Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

[[dwg]Quank]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

I got my patinum today, (after bitching about having to pay for front panel access).

MY TIP TO ALL: Avoid the AOL issues and crash issues by NEVER using the install CD. ALL I installed was the updated drivers from Creative. I'm missing some of the software that the rest of you have, but I have the Creative Control Panel and the drivers. I have a VERY clean install. Best yet, I launched BF2, selected Ultra High, Hardware, EAX, etc and it worked the first time. No errors, no crashes, no distorted sound. My degree is in broadcasting w. an emphasis in sound recording. You guys can kick my butt in BF2 and on PC Hardware, but I know what decent sound is.

Jofaba, you need to join PC Upgraders Annonymous!!! Every subject I look into, be it motherboards, ram, video cards, power supplies, sound cards, etc - has you all over it! :) Thanks for the good posts.

[Jofaba]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

Jofaba, you need to join PC Upgraders Annonymous!!! Every subject I look into, be it motherboards, ram, video cards, power supplies, sound cards, etc - has you all over it! :) Thanks for the good posts.

Heh, and the funny part is that I've only "been into computers" for about half a year. Thanks, I'm glad that people enjoy my posts =)

Glad to hear everything went well for you. I've thought of just installing the control panel too. I'll see how my PSU upgrade goes, and if the problem persists I'll give that a try.

[N2K]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

Realize that you must plug your headphones into the speaker out on the SOUND card. If you plug into the front of your computer or volume knob or any other input, it wont work. If you plug into any of those things, and hear stuff, then you forgot to shut off your onboard sound which might cause problems with sound quality while using the sound card. Let us know how it works out for you.

I bought a line splitter, and turn of speaks when i use headphones.

The settings that i have on, work perfect for game and music. World around the game now comes alive, and when flying jets the sound of jet isnt as loud and it sounds more real and alive.

[Jofaba]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

Whelp, got my new power supply today, and unfortunately it hasn't fixed the problem. The supply kicks butt though. I'll post pics later =P

Anyway, that leaves me with two possabilities left.

1) Will have to do a reinstall of everything with the new hardware attached. So after I run out to get some beer, I'm going to come home and do a complete reinstall of Windows. Then, all my games. Then, we'll see what happens. I'm pretty sure that whatever the problem is, it's fixable because whenever I uninstall and reinstall the drivers, the problem goes away for a day or two. But when it comes back, it comes back like the devil. Screaching, squealing, shreiking. I was going to record it but couldn't get it to do it when I wanted it to. If I do get a recording, I'll definately link to it in this thread. Wish me luck, and have a great weekend y'all.

[TrueCanadian]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

awsome, thanks for all the posts
i need to upgrade

i have an Onboard Realtek POS 97, ive had HUGE issues with drivers and HL2
so i want to upgrade

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 @ $35.99
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic @ $136.99

im just wondering if i will notice a big enough diffrence to warrent the price?

whenever i see one of thoes stunt videos that people make of BF2 i always notice extra sounds and helicopter and background noise that i never hear on my own system.

[DieFledermaus]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

Go with the extreme music. Although you will have to pay more itll be worth the upgrade. Best sound card i invested in. In BF2 i can use ultra high and select creative X-FI.

[[dwg]Quank]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

You'll notice the most when you're in tunnels or warehouses. Like in Kubra Dam in the tunnel with a chopper... drool... basically, all it does is add nice reverb that still has detail. I still say go for 2GB of RAM first - you'll get more benefit from it. This is NOT a performance upgrade in terms of lag or FPS. It's "ear candy". You can get the Audigy 2 Value on Newegg.com for $45.00 + 4.99 shipping or the X-Fi Xtreme Music for $121.99 + 6.00 shipping.

I got my Platinum for $179 with free shipping. The xTreme Music goes for $115 + free shipping on Amazon as well.

Amazon is really good about returns. I signed up for their free trial of 2nd-day free delivery (and will cancel after 2 months to avoid a yearly fee). The free trial was great for Christmas shopping, etc. But even without signing up, you get free "slow" shipping.

