Upgrading Sound Card....

[DigitalSoul]

So I have a Sound Blaster Live! Mp3+ 5.1 card that got back in 2001. I've stuck with that card since and now I've thinking its time to upgrade. At the time I got the SBLive! I was in high-school, working and had some money to burn.....but now, not so much.

I spend more time listening to music than I do playing games on my computer. However, I wouldn't want to get anything that hampers gaming performance even though most of my games aren't new(Tomb Raider - Anniversary is the most recent game I have).

I looked at some of the audio cards out there and some of the prices are a little intimidating...the creative cards especially. Their cheapest one being the xtreme audio.
I've looked at other brands like diamond and turtle beach, but I'm not too sure.

What do you guys recommend?

 

[Rainbow Man]

Creative is the only manufacturer offering hardware acceleration for audio these days. So if you can't afford one of the X-Fi series (which are very nice I have to say) then you're better off sticking with your Live if performance is your concern.

There's probably going to be a lot of cards out there today that offer greater sound fidelity than a Live - I don't think the Live series was ever a top-notch performer in that respect - but then again most people probably don't have the speaker system neccessary to hear any major difference.

So you can pick and choose - stick with the Live or pay/waste some money for a card that gives high-fidelity sound but (slightly) worse performance. Or save/waste even more money for a X-Fi which gives better fidelity sound than Live and offers better acceleration features too.

Really.. Sound doesn't move all that quickly and now after MS dumped hardware acceleration support in Vista it'll move even slower.

If you only play older titles and don't have much money I see little reason for you to upgrade unless you're somewhat of an audiophile and want something that sounds really great..

Peace.

 

[Blazkowicz]

did you try the KXdriver? no more EAX (I've yet to miss it) but more focus on quality ; front and rear speaker outputs are swapped so that you get better quality if you're only doing stereo (DAC with a better signal/noise ratio for the rear output)

 

[willardjuice]

If you don't have high quality speakers, get the XtremeGamer. If you have higher quality speakers, get the X-Prelude. Stay away from the extreme audio (it does not have a hardware DSP, everything is done through software).

 

[DigitalSoul]

Thanks for the feedback guys. One of the computer stores in my area is selling an XtremeGamer for $96.89(Canadian) which isn't too bad. I'm going to go with that one.