Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook

I have a Creative Sound Blaster card for my desktop. I bought it when my integrated one crapped out and I noticed that the sound quality was quite a bit better. I have also heard the buying a really good one will increase your gaming performance. So I was wondering if I bought this laptop X-Fi sound card would it sound a lot better on my creative speakers and would I get any better performance? Thanks.

Here's the link to the sound card:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Sound_Cards/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=A1164635

And here are the speakers I bought for $50 last year (I know it was a steal ) for my desktop and will be using them on my laptop when I go to college.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836116034

 

YES!
I have both the Creative USB Live 24 bit sound card and the express card slot xi-fi one.
And the sound on the xi-fi is absolutely STUNNING, plus it improves performance all around.

 

Well I see we have one person that loves it ... anyone else with some know-how on this subject? I can't seem to find any performance benchmarks in games ... and obviously you can't benchmark how nice it sounds lol

 

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3847

 

For a few FPS it's not really worth it ... but the main part is the sound quality which seems good ... I'm sure if i heard integrated and then the creative in person there would be a huge difference ... hmm ... i just don't know yet. I guess I could always buy it and then return it if I didn't think it was worth while.

 

For 50$ it's more than worth it.
There is even somebody selling it on the forum, in the Buy/Sell/Trade section.

 

No there isn't, I paid him for it a week ago.

But I would say yes it's worth it, because not only does it sound much better (compared to AC97), it also tends to boost the Line Out volume significantly. I'm not actually sure how good Azalia sounds, to be honest.

But I'm a little disappointed that it's no better than the Audigy 2 ZS NB or that the old speaker dock isn't compatible. Or the fact that it's still doesn't sit flush in the slot. I screwed my ZS NB up pretty bad by accidentally leaning on it or knocking it against stuff. It's annoying having something stick out the side.

 

I have this sound card and its very good compared to on board sound card.
For me the sound quality is improved a lot and i very delighted with this sound card despite the Docking Station.
I haven't done benchmarks but i can notice that it improves the Frame rate.

The bad thing is that the drivers a buggy (especially in VISTA caused by removing Direct Sound) and full of bloatwares.

It is worth buying trust me.

 

i'm thinking of getting an X-FI card. because Hardware acceleration is known to give 3-4 FPS in games like Race Driver : GRID, dont get me wrong i'm having a great performance with this game, its just sometimes when you approch a far car the FPS drops down for a sec then rises up.

EDIT: ok. i'm gonna get myself one, but is it Express interface or?

 

Ya the interface is ExpressCard/54 ... so to put it in simple terms, it goes into the slot on the side of your notebook that it fits in

 

Yeah i know i know

 

Here is the overhang that people "complain" about, sheesh.

 

its not even 1/4 bad

 

I know. Exactly what I`m saying, a bit more that the enter key,

 

I'm still having problems and i cant figure out how can i enable game mode in this sound card and i thing it doesn'0t have even thought i haven tried other games that supports EAX except Gears of War, and UT3.

i bought it around 2 weeks and all i have done with it is jut installing the drivers and enabling Xi-Fi Crystalizer cause i haven had lots of time to mess with it.

 

so, can you tell me how is it VS intergrated before i confirm the order ?

 

As for sticking out for me its not a big problem cause i like to have mu mice far far away from mu keyboard and that doesn't matter for me.

I know it look awful but sometimes you have to accept the cons of somehting as long as it work and serve good as you wish.

 

My onboard 7.1 audio system stands NO CHANCE against the xi-fi.
The latter is so much better,louder volume and better bass and treble.
Not to mention the fps improvement here and there.
It's 50$ ! well worth it...

 

I am looking for a soundcard as well, let me know if there's something better than creative x-fi.

 

Does the x-fi function as a stand alone sound card, or does it still rely on your onboard sound card for anything? I'm asking because I had problems with my speakers, and if my new Studio has the same problems, will it affect the x-fi?

Anyway, I've ordered one for my Studio, with Creative T10 speakers as well. Ready to blast some rock.

 

It is a totally separate card ... the onboard audio has nothing to do with it ... but where did you get it for $50 I can only find it for $70.

 

Cheap deal
Watch out for them.

 

Would this serve the same purpose or is the one that actually goes in the laptop sound better and perform better ... because this is cheap.

http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=209&subcategory=668&product=15913

 

Who knows, maybe I should just put that money towards more games

 

DON'T GET XMOD!!!!!!!!! I have one and it sucks!!

 

Whew, thanks for saving me ... I was considering it.

 

It Doesnt suck that much ...
I am using it ...its great for Mp3 archive of my music..

since its a DAC ...its much better than inbuilt audio

most important: It DOESNT need Drivers.

And it can act Standalone also with USB AC adapter.


Although it lacks EAX HD ..which is why its not best for Gaming..

 

Isn't XMod all software driven?

 

Adding to the general input... X-Fi does indeed rock!

 

Not exactly..

it has a DAC chip & a processor chip..

the X-Fi effects although work with a Firmware which is recently upgraded..so now i can Monitor Input as well.

I liked XMOD ....its going damn cheap these days so better to buy it...i also bought it recently on sale..got the free Adapter.

CMSS-3D does improve the Soundstage. although X-Fi is good for average bitrate Mp3 files & for Gaming it improves the sound of Gunshot.

 

do you guys know what is the best soundcard for ~$200?

 

I've used one of these before. May be overkill, but man it was nice.

 

I'm pretty sure anything Creative and over $100 would be great, but here's their best as of now I think.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102021

Or its cheaper without that extra front panel.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102019

Check em out on newegg ... they have a ton.

 

I thought he was looking for a notebook soundcard. That's PCI-E.

 

He just said best soundcard ... there really isn't a whole lot of choice in a notebook so I thought he was talking desktop. I'm the one looking for a notebook one ... I'll see if the integrated is decent on my new laptop ... if it's not that good I'm pretty sure the best option is the X-fi notebook card.

 

Good point... I gotta stop assuming things.

 

Yea I thought of this one, but it's not express type.
ps, sorry I forgot to mention, yes I am looking for a notebook soundcard.

 

True, most notebooks don't support the PCMCIA slot.

 

Well, the one Eleron was using is nice.

 

Eleron uses creative x-fi express, which I heard is similar with my Xmod in terms of sound quality. Now I am looking for something better than that.

 

I was thinking about getting the x-fi as well once I get my new laptop, one question though, does it improve the sound comming from the laptop speakers at all? I don't like using headphones and don't intend to connect my desktop speakers to the laptop, sticking strictly to the built-in laptop speakers. Any info is appreciated, thanks.

 

No, it won't affect the onboard speakers.

 

hm..that sucks, oh well, save myself some $$. Thanks!

 

The old Audigy 2 ZS could be routed through the onboard speakers. It was very, very, very picky though and effects would differ from program to program. I think it sounded better, at the very least I could tell the difference because it was louder.

Not sure what the new X-Fi is like. I've got it, now I need the laptop.

 

Stop arguing about this sound card.

I was doing this with my self and i finally decided do buy ti and it is worth buying except for one thing:

You have to add every game to Alchemy if you use VISTAAAAAA in order to enable hardware accelerated sound in game except for those witch use OpenAL.

And if you have to config somethings in order to run as a secondary sound card and the only thing that is related to on-board sound card is outputing the sound through laptop speakers.

IT IS WORTH BUYING CAUSE YOU WILL KEEP IT FOR A LONG TIME AND IT WILL LONG AS LONG AS YOU WANT, JUST BUY IT AND I THING YOU WONT REGRET IT.

 

no ones auguring, we were just discussing if there's a better card than this.

 

For the price, and given the limited options for notebooks, I think the x-fi is one of the better ones.

 

My Audigy 2 ZS isn't really doing too well. Although you're right, I think it did outlast my laptop..

Anyone know how it (X-Fi Expresscard) works with XP? Driver issues, game/program conflicts or anything?

 

X-FI works much better with XP since you don't need the Alchemy fix for older games and the card was probably designed around the XP platform in the 1st place.

 

so does it or does it not make the onboard speakers sound better now? I have not use for it if it doesn't.