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X-Fi Fatality, Creative Added Something

G

gerbiaNem

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Messages
2,169
Well I got and pickup a new fatality to replace my xtreme music x-fi. I open the box and notice they have a nice big heatsink glued on to the processor where my xm had none. I wrote this off as a fatality perk, but looking at some picks of the fatality online I see no heatsinks.

Could this be something new on creatives part due to failing cards? The fatility fixed some distortion problems my xm card when on max volume too. And not many people mention that the side of the xram glows with a red light.

Just something I thought some would care to know.
 
wow.... a heat sink...
LoL, as audio quality and processing becomes a big part at doing well in FPS games, etc. they might sell cooling for sound cards :p

Can you imagine sound cards the size of a 6600GT with a HSF... lol...
 
oh yeah?

mine gets out of the PCI slot and highfives me everytime I turn the computer on, beat that
 
The heatsinks were added by Creative to accomodate a change in the manufacturing process. I'm not sure what the change is, but it's the reason that earlier models don't have heatsinks and later models do.

My Fatal1ty FPS does :D
 
My Fatal1ty FPS does not have a heatsink.

Maybe I should add one, everything else does....northbridge, video, cpu, vrms, etc... just to follow the theme.

Now...where fo you think I get one of these elusive heatsinks?
 
My extrememusic has a hs on the main processing unit as well, guess Creative had problems with them overheating? Seems strange to have a hs on a sound card... What's next, a Zalman Fatility HSF for the Fatality cards? :p
 
I have Fatal1ty with no heatsink so I was concerned at first. It works fine but I just wanted to be sure. I looked up creative forums and it seems it's allright. Anyway my understanding now is that:

no heatsink is needed for those cards that originally came w/t one. Only newer X-Fi cards that have been through different manufacturing process - that may result in higher heat dissipation - require a heatsink.

According to creative forum mod

blahblahblah"...refining the production process of the X-Fi chip (...) results in the chip generating more heat. All chips generate heat and some run very hot, but this is not an issue providing some form of heat dissipation is implemented. We have therefore implemented a heat-sink on all Sound Blaster X-Fi based cards going forwards.

Sound Blaster X-Fi products, with or without a heat-sink, have identical audio quality, performance levels, feature set and reliability."
 
In other words:

"We modified the chip design so that it didn't use a smaller, and thus more expensive, paths, which in turn use more power and generate more heat. So now they need a heatsink, but we lower the costs per chip. \o/ for us!"

So if you have one that doesn't use a heatsink, you have a higher quality component. :p
 
Chastity said:
In other words:
So if you have one that doesn't use a heatsink, you have a higher quality component. :p
Click to expand...

No heatsink = not sexy. You should see this spikey beast.
 
I don't see anything on my X-Fi that would suggest lower quality components

And come on now, having a big ol heatsink on a sound card just looks cool :p

I wonder if we can overclock these cards?
 
Well, first off all 3 lower cards use the exact same basic components, its only the elite that uses a tad better dac's. Its definitly not a case of cheaper components with the heatsink, just a change in how they make the x-fi chips that makes it easier for CL to produce more chips and the new process makes for a slightly hotter chip is all. If you have one of the earlier cards, like my Fatal1ty, that doesnt have a heatsink then perhaps it could be argued that those chips are a hardier design than the currently made chips but both should perform the same.
 
My Xtreme music has one, I really dont know why the others dont have one. but im wondering if i can put in LEDS on the top corner of the card like the Fatal1tys
 
Yours has a sink because the X-fi chip on your card was made with the newer process, its just that simple. The chip itself performs the same just runs hotter than origonal process chips that don't need help with heat disipation. You can easily add a sink if you want but its rather unessisary plus its possible that adding your own heatsink might be considered as a warrenty voiding move by CL if you later on have a problem with the card.
 
I should watercool my XFi.... all I need is an extra waterblock and I'll chain it in series after the 6800Ultra... then back to the reservoir.

Hmm.... watercooled soundcard.... *drool*...

LOL..
 
Have you tried overclocking it yet? I hear these things clock much higher then those silly audigy 2's. I was able to achieve 300 sounds per second with it overclocked to 4000mhz. I hope Artic Cooling comes out with a cooler for this so I can maybe bump it up another 100mhz. That could be an extra 15 sounds per second which would be totally awsome


Did I just kill this topic????? Is it dead yet?
 
psychoace said:
Have you tried overclocking it yet? I hear these things clock much higher then those silly audigy 2's. I was able to achieve 300 sounds per second with it overclocked to 4000mhz. I hope Artic Cooling comes out with a cooler for this so I can maybe bump it up another 100mhz. That could be an extra 15 sounds per second which would be totally awsome


Did I just kill this topic????? Is it dead yet?
Click to expand...


Nah I'd wait for a dual core version.
 
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