Who here has a x-fi soundcard

**MIG-31** · Oct 15, 2005, 02:27 PM

I have just upgraded from a audigy 2 platinum to a X-FI Extreme Music edition sound card.

Who has a x-fi card and do you think it is a top quality card.

Raptor · Oct 15, 2005, 07:37 PM

Gonna get the X-fi Fatal1ty FPS model. It has the headphone enhancements I've been looking for. It's a tad expensive ($279) but I've always wanted a front panel control element on my rig and the gaming experience using headphones is supposed to be awesome.

OldBear · Oct 15, 2005, 11:05 PM

My first Creative Card since the Live. Replaced my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz with the X-Fi Platnium. I love my Santa Cruz but the X-Fi absolutely lays it to rest. I have Sony MDR-V600 headphones and the performance in games and MP3 is excellent! I am very pleased.

Tipstaff · Oct 16, 2005, 03:02 AM

Has anyone had the same problem described in the Inquirer article about the X-Fi not working with older DTS speakers? The article describes how the X-Fi won't work with Creatives own DTT3500 speakers, but goes onto say that other older DTS speaker sets won't work, and that the problem lies with the digital interface that Creative have used on the X-Fi. This article essentially echoes a number of complaints I've heard on the net, as well as from one of my customers.

rico01 · Oct 16, 2005, 09:28 PM

Elite Pro here. Love it, except for some software implementations that I'm not fond of.

Hosscrop · Oct 16, 2005, 10:07 PM

I have the Fatal1ty Edition and yes its great but not for games as it crashes on the 3 I have tried it on. The crash is the same on them all.
Half Life 2 which I have previously finished will start but within 5 minutes of playing will turn off my picture making the monitor enter standby mode with a sample of sound stuttering like a stuck record then after 5 seconds the picture will come back on and then another 5 seconds or so and its locked completely with no picture or sound. The classic 3 finger shuffle will not reset the PC only the button on the case.
Thought it might be just HL2 but same with F.E.A.R demo and also with Pariah demo. All installed into XP Pro with SP2 and latest drivers all round. Tried 5.9 Cat and 5.10 Cat but I don`t suspect Ati is at fault. I am running in Game Mode for sound or make that "No Games At All" all mode.
I am not asking for help just waiting for a new driver set from Creative - soon would be nice though!
Remember the little cable for CD audio - well you won`t need one for the X-Fi series as it plays through the ribbon, pity the games don`t.

Sys Spec.
P4 3.6
2Gig Corsair DDR2 5400 (2 x 1024 TWINX)
NEC 3500 DVD-RW
2 Off 250G W.D. SATA hard drives
Cherry Keyboard
Logitech MX518 Gaming Mouse
Enermax Noisetaker 600W PSU
Asus P5AD2-E Premium MOBO
Zalman CNPS7000 Heat Sink/Fan
Asus AX800 XT 256Mb Graphics

With Onboard sound I finished HL2 before Xmas with no problems at all, but not now. Then again I have a new graphics card now and the drivers are somewhat newer. Before you ask yes this is a fresh install of Windows and yes it is completely up to date with patches and latest drivers.

xtp183 · Oct 18, 2005, 08:25 PM

2 questions:

How fat are the x-fi drivers? (in comparison with YouP Audigy drivers)
Are there [going to be] any YouP X-Fi drivers?

Richie-b · Oct 18, 2005, 08:43 PM

I've just ordered a X-Fi extreme music, hopefully arriving tomorrow, upgrading from an audigy.
Will let you all kow of any problems

Hosscrop · Oct 18, 2005, 08:49 PM

If you mean just the drivers then they are downloadable from Creative.com at 21.9Mb and the Audigy 2 ones equivalent are 24.99Mb or did you mean the whole installation?

1. Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series driver 2.07.0003 (21.87 MB) 22 Aug 05 - off the Creative website.

I actually didn`t install the whole lot as I don`t want the media player and all the other stuff. Perhaps I should have!

I will install all the other stuff tomorrow night and get back to you. I was led to believe it was running in at over a gig from the reviews.

Steve

GeneralClaymore · Oct 19, 2005, 04:35 AM

i dont have one but i am planing to get a elite pro in the future so i can stop having to hook my guitar to the back of the comp with its short cable and to stop using a big RCA jack to a mono mini rca jack thing that i found in the house.

beside the fact that i use my comp for gaming too so the other part of it will do me good.

xtp183 · Oct 19, 2005, 08:17 AM

Yeah - I'm talking about just the drivers without the software.

Ok, the X-Fi doesn't doesn't that fat.. now I just gotta find a page which details how to surgically remove the LED.

Sandok · Oct 19, 2005, 08:51 AM

I have an audigy 2 and even though it'd be a good upgrade, it ain't worth it for me.

