upgrading sound card

[Jonesy]

hey my next buy is going to be a new sound card and speakers maybe a 5.1 setup as 7.1 is too much for my little computer room and probably too many wires.

Anyway made up my mind probably gonna get the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS card.

I like the fact its comes with the internal drive so that i can plug my headset into the front instead of going to the back of the computer to unplug speakers and plug headset in, plus should make the games sound better and run a tad better as well.

Anyway anyone got one, what speaker setup would you recommend for under 150 quid?

Thanks

 

[Martin_172]

ive got a creative sound blaster X-Fi Extreme Music and it sounds amazing, so much better than the Nvidia SoundStorm i was previously using.

speakers wise it depends what your doing, if its just music then get yourself a hi-fi amp and speakers from ebay, will sound 5x better and i mean a totaly different league if you get good stuff.

ive got a NAD C 320BEE stereo amp (2x50watts rms) £180 from richersounds but could probably get one for about £75 on ebay leaving you with just enough for some good speakers. ive got B&W DM601 S3s which wont fit into your price range but you could probably get 601 S2's cheap on ebay

 

[Jonesy]

hey, i use the pc for playing games, mp3's and the occasional film not sure i wanna spend too much on top speakers, im used to onboard ac97 sound and 2 speakers and a sub.

Do i really need to get an amp, i was thinking along the lines of this http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=4&subcategory=461&product=10814 or similar.

Just read about the Logitech Z-680 they sound wicked might have to get them but at 180 quid dunno if its worth it.

what ya think

 

[Dink]

make sure you get the X-Fi

i've got my X-Fi eXtreme music connected to my cambridge audio and mordaunt's and it sounds sweet as

and got a back up set of logitech z-2200 connected if i want to have ringing in my ears

 

[wozzaa]

i have the X-Fi fatality card myself cracking bit of kit. I got better fps in BF2 just changing to it plus the ability to get better sound from the game.

For £150 i dont think you can go wrong with the logitech speakers. Theres always creatives 7.1 speakers as well which i have heard and were not bad.

Im after a set of the creative gigaworks speakers myself when i have some extra cash but just been throwing money into my car at the moment instead.

 

[Martin_172]

yep going for the X-Fi will increase your FPS as it takes the sound processing load of the CPU

 

[Darren S]

Yep, I've got the X-Fi Fatal1ty as well. If you can stretch your budget to this or the Elite Pro model, it's worth it as each of these cards has the 64MB X-Ram onboard, whereas the Xtreme Music and Platinum versions don't.

I got mine for the sole intention of improving Battlefield 2. The difference in that is particularly impressive and I've noticed an improvement in framerates across the board. I've seen improvements in framerate (and obvious audio clarity) in....

• UT2004
• Battlefield 2
• GTR
• Rome : Total War
• Silent Hunter III

There's probably a few more, but I can only think of these for now!

Oh, and a final point. CD music and MP3s now seem to sound far more richer too.

D.

 

[Jonesy]

ya im def getting the fps edition this has the 64 meg onbaord ram, still undecided on speakers, ive never played any game with surround sound before, probably be well weird!

 

[wozzaa]

and very good would hate to go back to 2.1 sound now.