crazylegs said:
Looks like a wicked card Flopp's....How much..
For that price it better sound good and cook me breakfast aswell..
Aye, I know, lol, lotta money to pay for a sound card.
But I'd always wondered if it was worth paying that sort of money for sound.
And I'd guardedly say it is.
It's in my main system, the only computer I have that has a 5.1 speaker system and that speaker system has finally been brought to life.
I thought the Creative X-Fi Audio sounded good but this knocks it into a cocked hat (just where did that expression originate?).
This started because main machine # 2, which I use to record from vinyl, cassette, CD's and DVD's, had a dodgy input socket and needed replacing. Or so I thought. So I figured I'd get this Asus card, and the X-Fi can replace the Audigy 2 with the dodgy socket.
But when I had a close look at the lead going into the Audigy 2, it was bent, so it's likely the socket is actually ok. And anyway, the Audigy 2 can still be used even if the input socket is wonky.
So now I'm looking for drivers for Win 98 so I can use it with my old socket A machine with Win 98 games. Creative, as is usual, don't supply Win 98 drivers anymore.
And that was another reason - Creative's dominance and their refusal to supply Vista drivers for the X-Fi Audio, it took an independent guy to show the drivers could be created. The Asus card sounds really good and supports EAX2, quite enough for me. It's not specs that count, it's how it sounds to your ears.
Or I may put the Audigy 2 in my media computer although tbh the onboard sound on the Asus motherboard is probably just as good, so maybe the Audigy will go into the box labelled 'Spare Parts'.
The Asus card was actually a little awkward to fit. I put it into the third pci-e slot and as it was quite big it touched one of the SATA port connections. I'm using 4 SATA hard disks and both opitcal drives are SATA.
I actually had to bend the card over a couple of millimetres to make it fit in as it nestled against one of my SATA cable plugs into the motherboard. It also needs a connection from the power supply, using a floppy drive power connector. I was using one of these to power my floppy drive and had a nother one spare. When I connected to the sound card the second connector wouldn't reach the floppy drive so I now need a floppy drive power connector extension lead, if such a thing exists.
The card looks good though, lights up kinda orangey/yellow and the rear connector sockets are lit by different coloured led's for identification. The Vista drivers/software worked impeccably from the start.
It came with lots of leads (a floppy power connector extension lead would have been nice though) and a lot of software, which I haven't investigated yet but a lite version of Power DVD and Cakewalk are in there.
I was hesitant to spend such a huge wad but honestly, I'm glad I did, it's making game playing and movie watching so much more enjoyable.
And I was playing CoD online earlier, the GobRats rifle only maps and it does actually sound better, the rifle shots have more clarity and the M1 has a more solid boom.
And even my mp3's sound better - crisper, with more detail and a more rounded bass.
I've waffled on long enough so I'll stop.
Summary: I like it