Hosscrop · Oct 19, 2005, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xtp183

Yeah - I'm talking about just the drivers without the software.

Ok, the X-Fi doesn't doesn't that fat.. now I just gotta find a page which details how to surgically remove the LED.

The cheapest X-Fi card doesn`t have the LED as it has no XRAM but the Fatal1ty card sure does. Good job my trusty old Coolermaster case doesn`t have a glass side panel.

Full installation with all programs installed is a 378Mb Creative folder and who knows how many other miscellaneous files in the Windows folder.

gangsterant16 · Oct 19, 2005, 08:26 PM

i have the X-fi Fatal1ty FPS model and its freaking awesome i love it and will never ever let it go i upgraded from a audigy 2 and defitnetly felt it improve excepscealy game wise battlefield 2 never felt faster or clearer it sounds like im in a actual battfield well that was when i at least i have a graphics card....***sigh***

Chaosophy · Oct 20, 2005, 01:46 AM

Voted Yes!

Recently upgraded to the Elite Pro and I'm loving it. But I was previously running the mobo's on board Via AC'97 do-da so if I didn't hear a big improvement i would've been worried.

I was just going to get the FPS edition but I didn't really have room for a front panel with out removing the one I already have and I didn't want to lose it. Plus the wiring into the front panel looked annoying. The Pro's break out box has a little stand to stand vertically (like the PS2) and now stands nicely next to my monitor (even matches the silver frame

) With the optical and co-ax wiring not getting in the way and fairly tidy down the back.

Not totatly convinced it is worth the money if budget is an issue but luckily I had a lump of cash to burn, redundancy after losing my job

, so i thought I'd treat myself.

I do agree with the comment above though about the software not being the best but I'm sure that'll improve with customer feed back. PC is probably up for a rebuild soon so i installed the whole lot to decied what i need and don't.

xtp183 · Oct 20, 2005, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hosscrop

The cheapest X-Fi card doesn`t have the LED as it has no XRAM but the Fatal1ty card sure does. Good job my trusty old Coolermaster case doesn`t have a glass side panel.

Full installation with all programs installed is a 378Mb Creative folder and who knows how many other miscellaneous files in the Windows folder.

Thanks for that. I think I'll get an A2, then in a few years time, a X-fi.

Lakevren · Oct 20, 2005, 03:18 PM

Actually, the cheapest X-Fi has 2mb of XRAM. The 2 most expensive models have 64mb.

xtp183 · Oct 20, 2005, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lakevren

Actually, the cheapest X-Fi has 2mb of XRAM. The 2 most expensive models have 64mb.

From Guru3D

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guru3D

For those who are wondering, yes this board has some RAM on it but it is not the X-RAM. A few users have reported that their X-Fi's have the X-RAM but this one does not. It is a simple Samsung 2 Mb RAM chip onboard. If your X-Fi memory says MT on it, then you have the X-RAM.

Lakevren · Oct 20, 2005, 04:21 PM

So... what exactly is the difference between "X-Ram" and Ram?

Oct 15, 2005, 02:27 PM	#1
MIG-31 HardwareHeaven News Mod Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Nottingham,UK Posts: 56,810 Rep Power: 471 System Specs	Who here has a x-fi soundcard I have just upgraded from a audigy 2 platinum to a X-FI Extreme Music edition sound card. Who has a x-fi card and do you think it is a top quality card. __________________ Please Post Your News Submissions Here

Oct 15, 2005, 07:37 PM	#2
Raptor DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: California USA Posts: 464 Rep Power: 0	Gonna get the X-fi Fatal1ty FPS model. It has the headphone enhancements I've been looking for. It's a tad expensive ($279) but I've always wanted a front panel control element on my rig and the gaming experience using headphones is supposed to be awesome. __________________ [COLOR=Green][COLOR=DarkOrange] P4C-800 DELUXE/P4 3.4 NORTHWOOD/2 GB CORSAIR PC3200/X850XTPE/2 300 GB MAXTOR HD'S/LOGITECH G5/LOGITECH Z-5500/CREATIVE XFI EXTREME MUSIC/MS 4000 KEYBOARD/Vizio VX37L HDTV/Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD and Toshiba HD-XA1/Oppo HV970HD SACD/DVD-A universal player/Xbox 360/Sony PS3. [/COLOR][/COLOR]

