[Redstreblo]

I have an 8x PCI-E slot available and I was thinking of putting in a sound card to replace my on-board audio. I have looked around and most sound cards use the PCI interface. I found the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional card and saw some videos/reviews of it and it seemed like a good choice. But now Creative has come out with a newer card, the Sound Blaster Recon3D fatal1ty Professional. This other card is roughly the same price but has a built in headphone amp. The Recon3D also only has 5.1 Audio instead of 7.1 (but I will not need 7.1 anyway) and doesn't have XRAM whatever that is.

I don't really understand the specifications of audio cards as I don't know much about them. I just know that a dedicated sound card will blow away any on-board solution. Which of these is the better solution? Or do you know of a different card within the same rough price range (X-Fi ~ $120 - $130 / Recon3D ~ $140) as these that will work better for me?

EDIT: ***The Recon3D is $140 with a microphone included with it - you can get the card by itself for about $100***

Keep in mind that the only slot available to me is PCI-E and I need to be able to plug in my regular speakers (I've seen sound cards that work only with headphones/sets).

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional

Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional

[Nuke]

i havent bothered with soundcards ever since onboard sound got non-suckey, your better off buying really badass computer speakers and **** the sound card.

[Klaustrophobia]

unless things have changed drastically recently, i would seriously look into a non-creative card.  from a pure hardware viewpoint, creative is very good.  my x-fi xtreme music sounds outstanding, noticeably better than the still quite good onboard sound through $70 logitech 5.1 speakers.  however, the software and features available from creative simply BLOW.  my card doesn't have front panel audio connections, digital out (but it has a ****ing gameport, wut?), and damned if i know how you're supposed to get the 7.1 out of it, because it only has the 3 5.1 ports (gold, black, green) plus a shared port that is either mic in or aux out or something like that.  i won't go into details on the drivers, but suffice to say all the rage you've probably heard on the internet about them isn't as much of an exaggeration as you would think.

unfortunately, i don't really know how many other options there are for high-end sound.  i keep hearing about the asus xonar, but those are almost all about gaming, and i have a hard time believing a general hardware company could put out something that truly rivals dedicated sound guys.  way back in the day turtle beach was a good alternative to creative, but last time i checked they are pretty much gone.

[pecenipicek]

, and damned if i know how you're supposed to get the 7.1 out of it, because it only has the 3 5.1 ports (gold, black, green

same as you did with the old audigy 2 zs too, the 3.5 mm jack that goes in the rear speaker port has 5 rings, and the cable has 5 leads. scratch that, i think its actually 4 rings on both the cable that goes to the subwoofer and 4 on the cable that goes to the rear speakers. in any case, its a convoluted mess at best. thing is, i dont remember if its universally supported by them speakers or only by creative's speakers...


[edit]have an image of what i mean:

[Nuke]

unless things have changed drastically recently, i would seriously look into a non-creative card.  from a pure hardware viewpoint, creative is very good.  my x-fi xtreme music sounds outstanding, noticeably better than the still quite good onboard sound through $70 logitech 5.1 speakers.  however, the software and features available from creative simply BLOW.  my card doesn't have front panel audio connections, digital out (but it has a ****ing gameport, wut?), and damned if i know how you're supposed to get the 7.1 out of it, because it only has the 3 5.1 ports (gold, black, green) plus a shared port that is either mic in or aux out or something like that.  i won't go into details on the drivers, but suffice to say all the rage you've probably heard on the internet about them isn't as much of an exaggeration as you would think.

unfortunately, i don't really know how many other options there are for high-end sound.  i keep hearing about the asus xonar, but those are almost all about gaming, and i have a hard time believing a general hardware company could put out something that truly rivals dedicated sound guys.  way back in the day turtle beach was a good alternative to creative, but last time i checked they are pretty much gone.

