Hi, all.

First of all, apologies for asking questions when I've not been around helping others, but the honest answer is, I haven't bought a high-tech PC component for nearly two years and despite reading CPC on a monthly basis, I've not been taking it on board. Therefore, the chances that I can answer a question in this forum, with so many wonderful, knowledgeable people around, is pretty slim.

So, to my question. I need a PCI-E sound card. I only have a single PCI slot and my sound card is sitting right on top of my graphics card cooler, reducing air flow and occasionally even hitting the fans.

I have the original X-Fi card- the Extreme Music; which, despite it's title is just as happy with music and games. I have noticed in the last couple of years that Creative have started to dedicate their X-Fi cards to either music or games and as I do both with enthusiasm, I don't want to get a dedicated-to-one-purpose sound card.

I am not a music nut, but I do play a considerable amount of music on my PC, both CDs and MP3s.

I am a games nut and want the best sound I can afford.

I've been reluctant to look at alternatives to Creative Labs as I wanted the best in EAX first of all, but now I find that EAX is on its way out.

I am looking to spend a maximum of around £100 and I don't need a breakout box or (ATM) anything other than analogue 5.1 outputs.

I am prepared (for the first time ever) to go to another manufacturer and I know that most would recommend Asus, but I need some advice.

Sorry, but I won't be around until later tonight to clarify any issues.

Thanks.

For PCI-E the Asus Xonar DX looks like a good buy, and supports up to 7.1 audio.

Asus do a PCI version, that Bit-Tech liked a lot for both games and music, in the Zonar DG.

It's a pretty subjective area, especially with sound cards and speakers being so inter-dependent.

It's hard to choose easily on Scan as they don't seem to offer identical breakdowns of the features even between cards from the same manufacturer. I have just had a look at the Asus products and this seems nice.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-xon ... n-live-pmp

Even the Asus site classes this as a Home Theatre card, but then the product headline reads


This card is also bundled with some great software, so it's well worth a look, I'd say

I'm going to have to have a look back through Custom PC and have a look at their recent sound card reviews, but I was just wary of going non-Creative with support for earlier versions of EAX and not EAX 5.0. It seems my fears are unnecessary now.

TBH i don't think the Music or Gaming tag really applies... sound is sound and unless you're really looking for one all encompassing card (i.e. EAX emulation for gaming, Bitstreaming Audo for Home Theatre etc.) then i think you can choose whatever you want.

I personally have the aforementioned Xonar DX and it's not let me down (well actually, it's got some issues which seem to driver related, but i think i'm in need of a reinstall soon). The "Audio Center" that comes with the driver is also fairly flexible in terms of EQ etc. if you're into that thing. There's a "Gaming" mode which does EAX emulation and adjusts the EQ to be more bass heavy, a "Music" mode which is more balanced (and i think some more clarity in the mid-high range) and a "Theatre" mode which is similar to gaming.

AFAIK the D2X is rather old... one of the first Sound Cards that Asus released... i'm not 100% sure on that though, but i do believe the DX was released afterwards. The D2X might have slightly better components but i don't know whether that warrants the extra £20 or so.

Thanks for the input, vdbswong.It's nice to hear from someone who's got one of these cards.

I hadn't really realised fully that the loss of EAX was a Windows (Vista/7) thing, rather than new gaming technology- this is how I understand it anyway. I use a lot of older games, but which games actually use EAX 3-5 as the Asus cards support up to EAX 2, by the look of things? Don't answer that, I need to look it up.

Anyway, it's all quite involved.

As for the cards, I've had a good look at the Asus site and the differences do only seem to be in the numbers (e.g. higher signal-to-noise ratios) and later chips. There is one hell of an impressive (looking) bundle of software with the D2X, but not much more. I'm going to have to give this a little thought before I take the plunge.

I dug out my Custom PCs last night, but tbh, they weren't a lot of use as they haven't done all that much in the way of sound card reviews- maybe there aren't that many worth looking at.

The most useful article was the Sub-£100 test (issue 80) but to be honest, all three (big number tested) cards came out at 84% (2) and 86% (1) with the DX at 86% iirc.

I'm tempted by the Creative X-Fi titanium as the Fatal1ty version is CPC's top dog and the main complaints against its cheaper sibling seem to be a matter of opinion. Creative have never really let me down, apart from in the very early days of Vista and while I know that they get a lot of flak at times, I've always been happy with their products.

Let's face it, they created several standards used in Windows for years, so they must have done something right.

I went with the X-Fi Titanium. I have to say that I was impressed with my original X-Fi (which is soon to be in its fourth system) and I stuck with Creative.

When I had some issues with games, I tried the audio daughterboard that came with my last motherboard. If you've ever played Bioshock, then you'll remember how many noises there could be in this game at any one time- alarms, gun-fire, shouting and screaming, buzzing security droids and music. I never appreciated just how powerful the X-Fi was until I tried the daughterboard and the sound simply kept cutting out because it couldn't cope.

It's not all good news, though. I've finally got a full and proper Intel-HD Audio-type connector on this card, which matches my front panel and this is now the first and only system I've ever had with fully functional case audio connectors- and the headphone output is worn and making only intermittent contact. I've got in touch with Antec and I'll have to wait and see.

If I have no joy, I'll be botching a chassis 3.5mm socket somewhere on the case.

I got a brand new X-Fi Fatal1ty of Ebay for half-price, and it's been great, especially when running my VSTs - my latest one (Omnisphere) really gives it workout.