Oct 15, 2005, 11:05 PM	#3
OldBear DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Oklahoma City, USA Posts: 37 Rep Power: 0	My first Creative Card since the Live. Replaced my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz with the X-Fi Platnium. I love my Santa Cruz but the X-Fi absolutely lays it to rest. I have Sony MDR-V600 headphones and the performance in games and MP3 is excellent! I am very pleased. __________________ [color=Yellow]Athlon64 X2 4800+ Toledo @ 2.7GHz[color=Red] ~ [/color][/color][color=Lime]ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe [/color][color=Yellow] Thermalright SI-120 Scythe120mm 1600 RPM[color=Red] ~[/color] [/color][color=Lime]Corsair XMS-3500LL PRO 2GB memory kit[/color] [color=Yellow] 2-WD Raptors 150 and 74gig[color=Red] ~[/color][/color][color=Lime] Barracuda 7200.8 SATA NCQ 300gig[/color] [color=Yellow] OCZ PowerStream 600W PSU [color=Red]~[/color][/color][color=Lime] EVGA 7900GTX[/color] [color=Yellow] Logitech MX-1000 Mouse[color=Red] ~[/color] [/color][color=Lime]ViewSonic VP191b[/color] [color=Yellow] Creative X-Fi Platinum[color=Red] ~ [/color][/color][color=Lime]MicroSoft 4000 Keyboard[/color] [color=Yellow] CoolerMaster Stacker Case [color=Red]~[/color][/color][color=Lime] Klipsch THX 2.1 speakers[/color]

Oct 16, 2005, 03:02 AM	#4
Tipstaff HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Real capital of Canada: Torauna Posts: 6,773 Rep Power: 190 System Specs	Has anyone had the same problem described in the Inquirer article about the X-Fi not working with older DTS speakers? The article describes how the X-Fi won't work with Creatives own DTT3500 speakers, but goes onto say that other older DTS speaker sets won't work, and that the problem lies with the digital interface that Creative have used on the X-Fi. This article essentially echoes a number of complaints I've heard on the net, as well as from one of my customers. __________________ Portal: The Flash Version _________________________________ Brain: So, you sacked the cocky khaki Kicky Sack sock plucker? Mr. Sackett: The second cocky khaki Kicky Sack sock plucker I've sacked since the sixth sitting sheet slitter got sick.

Oct 16, 2005, 09:28 PM	#5
rico01 Audio Junkie Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 126 Rep Power: 0	Elite Pro here. Love it, except for some software implementations that I'm not fond of. __________________ My middle-name is Audiophile.

Oct 16, 2005, 10:07 PM	#6
Hosscrop DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Staffordshire / England Posts: 51 Rep Power: 0	I have the Fatal1ty Edition and yes its great but not for games as it crashes on the 3 I have tried it on. The crash is the same on them all. Half Life 2 which I have previously finished will start but within 5 minutes of playing will turn off my picture making the monitor enter standby mode with a sample of sound stuttering like a stuck record then after 5 seconds the picture will come back on and then another 5 seconds or so and its locked completely with no picture or sound. The classic 3 finger shuffle will not reset the PC only the button on the case. Thought it might be just HL2 but same with F.E.A.R demo and also with Pariah demo. All installed into XP Pro with SP2 and latest drivers all round. Tried 5.9 Cat and 5.10 Cat but I don`t suspect Ati is at fault. I am running in Game Mode for sound or make that "No Games At All" all mode. I am not asking for help just waiting for a new driver set from Creative - soon would be nice though! Remember the little cable for CD audio - well you won`t need one for the X-Fi series as it plays through the ribbon, pity the games don`t. Sys Spec. P4 3.6 2Gig Corsair DDR2 5400 (2 x 1024 TWINX) NEC 3500 DVD-RW 2 Off 250G W.D. SATA hard drives Cherry Keyboard Logitech MX518 Gaming Mouse Enermax Noisetaker 600W PSU Asus P5AD2-E Premium MOBO Zalman CNPS7000 Heat Sink/Fan Asus AX800 XT 256Mb Graphics With Onboard sound I finished HL2 before Xmas with no problems at all, but not now. Then again I have a new graphics card now and the drivers are somewhat newer. Before you ask yes this is a fresh install of Windows and yes it is completely up to date with patches and latest drivers.

Oct 18, 2005, 08:25 PM	#7
xtp183 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 15 Rep Power: 0	2 questions: How fat are the x-fi drivers? (in comparison with YouP Audigy drivers) Are there [going to be] any YouP X-Fi drivers?

