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Asus Xonar DS
by GrayWizard
Gaming enthusiasts will be aware how important sound is to games espcially when it comes to first person shooters. Most computers have onboard sound cards but they aren't always good at picking up the little details of many games for example footsteps.
There are many expensive sound cards available that gamers will use, but to ... be honest, a mid ranged sound card can achieve a very good audio experience.
Asus aren't well known for making sound cards, but it is a brand that I know and trust, so I went for this mid ranged card as opposed to a Creative Soundblaster. The Xonar D boasts 24bit 192kHZ sound that has a decibel rating of 107. It also features a 7.1 channel surround sound. These are technical jargon that probably wont matter much, especially if like me, you use headsets.
So what are the requirements to use this sound card? Your motherboard probably already meets it - you will need a free PCI slot. On my system, in order to use it, I had to disable the onboard sound from the BIOS settings - this may not be required. It really depends on your BIOS so it helps to be aware of this.
Once the card is placed and the sound drivers are installed, load up your favourite game and you can immediately hear the difference. Sounds are much clearer, sharper and feel more accurate. Footsteps for example in MW3 feel as though they are actually in the real world and you can sense the direction easily. Not only does this enchance your awareness but it also helps you to be ready for that killshot or that flank. Your tactics can be changed simply with being able to hear out for things which would normally not be heard on an onboard sound device.
Many times I was even accused of cheating because I was always able to anticipate enemy movement and ready myself. As surprising as it may be, sound does make you a better gamer, especially with first person shooters.
In terms of other playback, well needless to say that everything is a lot clearer. I mean listening to music and comparing it to onboard sound you can pretty much make out the huge improvement in audio quality - especially if the music is high def. Similarly movie playback experience is also boosted.
The audio drivers come with a variety of features ranging from sound environment settings, equalizer and a plethora of other settings which is tiresome to write about.
Personally speaking, Asus here have a good sound card, although it still probably lacks compared to more expensive Creative cards.
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Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series
by businesselite
The Xi-Fi ExtremeGamer soundcard is a great all around sound card that excels in gameplay and movie audio for your PC. I bought this device as a replacement for my onboard sound card that recently failed. I was really excited to hear the incredible clear sound that it produced while playing my games and I was also impressed by the ... quality it produced during playback of my dvd movies.
INSTALLATION & SETUP
To install the sound card just firmly push the card into an available PCI slot on your motherboard. The back of the card has 1 mic port, 3 output ports, and one AD link port. This card unfortunately doesn't have an optical out, so if you want to transfer the sound to a reciever you will have to purchase a "Toslink to 3.5mm adapter". During software installation, Creative includes useful pictures and diagrams to make sure you dont get confused and have everything hooked up right. There are 3 modes you get to choose from Entertainment, Game, and Audio creation mode. The Game mode is for the 'tech' savy and includes lots of configuration modes such as speaker location setup, loudness setup etc. The Entertainment mode is basically the same thing except that it features a very friendly visual platform so users without much experience can navigate without getting confused. And the last mode "Audio Creation" is for the music junkies and audiophiles who want the most configuration options available.
I personally just use the Entertainment mode because it is very user friendly and straight forward compared to the other 2. Some of the cool features within the software are Xi-fi CMSS-3d and the Xi-fi Crystallizer. The CMSS-3d feature allows you to listen to 9 virtual speakers over your normal stereo headphones. And it does a pretty good job as I felt like sound was coming from all different angles while I was watching my movies. But the best feature is the Crystallizer. The Crystallizer is used to repair damaged MP3's to make the sound clarity better. It's kind of like the 'loud' setting on your reciever except that this time it doesnt just make the audio louder it also makes it sound 'crisper' and more 'detailed'. This is great while listening to your mp3 archive because it makes the vocals and music seem more 'enhanced'. This is definitely a product I would recommend if your in the market for a new sound card.
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Asus Xonar D2/PM
by RazorSharp1987
The Asus Xonar D2/D2X (the X is for the pci express x1 flavour) is a fantastic audio card. Many people wonder what an add in audio card gets you, and what is meant by clearer audio. Put it this way, when I put my D2X in my pc and connected up a decent set of Altec Lansing speakers I immediatedly noticed more from my music and games. I ... recognised beats and patterns in the lows coming from the subwoofer which I had not noticed with onboard audio, and a less distorted treble and midrange. Another thing I notice is that the audio can now be louder but still be more accurate than before. An audio card now wont give you a noticeable increase in framerates in games, as the CPU can do most of the job. However, this card features full hardware Open AL and creative EAX emulation for better audio effects in games. Also with the driver software you can tweak many settings including microphone echo reduction, voice masking, changing LFE crossover frequency, which speakers to direct bass to, and enabling a good karaoke mode as well as the usual equaliser and effects settings.
The card does 24-bit 192kHz audio and has 118 dB signal to noise - pretty high end specs and high end capability, but of course, im not an audio robot with an oscilloscope, so cant really describe what this means. Except...It is a lot better than my on board audio and it allows me to play around with my audio settings more to get a better sound out of my speakers.
The bundled software with this card ranges a few trail software suites such as Albeton and Cakewalk. For the most part, you can bin these once the novelty of figuring out what they do is gone - if your a professional musician that uses a computer you probably have what the trial software offers, or already know what little you can learn from them without the full versions. The PowerDVD disc is handy if you dont have a decoder already. The box comes with a LOT of cables. The audio sockets also light up different colours which look great and can help with finding the holes to put you jacks in - common problem we all have. Overall im happy with the £95 purchase.
Just a word of warning, this card has trouble fitting in the top most pci-express x1 slot on most motherboards for the D2X version. If you are looking to buy this card, or upgrade motherboard after you buy one, then EXPLICITLY check for clearance of the memory module or other obstruction from the slot you want to fit this card in. In many cases the floppy disk power lead it needs will get in the way or the card will hit your memory module.
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