all.
 
Because it is bigger lol, the XtremeGamer doesn't look like a real X-Fi but I think that the Gamer is also ok.
 
Not sure if BB carries the Music....I just see the Gamer and Fat Gamer online. Other than being bigger :rolleyes: ....is the Music really any better than the Gamer....my #1 is games, then music.

On a side note, will it still be possible to utilize the onboard sound. My HP has front panel connections for audio in, mic in, etc. I know I would probably use the rear headphone jack on the XFi if I were using headphones, but I'm thinking about the ease of the front panels for connecting a video camera or something.

Thanks for the input so far guys!
 
I think that the Gamer is a better buy, it is cheaper and it only doesn't have features that people don't use.
 
I believe the music has better sound quality than the gamers, someone back me up?
 
That is what I thought before, that's why I choose the Music instead of the Gamer but the Music disappoints me, should just buy the Gamer. I think that the Gamer doesn't support Creative's DD/DTS software decoding but might be wrong though.
 
K someone come in here and point out ALL of the diffrences between the gamer and music please.
 
Well I decided on the Gamer, non Fat version. So far very impressed with it. Hooked it up with the analog outputs. I enjoy the game mode in it, allows for the bass redirection and increased bass. Strangely, the music mode does not have this, and the bass isn't as good as it should be, I'll have to fiddle with the EQ settings. My home theater receiver has different modes for its 5.1 inputs too....one is analog setting and one is 6 chan setting, or it does auto detect. WIth music playing in windows, the 6chan works best....but the analog works best in BF2142. So anyways, I still need to figure out the best settings for the sound card and for the reciever.

2142 plays with ultra sound quality, and rocks! I bass of an explosion knocked something off a shelf in my living room. Considering I had to buy from Best Buy....I don't regrest this purchase. I'll fiddle with the DVD playing, etc. too.

Thanks for the suggestions guys!
 
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