Oct 18, 2005, 08:43 PM	#8
Richie-b In the corner Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: In the corner Posts: 106 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	I've just ordered a X-Fi extreme music, hopefully arriving tomorrow, upgrading from an audigy. Will let you all kow of any problems

Oct 18, 2005, 08:49 PM	#9
Hosscrop DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Staffordshire / England Posts: 51 Rep Power: 0	If you mean just the drivers then they are downloadable from Creative.com at 21.9Mb and the Audigy 2 ones equivalent are 24.99Mb or did you mean the whole installation? 1. Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series driver 2.07.0003 (21.87 MB) 22 Aug 05 - off the Creative website. I actually didn`t install the whole lot as I don`t want the media player and all the other stuff. Perhaps I should have! I will install all the other stuff tomorrow night and get back to you. I was led to believe it was running in at over a gig from the reviews. Steve

Oct 19, 2005, 04:35 AM	#10
GeneralClaymore HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: MI Posts: 434 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	i dont have one but i am planing to get a elite pro in the future so i can stop having to hook my guitar to the back of the comp with its short cable and to stop using a big RCA jack to a mono mini rca jack thing that i found in the house. beside the fact that i use my comp for gaming too so the other part of it will do me good. __________________ Source: x-fi titanium hd 2x LT1124ACN+ 2x LT1115 > Matrix M-Stage V2 /w 2x LME49710NA> DT880 pro 250ohm

Oct 19, 2005, 08:17 AM	#11
xtp183 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 15 Rep Power: 0	Yeah - I'm talking about just the drivers without the software. Ok, the X-Fi doesn't doesn't that fat.. now I just gotta find a page which details how to surgically remove the LED.

Oct 19, 2005, 08:51 AM	#12
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,472 Rep Power: 0	I have an audigy 2 and even though it'd be a good upgrade, it ain't worth it for me.

Oct 19, 2005, 08:26 PM	#14
gangsterant16 The tRu NigGa tO CoME 2 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: New Jersey Posts: 153 Rep Power: 0	i have the X-fi Fatal1ty FPS model and its freaking awesome i love it and will never ever let it go i upgraded from a audigy 2 and defitnetly felt it improve excepscealy game wise battlefield 2 never felt faster or clearer it sounds like im in a actual battfield well that was when i at least i have a graphics card....*sigh* __________________ AMD Athlon(tm) 64 3700+ 2.4ghz(san diego) Asus Av8 motherboard revision 2 i think lol Ati Radeon x800pro Default Clock 1.5 gigs of corsair xms 3200 (2sticks of 256 and 2 of 512) Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatality Logitech 680's (1000 watts max)! 80gig sata seagate hard drive and a 100gig wd "main hd' dvd drive, dvd burner 520 watt OKIA psu(suck ass psu!)

Oct 20, 2005, 01:46 AM	#15
Chaosophy DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: London, England Posts: 41 Rep Power: 0	Voted Yes! Recently upgraded to the Elite Pro and I'm loving it. But I was previously running the mobo's on board Via AC'97 do-da so if I didn't hear a big improvement i would've been worried. I was just going to get the FPS edition but I didn't really have room for a front panel with out removing the one I already have and I didn't want to lose it. Plus the wiring into the front panel looked annoying. The Pro's break out box has a little stand to stand vertically (like the PS2) and now stands nicely next to my monitor (even matches the silver frame ) With the optical and co-ax wiring not getting in the way and fairly tidy down the back. Not totatly convinced it is worth the money if budget is an issue but luckily I had a lump of cash to burn, redundancy after losing my job , so i thought I'd treat myself. I do agree with the comment above though about the software not being the best but I'm sure that'll improve with customer feed back. PC is probably up for a rebuild soon so i installed the whole lot to decied what i need and don't.

Oct 20, 2005, 03:18 PM	#17
Lakevren MedicalEntropy Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: New Jersey Posts: 294 Rep Power: 0	Actually, the cheapest X-Fi has 2mb of XRAM. The 2 most expensive models have 64mb. __________________ [COLOR=darkorange][COLOR=SeaGreen]Opteron 170 @ 2500 MHZ (In Need of Better HSF)[/COLOR] [/COLOR] [COLOR=darkorange][COLOR=Yellow]DFI LanParty UT SLI-DR Expert[/COLOR] [/COLOR] [COLOR=red]HIS IceQ3 X1900XT @ 680/785 [COLOR=YellowGreen]Corsair XMS Pro DDR 400 1GB[/COLOR][/COLOR] [COLOR=royalblue]CoolerMaster WaveMaster Case[/COLOR]

Oct 20, 2005, 04:21 PM	#19
Lakevren MedicalEntropy Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: New Jersey Posts: 294 Rep Power: 0	So... what exactly is the difference between "X-Ram" and Ram? __________________ [COLOR=darkorange][COLOR=SeaGreen]Opteron 170 @ 2500 MHZ (In Need of Better HSF)[/COLOR] [/COLOR] [COLOR=darkorange][COLOR=Yellow]DFI LanParty UT SLI-DR Expert[/COLOR] [/COLOR] [COLOR=red]HIS IceQ3 X1900XT @ 680/785 [COLOR=YellowGreen]Corsair XMS Pro DDR 400 1GB[/COLOR][/COLOR] [COLOR=royalblue]CoolerMaster WaveMaster Case[/COLOR]