[Jofaba]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

Here's some ear candy for you =P

I managed to catch a recording of the sound card acting up while playing BF2 online today. Usually it's just a crackling/popping sound, like poor radio reception, but every once in a while it just goes haywire. I recorded this on my cellphone (using a voice recorder program). Everything you hear is distortion and not supposed to be heard. I was in a helicoptor. The sound that you might think is the helicoptor ISNT. I couldn't hear any actual gameplay sounds (not even when the enemy locked on me). Also, my fps went from about 50 to 15. Without further ado, here's the High Quality ear candy of an X-FI Xtreme Music doing it's thang:

Jofaba.com/x/xfi.wav

[xolinlevh]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

i had just a random question about the x-fi series, i wanna get one and im looking at the X-Fi Elite Pro (top one) but sence im a huge gamer the Fatal1ty FPS one also cought my eye, do i get any big advantage from getting the gaming one rather then the top end one? im thinking that the top end one includes all the features of the gaming one...plus a few more, is that correct?

[[dwg]Quank]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

My understanding is that the top end one is tailored to people who record music.

[Flanker]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

The XtremeMusic and Fatal1ty are the only ones worth buying if you're a gamer. The Fatal1ty is only for seriously rich people because it doesn't really give that much more performance for the price.

The Elite is only for Sound specialists, or those that do Sound recording, as mentioned above.

Even if you're on a relatively large budget ($1500-$2000) I would still recommend the X-Fi XtremeMusic. The Fatal1ty has the X-RAM, basically specially tailored [for sound] RAM that helps slightly. But if you have that big of a budget, you won't need to offload the work to anything but your normal PC.

[Jofaba]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

Xtreme music has 2mb of Xram. It's actually hard to find that out because Creative is apparently keeping that information fairly backseat in order to boost interest in the more expensive boards. Customer service told me it was 8mb but the number I see most often online is 2mb. Regardless, hardly any application is coded to use xram and since it's patented technology, it'll most likely fall wayward the direction of Betamax; ie, no one will bother with it. But memory on a sound card isn't hard to imagine being common design in a few years time. Really not worth the extra 80-100 dollars though. Nor is the front panel unless you actually plan to use it. Waste of a perfectly good bay. If you ask me (which none of you really did =P)

[imported_Wreck]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

I recall reading 2 and 8mb of Xram also....

[Jofaba]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

Copy and pasted from another thread of mine, but relevant to this thread as well:

UPDATE:

1) Apparently VIA's Hyperion drivers don't update so well. Turns out my AGP driver was a 2001 Windows default. I haven't seen any peformance increase in doing a manual update, but it was an eye opener as to how my driver management is being handled by the computer.

2) I unclocked my entire PC... for the week. I was suprise to see BF2 peforming without a single frame loss per second. However, even though I was able to game for 4+ hours last night, my sound collapsed into an orchestra of mayhem again today.

3) My northbridge isn't hot, but might be overworked. However my southbridge doesn't even have a heat sink and is VERY VERY hot. Yes. This is the first time I've known about the existance of my physical southbridge. Bite me.

4) Looking at heatsinks, cpu and chipst both. I'll probably get one of these for both my north and south bridge ( clips removed for south and adhesive used instead of screws):

http://xoxide.com/zachco.html

And this for my cpu (after I've measured my case and figured out if it's only compatible with Opteron 939, or any AMD 64 939):

http://xoxide.com/scythe-scnj-1000-ninja-cooler.html

5) That cpu heatsink means a new case mode (removing handle area of door and replacing acrylic) to showcase the mod, which also means replacing the rest of my stock wiring with after market sexy rounded cables etc. Thank god I finally got a decent job.

6) I still have not gotten tired of troubleshooting my own computer yet.

7) Night.

[Hairstylist]

Re: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

Hello everybody !

Is this soundcard any good ?

http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.asp?sku=312204&cks=SPC

Thanks for any help