i dont think its a gameport. its the same general shape of a gameport but with more pins. its for an external box (sold separately of course) that has extra connectivity for professional audio. creative dropped the game port after audigy. theres also a proprietary header on the board for a 5.25" internal version of the breakout box.

same as you did with the old audigy 2 zs too, the 3.5 mm jack that goes in the rear speaker port has 5 rings, and the cable has 5 leads. scratch that, i think its actually 4 rings on both the cable that goes to the subwoofer and 4 on the cable that goes to the rear speakers. in any case, its a convoluted mess at best. thing is, i dont remember if its universally supported by them speakers or only by creative's speakers...

i kinda think the 4 ring minijack is becoming a defacto standard for computer speakers, and im sure adapter cables do exist (save money and get then 3rd party, me personally i make my own from junk).

[Grizzly]

I am quite happy with my X-Fi (whatever  version it is anyway... I don't get the feeling it matters all that much lately), but I recommend ignoring Nuke's advice and ditch the onboard device - It most likely does not support the later EAX versions, for example. Also, you can do great things with Creative's CMSS 3d function. If you have stereo headphones, but tell windows itself and every game and just about everything but the Creative sound driver that you have 7.1 speakers, you get excellent positional sound everywhere. With stereo headphones. Which is great.

[pecenipicek]

same as you did with the old audigy 2 zs too, the 3.5 mm jack that goes in the rear speaker port has 5 rings, and the cable has 5 leads. scratch that, i think its actually 4 rings on both the cable that goes to the subwoofer and 4 on the cable that goes to the rear speakers. in any case, its a convoluted mess at best. thing is, i dont remember if its universally supported by them speakers or only by creative's speakers...

i kinda think the 4 ring minijack is becoming a defacto standard for computer speakers, and im sure adapter cables do exist (save money and get then 3rd party, me personally i make my own from junk).

whoever said i'd ever buy that

salvaging stuff ftw.


except for transistors from dead fluo lamps. those are a ***** to get out of the PCB without frying their internals -.-

[Fury]

If you're looking for PCI-E sound card, look no further than Asus Xonar DX. Do note that good sound cards REQUIRE good speakers and/or headphones, otherwise you won't get their full potential. I would stay clear of Creative's sound cards.

[Flaser]

Frankly unless you *don't* have an S/PDIF on your on-board chipset, a soundcard is a waste of money. Even then, unless you're a musician who need MIDI capabilities (though nowadays things have moded to softsynths) you just want a basic card with an S/PDIF out.

Why? Because if you want a good sound system you're going to need a proper amplifier. Any modern amplifier will accept digital input at which point the D-A properties of your PC are absolutely moot. If all you have is a couple of low quality gaming speakers than getting a sound card won't make any difference. (...and frankly even the D-A quality of on-board chipsets are good enough for most people).

[LHN91]

If you're looking for PCI-E sound card, look no further than Asus Xonar DX. Do note that good sound cards REQUIRE good speakers and/or headphones, otherwise you won't get their full potential. I would stay clear of Creative's sound cards.

Agreed. I admit, I have a Creative card right now, but that's because I found a cache of Audigy2 Value cards for free. Well, that, and before that I bought a creative based store-brand card before I knew better. The Asus Xonar DX cards are absolutely wonderful though, and reasonably priced at that. (Read - cheaper than both of those Creative cards you listed, and outperforms or matches them as well) Look up some reviews, they're all glowing.

If you really want to spend that much on a card, again, go for any of the more expensive Asus cards. Each and every one of them gets excellent reviews and compares favourably with their Creative counterparts.

[Fury]

Frankly unless you *don't* have an S/PDIF on your on-board chipset, a soundcard is a waste of money.

Not quite. Onboard sound card still cannot achieve the audio quality and number of concurrent sounds that a discrete sound card can.

