Just bought the Creative X-Fi Notebook for my Sager

First off, the sound card is amazing. I can actually hear things! I had to play around with the settings for the mic to work, but it's all good. The only issue I have with it is actually the placement of the card itself - since it fits in the express slot. It goes right beside my mouse and I seem to hit it very often with my hand . Hopefully I won't end up breaking the jack/card.

Anyone else have issues with the positioning?

 

I bought the USB version because of the positioning, but it had major audio/video latency issues, so I returned it. How is your audio/video sync the expresscard version?

 

I have one ordered and on the way. I'd be very interested in anything else you have to say about it.

 

Glad to hear you are enjoying the sound card, vinceh. From my own experience, once you've tried it, there is no way of ever going back to "no Sound Blaster card" existence.

Yes, the placement is somewhat akward, but you will learn to live with it. I had the same issue with my SONY Vaio. Just make sure you take out the card prior to any notebook transportation. This is how I destroyed my Audigy card a few months ago. It bends rather easily.

Interesting you mention the microphone. I never got it working properly on my previous Audigy card and there were several Windows XP compatibility issues. I hope these have been solved with the X-Fi cards and Vista. Can you elaborate on the microphone settings "playing around"? I am still waiting for my Devil 9000 DTX (Clevo M860TU) to arrive ... and along with it my new Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook card, and your microphone setting solution would save me some effort and time configuring the machine ... Thanks.

 

I got the creative n400 usb speakers for my notebook the sound quality is really good (sound can be output really loud too).
It's powered by the usb port (no external powersupply needed) comes with a bag to take it with you.
The speakers come with x fi build in, can recommend it to everyone only downside is that it doesnt have line in/out (which is something that wouldve made it perfect).

 

I've had mine for about a year or so, I bought it new when I got my 9262 laptop. It's a great soundcard and I've never had a single problem with it in WinXP 32/64 or Vista 64. The placement right above the optical drive isn't a big deal, I've never popped it out on accident before.

I use my Logitech Z-5500's/Headphones hooked up to it but you should know that to get 5.1/7.1 you need to buy the Speaker Docking Module. It's a little device bottom pic that attaches to the middle part of the card. I didn't know about it when I first bought as it doesn't come with it, it is separate.

 

Oh, the sync is perfect. There are absolutely no issues with it. In fact, when I first logged onto vent, I thought there was something wrong with my card because I could hear static when other people talked even though I wouldn't before when using just the notebook speakers - but it turns out that it's so good that I could even hear the tiny amount of static that's being pulled through! I'm not sure if that's exactly a good thing with the case of vent, but definitely great for other applications like games.

 

Yeah, the product actually comes with a very nice leather case in which the card fits snug.

As for the microphone, my settings still aren't perfect, so I'm using the onboard mic as my input, and the card as the output. In the beginning when I chose the card's input as my mic input, I got weird sounds that would happen constantly...almost as if you're on a plane - random grumbling/humming sounds. Then I played around and sort of got it to work I remember; other people could hear me but I sounded very "bass"-like. Turns out that you really need to turn up the volume all the way in order for the mic to work. I'm definitely going to play around with the settings a bit more today to try and get the mic input going. However, to me it's not a big issue since my laptop comes with an onboard.

I'll let you know!

 

Chuckle, chuckle. You have described the very same microphone symptoms I used to have with my Audigy card and Windows XP. It seems that the compatibility issue still hasn't been resolved. Well, I am not going to be wasting my time again (trying to get the sound card's microphone work). I can live w/out it or in the worse case use the integrated microphone. The sound is too good to get irritated about such a minor issue (minor for someone who hardly ever uses a microphone, it may be a deal-breaker to heavy microphone users). But maybe you will have a better luck. So please, do let me know, if you succeed. Thanks!

 

Okay, so I played around with the settings a bit, and I have some mixed results. I can get the card's mic slot to work - however - I can hear myself at all times. Other people hear me fine, but I'm always hearing myself. It seems like it's producing some kind of feedback..which I don't know how to get rid of. Once I figure that out, thing's should be good. I'll let you know!

 

do you experience any lag in sound ?

 

That's a nice sound card! I had one in my former Dell and I loved it. I experienced no lag whatsoever, just nice crisp, clean sound.

 

Do you mean when I hear myself? If so, then no.

Maybe like 1 millisecond.

 

I have mostly positive experience with this card and the sound is overall louder and clearer. However, I have encountered some problems in certain games.
In Mirror's Edge for instance I had to lower hardware acceleration for DXsound panel otherwise I had some distortion and weird noise.
Also in Bioshock sometimes I would get that problem but rarely.

Reason could be very old drivers for X-fi notebook. Which driver are you guys using, the latest on Creative site is marked August 2007 :/ (I am under XP, anyone tried it with Se7en yet?)