teh_google_saber

what is the latest (creative) sound card to hit the market? is it any good?

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Enko

i think its the audigy 4. audigy 2 should be fine for most people.

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teh_google_saber

thanks. audigy 4 does sound cool. was there ever a 3?

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gorked

No, Creative skipped the three and went to the four, which is basically a two with a little better sound.

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Wordbiker

Just wanted to mention...

teh_google, you list your system specs as "not-pimp". I have several systems with a lot less spec than that, and they're very useful rigs. Pimp isn't about what hardware you have, but about what you do with it. That said, looks like with a GPU and RAM upgrade (if you have the AGP slot necessary), you'd have yourself a better rig than most that I see at our monthly LANs (pwned by guys that pwn me ).

The sound card is an item I usually pass by. My house is small and I can only play so loud (and my gaming is done with headphones) so onboard sound has always been fine for me. With an Audigy4 priced at around $230-280, I'd rather put that money into CPU, GPU, storage or other upgrades. If music is your thang, then by all means...invest it in a great sound card and speakers. The rest of your system should be fine.

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Enko

the audigy 4 is also mainly for people who do some sound editing on their computer since its got a lot of different inputs and outputs. if you actually look at the specs for the sound card itself (not the external module), you'll notice its pretty much the same as the audigy 2's specs. unless you're into sound editing, i woudl just go with a audigy 2 zs. platinum comes with a 5.25" front panel that i haven't really found a use for yet though i think i can plug my console sound into it and the console video into my 2005fpw so i can play games.

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JCoyote

I wish someone would come up with a PCI Express x1 soundcard already. Legacy PCI just never melded that well with sound applications. I know guys in the sound processing world who use USB and even old ISA setups.

Anyway, getting to market first with a PCI Express soundcard could be the one chance for a different company to grab significant market share from Creative. It might be the last chance.

teh_google_saber

i see PCI Express x1 slots as just fillers on current PCI-X motherboards.

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JCoyote

Quote: Originally Posted by teh_google_saber i see PCI Express x1 slots as just fillers on current PCI-X motherboards.

Yeah, well, my mobo is covered with those slick high-performance "fillers", each with its dedicated individual bandwidth running faster than an entire legacy PCI bus. All the big PCI slots on your computer put together can't handle the data rate of 1 little tiny PCI Express x1 "filler" slot. And I have 2 of them, or 3 if I don't go SLI. Hardly filler. I wouldn't be surprised in 18 months to see many new mobos have no legacy PCI slots, or maybe 1. They are going to be unnecessary, and add extra complication and cost to manufacturing. Same thing with PCI Express x1 cards, they are cheaper to make than legacy PCI... fewer connectors, fewer lines to run on the circuit board...

There isn't really a need to go beyond x1 for most sound applications, and even if someone did go x2, the scalability of PCI Express would mean you could snap a jumper onto the excess length of the x2 card to run it to another x1 slot, to use two x1 slots to make an x2. Sounds crazy, but the logic of the specification allows it.

ANYWAY. It's past time Creative's stranglehold on the sound market was broken. I used to be a strong supporter of theirs, but after the issue with the Ensoniq mess and their generally mediocre drivers and all... I think some strong competition would be good for Creative, and good for all sound enthusiats as well. Creative has signs of being a complacent monopoly... they need competition to light a fire under them.

Enko

isn't pci-x different from pci-express?

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JCoyote

Quote: Originally Posted by Enko isn't pci-x different from pci-express?

Yes, but I assumed they meant PCI-Express by it.

Rhaine

pci-x refers to the slots used to connect some peripherals to the mobo and send the data , pci-e is much faster in data transmition (i think that was rite, correct me if i am wrong)

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CyberTech

I've been looking at the Audigy 2 ZS with Internal I/O panel for a while. Most of the time I listen to music with headphones while on my computer. So I guess my main question is for those few times that I don't will it work well with decent speakers and MP3's with a good bit rate?

I'm a pretty big music geek and I want to put all of my music onto a specially made music rig. When it comes to stereos and speakers and the like I am pretty clueless. So if that is the best way to go or if there might be something better you would suggest please let me know. I'm open to all options. Thanks

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MLiV

that new soundcard over at frozencpu looks sweet

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Belgianwaffles

if i were you i'd wait untill the new x-fi architecture comes out. it'll be the first substancial increase in pc audio performance in nearly a decade!

heres link http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1813855,00.asp

all those other cards will pale in comparison to this monsterous new audio chipset

it will have 11 times the transistors of current cards as well as 8x the logic gates and a double the clock frequency.

it will sport an amazing 24.4 times increase in processing power over current top of the line cards!

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Dex

I want one already, im a pretty big audiophile, so that would be mega-sweet in a custom built audio rig