External Sound Card

[TaXi]

I recently read an article on Creative's newer sound card, the Extigy. I was just wondering if anyone here owns one. What's it like, and how is the performance compared to an internal? Does it have a usb connection?


TaXi:t :t

[Giblet Plus!]

I don't have one, I have an audigy, but from what i've read, the performance is about 3x worse than an equivalent internal sound card. It takes about 15% of the processing power of an average computer to run the extigy. Worse still, the eax effects don't work well in games with it.
In my opinion, it's a waste of money, and only useful for people to lazy/stupid to install a good internal soundcard. :r

[TaXi]

**** that's bad!


TaXi:t :t
-----(soon to have audigy after upgrading from Live!)

[AllGamer]

indeed it needs USB connection

if you have any sort of USB problem don't even think about it

but yeah the sound box is extremely good, awesome sound, and easy connectivity cuz it's external

:D

[TaXi]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!(screams in anguish!!!)
WHO TO BELIEVE!!!???

TAXi:t :t

[AllGamer]

well i do agree about the CPU usage thing with the USB

reason why i got the internal Version of the Audigy

:D

by the way new Audigy drivers are available for download

12 meg from creative they finally fixed a little bug they had with the internal ones

external ones were never affected.

that's the good news
:t

[optic_pro1430]

The Extigy sounds good. If it's external... that's good, you can plug it in your Laptop for better sound, provided you have better speakers! I also read you can plug it in your DVD Player or whatever to get 5.1 surround sound... :)

[AllGamer]

that's right the made it with the Laptops user in mind :p

[TaXi]

i think ill just get the audigy, because all my usb drives are full

[Giblet Plus!]

Good choice, Taxi.
You'll save about $40+ dollars, and have a faster pc! :t

[Dracas]

Personally I'd recommend getting a Hercules/Guillemot Game Theatre XP 6.1 over an Extigy or Audigy.

Oh the horror stories I have on Soundblaster/Creative products, they've gone cheep-o in their fabrication process

And heres the personal Track record of Hardware from Creative:

Soundblaster 128 PCi - DOA, met an m80 and now RiP

Soundblaster Pro - Ran for three days and died, the guy at the place I returned it to admitted it popped a capacitor, probably from a very minor variance in PCi voltage.

Bought *another* SB 128 PCi, as if I hadn't learned from the first one. It too was DOA and returned.

SoundBlaster Live! Value - DOA, returned

Creative 32xMX CDrom - Ran great, for a few months - stopped reading discs altogether randomly. This one landed on a shelf somewhere, and has disappeared

Creative 3D Annihilator - worked for a day or two, didn't overclock it, didn't do anything. Developed lines and grades across the screen on whatever monitor you tested it on, and whatever computer. Returned for Money back, decided to go simpler and got a Voodoo3 2000 instead. Saved a little money too, still using the Voodoo3 :P

This kind of experience sort of turned me off to Creative, and duly so.

For reference sake - I take very good care of my hardware. I clean the fans off weekly, dust the case out, make sure the fans are still in tip top shape, blow the dust out of my powersupply and do software/driver/registry cleanup regularly. Not to mention doing a voltage check and make sure everythings clean. *My* comptuer systems have to last me awhile as moneys not exactly abundant, wether I like to OC or not.

So anyhow...daunted with Creative I showed a well deserved fondness for Aureal Vortex Soundcards and Guillemot products and spoiled myself. They were Fantastic in comparison, of course - then my arch nemesis Creative bought at least Aureal Out.

Scum, blah, they mangled A3D :mad:

Heck, my Aureal Vortex accidently took a 12V surge after miswiring a speaker harness and feeding the Amplifier into the left channel. Left channel doesn't work anymore, but the right one does. Mmm. Mono sound. Still works though, and thats more then I can say for Creatives products.

They're as bad as compaq with engineered Failures as far as I'm concerned.

</end rant>

[TaXi]

Posted by Dracas
_________________________________________
Eww. Creative.

Personally I'd recommend getting a Hercules/Guillemot Game Theatre XP 6.1 over an Extigy or Audigy.

Oh the horror stories I have on Soundblaster/Creative products, they've gone cheep-o in their fabrication process

And heres the personal Track record of Hardware from Creative:

Soundblaster 128 PCi - DOA, met an m80 and now RiP

Soundblaster Pro - Ran for three days and died, the guy at the place I returned it to admitted it popped a capacitor, probably from a very minor variance in PCi voltage.

Bought *another* SB 128 PCi, as if I hadn't learned from the first one. It too was DOA and returned.

SoundBlaster Live! Value - DOA, returned

Creative 32xMX CDrom - Ran great, for a few months - stopped reading discs altogether randomly. This one landed on a shelf somewhere, and has disappeared

Creative 3D Annihilator - worked for a day or two, didn't overclock it, didn't do anything. Developed lines and grades across the screen on whatever monitor you tested it on, and whatever computer. Returned for Money back, decided to go simpler and got a Voodoo3 2000 instead. Saved a little money too, still using the Voodoo3 :P

This kind of experience sort of turned me off to Creative, and duly so.

For reference sake - I take very good care of my hardware. I clean the fans off weekly, dust the case out, make sure the fans are still in tip top shape, blow the dust out of my powersupply and do software/driver/registry cleanup regularly. Not to mention doing a voltage check and make sure everythings clean. *My* comptuer systems have to last me awhile as moneys not exactly abundant, wether I like to OC or not.

So anyhow...daunted with Creative I showed a well deserved fondness for Aureal Vortex Soundcards and Guillemot products and spoiled myself. They were Fantastic in comparison, of course - then my arch nemesis Creative bought at least Aureal Out.

Scum, blah, they mangled A3D

Heck, my Aureal Vortex accidently took a 12V surge after miswiring a speaker harness and feeding the Amplifier into the left channel. Left channel doesn't work anymore, but the right one does. Mmm. Mono sound. Still works though, and thats more then I can say for Creatives products.

They're as bad as compaq with engineered Failures as far as I'm concerned.

</end rant>

____________________________________________
TaXi:


:t :t :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[Dracas]

TaXi:

Its just a personal opinion man, gives you some outlook on other peoples experiences with a given brand name.

Creative seems to bank more on being the 'most recognized brand name' as much as Intel and Microsoft do, so their products haven't exactly gotten much better.

Also if you use XP, you may end up having all sorts of driver troubles, as it took me three days, numerous drivers and beta drivers, just to get an audigy installed correctly on a friends XP computer. it sucked :eek: