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Onboard or?

post #1 of 5
9/28/11 at 9:58pm
Thread Starter 

I no longer have room in my computer case for my Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD so im sending it back for a refund,

 

Should i order something like this, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102032

i can spend $120 max, or stay onboard with Realtek ALC889.

 

I use modded Sennheiser hd555's, and i only game, i dont really watch many movies or listen to music on my pc.

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post #2 of 5
9/29/11 at 1:13am

Well, for gaming I'd suggest a solution that offers a virtual surround sound on headphones for more immersive gaming. 

 

Dolby Headphone / 7.1 virtual speaker shifter / Creative CMSS-3D are technologies for that purpose.

 

Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Go : very simple but the software supplied is great .. also its cheap 

 

never tried it ,, but people say its a cheap upgrade over onboard sound.

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post #3 of 5
9/30/11 at 4:42am

Are you just out of PCIe slots, or is there a PCI slot free that you can use?

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post #4 of 5
10/1/11 at 12:10am
Thread Starter 

i got one of each open but would be neck to neck against one of my gpus, and i dont want that. 

i ordered this

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-System-SB1240/dp/B004275EO4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317452447&sr=8-1

 

 

will it be THAT much of a downgrade from this,

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Blaster-Titanium-Internal-SB1270/dp/B0041OUA38/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1317452986&sr=1-1

 

?

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post #5 of 5
10/1/11 at 8:13am

You'll definitely lose out on gaming features. Only the X-Fi products with the EMU20k1 (PCI) or EMU20k2 (PCIe) DSPs tend to have proper EAX 5 and CMSS-3D Headphone support, and they're all internal cards. (I have no idea how the X-Fi Go! Pro can claim the former; it's probably not hardware-accelerated, but driven in software.)

 

For music listening, though, the X-Fi HD USB is probably still competent.

 

If you're concerned about the sound card blocking airflow to the GPUs, then maybe you could try and find an Auzentech X-Fi Forte, where the low-profile form factor can help a bit with not blocking off airflow...but if even that still unnerves you, it seems like you'd have no choice but to go external.

 

Creative needs to have a proper external audio device with great sound quality (which the X-Fi Go! Pro does NOT deliver from what I've read), EAX 5, and CMSS-3D Headphone all in one by now...

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