[ninjacore]

I'm receiving the aforementioned sound card as part of a package deal and haven't decided whether I should keep it or sell it.

I have absoltely no experience with aftermarket sound cards. What benefits do they offer over on-boards cards?

thanks and sorry for such a nub Q

[BossBorot]

Sound cards are always nice to have but are almost pointless if you have a bad speaker set up. The advantage of a soundcard over integrated is extra features, removal of static from cheap onboard units, and a minor increase in fps for games due to less cpu utilization.

Anyways no matter what I would sell the unit, unless you think you will use the drive bay unit, and buy an x-fi music card which is the same thing but does not have the drive bay unit. Also if you are using some crappy speakers you wont see enough benifits to justify the cost of a sound card.

IMO your speaker set up should be the main determining factor in deciding what sound card, if any, to buy.

[lemings]

If your coming from onboard you should notice results instantly, even if you are using crappy speakers/headphones. High quality speakers/headphones are not a must for the x-fi, but they sure do bring out the brighter side of it. I would keep it, but thats just me. If you don't have nice speakers/headphones you can usually get away with a budget pair of headphones for under $100 that will bring out the full details of the x-fi. If you game the results will be a big improvement, if you just listen to music then you will notice a increase in quality of the music. Overall, soundcard is a welcome edition to any pc (Esp a X-FI even though it does have issues with nforce4).

[ninjacore]

what are the issues the card has with nforce4? I think my new board a8n-sli has that chipset...

[ninjacore]

I'm thinking I'll just sell it. Sound has never been a huge factor for me in gaming and I don't listen to music or play DVDs on my PC, so I really don't think it's worth it for the price I could get in return. I could reinvest the difference in a 7900gtx!!

[lemings]

The nforce4 chipset and the x-fi conflict in certain games (Most commonly BF2) it tends to emit a "Popping" sound when in the water and in other distant areas. I beg to differ in your thinking however, you already have a pretty decent system as it is. Keep this in mind, a video card you update every 6months-1 year a soundcard will keep you updated for around 2-4 years before it needs replacing with new technology.

On a side note... when it comes... why not just pop it in your system and try it out for around 2 weeks? Then you can decide for yourself if its worth it or not.

[BossBorot]

IMO every high end gaming system should have a sound card however which one you should have depends on the circumstance. I would definitely sell that system and then turn around and buy a x-fi music or audigy 2 that you can softmod to a audigy 4, which you should buy depends on how much you want to spend.

[ninjacore]

That's a great idea on trying it out before selling. I'm sure I'll do that. I can only get about $80-90 for the card on ebay, so I'll see when it arrives.
What do the x-fi music and audigy 2 run for?

[BossBorot]

Shoot if the x-fi platinum sells for that I might go on ebay and get myself one.

If you are sure that you can only sell it for that it certainly is not worth selling unless you got a really good deal on whatever combo you got because the x-fi music costs about that new. I know of a place where you could get the softmoddable audigy 2 for $22.

[ninjacore]

any idea of the difference I'd see between the two cards?

[Firey_chasm]

i currently use x-FI fatality, as for the popping pretty sure the latest drivers remove that but i personally haven't come accross it myself yet, don't really game as much as i used to though, just music and movies. (I use a DFI lanparty board (SLI-DR))

I used to use an extigy(used to have a laptop :P) and the difference extigy->x-FI was insane I use logitech z-5500 speakers which are also amazing

as said above a sound card will last you for years, a graphix card doesn't.

I suppose it all depends how much you love sounds some people don't care that much just as long as the speakers say 'bang' in the right place :P