MrPuck Posted February 27, 2001 Share Posted February 27, 2001 I was planning on getting the new Soundblaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1 card since primarily my sound is for gaming and a bit of music listening. I know the platinum 5.1 is a nice card but almost double the price. Should I just stick with the X-Gamer or is the Platinum worth the price difference when only games are concerned? Anyone recommend anything else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlatLine Posted February 27, 2001 Share Posted February 27, 2001 Go for the X-gamer. The platinum SBLive is nice, however if you're planning on using it mostly on gaming and some music, most of the features of the platinum would be wasted -- as would be your money. The platinum is aimed more at people who would like to produce music on their home computers, and people with complicated sound systems, so most of the features would be pretty useless to you anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fawwaz Posted February 27, 2001 Share Posted February 27, 2001 Why should you spend money on X-Gamer 5.1 when u can get live! value for cheaper and anyway the klipsch speakers are analoge so u dont need the 5.1, the live! vslue is suffecient , I think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dman155 Posted February 27, 2001 Share Posted February 27, 2001 If you want DD, you'll need a 5.1 Sound blaster, the value won't suffice. On a side note, does anyone know which sound cards have the lowest cpu usage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fawwaz Posted February 27, 2001 Share Posted February 27, 2001 What's a DD what do u mean by that, further I think that all the live! family are basicly the same chip with different markting strategies !!!(just look at the Value ship and the platinum chip IDENTICAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janko10 Posted February 27, 2001 Share Posted February 27, 2001 Go with the Acoustic Edge. Work out the quirks and it rocks. ROCK ON!!!!! as Rocker would say... J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paragon Posted February 27, 2001 Share Posted February 27, 2001 DD.. Dolby Digital decoding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gondor Posted February 27, 2001 Share Posted February 27, 2001 the Platinum, MP3+ and X-Gamer are all the identical cards, the differences lie basically in the software packages, and the fact that the Plat has the Live! Drive... The X-Gamer comes with, what else, games... whereas the MP3+ comes with MP3 encoding software and some "jukebox" like software and 1 or 2 other things. The Platinum in addition to the Live! Drive it comes with the software packages of the X-Gamer and the MP3+.... If you get the X or MP3+ you can buy the Live! Drive at a later date directly from creative if you find you really want that extra connectivity. Just the facts here. I bought an X-Gamer (a while before the 5.1s even became available) because I wanted the games and I didnt need the Live! Drive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gxcad Posted February 27, 2001 Share Posted February 27, 2001 quote: DD.. Dolby Digital decoding. then wouldn't it be DDD? -Gxcadc> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paragon Posted February 27, 2001 Share Posted February 27, 2001 no.. DD is dolby digital. I added the "decoding" in order to explain that the card decodes Dolby digital Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fawwaz Posted February 28, 2001 Share Posted February 28, 2001 ok ,I still dont see a difference betwwen the 5.1 and the live value! (except price), remember your klipsch speakers are analougue and dont do digital dolby !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paragon Posted February 28, 2001 Share Posted February 28, 2001 ya.. the SBLive! 5.1 does it for them http://www.soundblaster.com/resources/read.asp?ArticleID=4 The 5.1 card decodes the DD signal and sends teh appropriate signals to the 6 different.. altho, the Pros can onlt handle 4 but you have a center/sub for future hookup. Get the Value if you want to save money. ------------------ All Your Base Are Belong To Us ------------------------------------- 1GHz TBird Abit KT7A-RAID FOP38 & CuShim Kingmax 256MB PC150 Annihilator2 32MB GTS Intel Pro100+Management NIC Promise Ultra100 IBM 75GXP 45GB ATA100 & Maxtor DMP6800 27.2GB ATA66 Plextor 16X10X40A Sony 12X DVD SBLive! 5.1 AOpen HX08 Full Tower 300W Sony CPD-G400 19" Triny Pro 4.1 are comin!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rol1 Posted February 28, 2001 Share Posted February 28, 2001 http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/reviews/Digital-XG/DigitalXG.html http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/reviews/Digital-NX/DigitalNX.html I would take a hard look a both of these reviews. Even with the daughter cards they cost less than a creative live. They also make the digital i/o cards for creative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fawwaz Posted February 28, 2001 Share Posted February 28, 2001 So the conclusion is that the live! value is good enough and equivalent to the 5.1 if you use the standard klipsh 4.1 analog configration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiplemw1 Posted February 28, 2001 Share Posted February 28, 2001 If you ask my opinion we need to go back to the good old days of 8, 16 and 32 bit soundblaster soundcards... oh those werethe days..... (flashback)... anyway, just my opinionia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPuck Posted February 28, 2001 Author Share Posted February 28, 2001 Thanks for the information everyone. Now to start shopping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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