[pecenipicek]

Why? Because if you want a good sound system you're going to need a proper amplifier. Any modern amplifier will accept digital input at which point the D-A properties of your PC are absolutely moot. If all you have is a couple of low quality gaming speakers than getting a sound card won't make any difference. (...and frankly even the D-A quality of on-board chipsets are good enough for most people).

to be honest, a lot of people are going to notice the noisyness of integrated audio, which is hilariously enough, mostly evident when you're playing stuff a bit more on the silent side.



but honestly? is it worth shelving out $130 for a soundcard? no. not by a long shot. better invest that money in some better speakers/amplifiers. the only reason why i'm still using my old audigy 2 zs is due to the fact i got it for somewhere in the are of $5 and i'm using the kX drivers for ULTIMATE CUSTOMIZEABLENESSS!!!!11

yeah, psychosis and all that.

[Grizzly]

Yeah, basically what I was trying to say:
Just get a soundcard. It does not have to be an expensive one. THe simple existence of a sound card in your computer is well worth it.

it boosts performance too, by the way... On board uses your CPU. YOu also get less sound issues in games (due to the sound card being able to handle more concurrent sounds), and EAX. Having EAX in any game (Especially the older ones, be wary that you might need a bit of a workaround to get those to work with Windows 7, such as ALchemy) is highly, highly worth it IMO.

[pecenipicek]

do note that a ton of "discrete" sound cards are just **** that still uses your CPU for actual audio processing.

[Bobboau]

the one integrated into your motherboard.

[Klaustrophobia]

it boosts performance too, by the way... On board uses your CPU. YOu also get less sound issues in games (due to the sound card being able to handle more concurrent sounds), and EAX. Having EAX in any game (Especially the older ones, be wary that you might need a bit of a workaround to get those to work with Windows 7, such as ALchemy) is highly, highly worth it IMO.

well yeah theoretically it boosts performance by offloading sound from the CPU, but the effect is so miniscule it is unnoticeable and you can't really call it a performance boost.  and i find EAX in older games is fantastically ****.  in games like HALO and FS1 it sounds SO unnatural and, well, bad.  it's like when EAX was relatively new, all the developers went "oooooohhhh, shiny!" and just threw a ****load of audio effects in.  in fact even in newer games EAX doesn't sound all that great.  it screws up the audio balance in favor of kicking quiet sounds and basses WAY up (like footsteps or heartbeats).  i've learned to just leave my creative drivers in music playback mode all the time, which IIRC disables some of the EAX stuff.  but shooting a rifle sounds like shooting a rifle again. 

[Turambar]

I like my Asus Xonar D2X.  It sounds pretty good, but i have it connected to a good receiver and good speakers, so i couldnt tell you what it will sound like with regular damn speakers.

[Mikes]

I like my Asus Xonar D2X.  It sounds pretty good, but i have it connected to a good receiver and good speakers, so i couldnt tell you what it will sound like with regular damn speakers.

Connected digitally/via optical cable? Then as far as I know, you are using the receivers hardware to decode the digital signal from your computer, not the soundcard, and could as well have plugged it into your onboard sound without possibly being able to hear a difference, right ?

[Turambar]

nope, i have 4 stereo cables going from my sound card, behind my tv, connected to stereo -> red/white cables which go to the analog inputs on the receiver.

Finding a receiver with 7.1 analog inputs was pretty tough.  Seems like everyone wants to just throw on optical and HDMI and be done with it.

[MP-Ryan]

unfortunately, i don't really know how many other options there are for high-end sound.  i keep hearing about the asus xonar, but those are almost all about gaming, and i have a hard time believing a general hardware company could put out something that truly rivals dedicated sound guys.  way back in the day turtle beach was a good alternative to creative, but last time i checked they are pretty much gone.

Repeat after me:

Auzentech, Auzentech, Auzentech.

Dedicated sound card manufacturer.  They use Creative chips on their own boards, and write their own drivers.  And they're reasonably priced.  I have an Auzentech Prelude 7.1 and the sound output is incredible.  http://www.auzentech.com/site/company/about.php