Sound Blaster Xi-Fi details released

[Jammrock]

Creative has finally announced details regarding Sound Blaster Xi-Fi products and pricing.

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/X-Fi/technology/audiosolutions/introduction.asp

The low-end Xi-Fi XtremeMusic (because everything has to be !!!EXTREME!!! these days...) will go for $130 USD and aimed at people who want just a normal !!!EXTREME!!! experience. The Xi-Fi Platinum ends up being exactly the same as all the other Audigy Platinum offers, board plus the exact same 5.25" drive bay break-out box we've seen for ... 7+ years, but beyond that is no more !!!EXTREME!!! than the ExtremeMusic.

The first truly !!!EXTREME!!! offering comes in the Xi-Fi Fatal1ty FPS version. It sports additional !!!EXTREME!!! features and interfaces, plus 64 MB of !!!EXTREME!!!-RAM, the same break-out box design as the platinum, but with a built-in !!!EXTREME!!! headphone amp for we peoples who use high impedence cans. It sports a "gaming mode" which supposedly delivers !!!EXTREME!!! audio options for !!!EXTREME!!! games and near zero CPU utilization.

The final is ... well ... basically the Platinum EX, or Pro, but with supposed recording studio grade pre-amps and DACs, plus all the Fatal1ty features, including the 64 MB of !!!EXTREME!!! RAM, plus a true break-out box with more inputs and outputs... and a $400 price tag. Oh yeah ... this one is so !!!EXTREME!!! that it is called the Elite Pro.

Platinum will initially run for $199 USD, Fatal1ty FPS for $280 USD.

They should start hitting Best Buy shelves this month... no clue if that means other peoples will get them or if Best Buy is just giving Creative some !!!EXTREME!!! love'n to be the soul provider for a month or so.

I'll wait for a good deal of reviews to hit before making a desicion on this udio card. My Echo Indigo is pretty damn !!!EXTREME!!! enough for me...

!!!EXTREME!!! Jammrock ... out

[Helevitia]

LMAO Jammrock

You know, if the sound card really helps in FPS I'll buy it. But only if I have the money at the time. It is too damn expensive.

[Technoid]

I dont believe it!?! They put the freaking Gameport back!!???!!! (yeah, I know its for the midi freaks but it belongs to the add on bracket so we who dont need it can dump it) and dumped the firewire

[KeiFront]

You forgot to mention the !!!EXTREME!!! good drivers . oh btw Creative sucks . At least they dumped their SB1394 implementation.

[rylan]

Heh, I love their totally subjective product 'comparison' where they basically make the Audigy look like crap so they can try to sell these expensive new cards.
And geez, putting 64MB memory bark on the card? Come on, give me a break. Those who remember the SB AWE32/AWE64 series, the memory made a differance for the advanced wavetable effects, and since it was a 16bit ISA card. But trying to say it will make a differance on a PCI card for a few MB of audio effects? Sound slike marketecture to me.

[UtwigMU]

I built a box for a friend using NF7-S recently. All the caps were Rubycon (IE Japanese) and Abit made it a policy to use highest quality Japanese caps (so they say on their site).

[The PIT]

Interesting too see what the reviews say when they come out.

[Technoid]

I built a box for a friend using NF7-S recently. All the caps were Rubycon (IE Japanese) and Abit made it a policy to use highest quality Japanese caps (so they say on their site).

No wonder they do and say that after all their mobo's with blown caps

[Liquid Snake]

LOL!

So, how is EAX these days? I haven't bothered with 3D audio since Aureal disappeared. When I game, I stick with headphones and whatever non-EAX audio the game offers. Am I missing much?

[Jammrock]

Only if you don't have a good surround sound rig. If the game audio is programmed well in surround it will sound great in EAX or whatever surround form. But for most gaming, especially multiplayer, you're not missing much.

[UtwigMU]

Well unlike Epox and some others, Abit has been upfornt about caps and changed policy. There were some other brands that were affected by it in 00/01 period. Epox 8RDA3 suffered from caps very recently.

[The PIT]

MSI have had problems as well. Seen plenty of those with exploded caps.

[Dr Mordrid]

Maybe so, but I bet you haven't seen one blow 'em in bunches like the old Abits. Talk about making you jump off your chair

Dr. Mordrid

[Jon P. Inghram]

Actually, the 64 meg on-board RAM makes plenty of sense when you consider how poorly their cards work if there's any oth*crackle*er tr*crackle*affic on *crackle* the P*crackle*CI bu*crackle*s.

[Jammrock]

Actually, the 64 meg on-board RAM makes plenty of sense when you consider how poorly their cards work if there's any oth*crackle*er tr*crackle*affic on *crackle* the P*crackle*CI bu*crackle*s.

To be honest, I've never really had problems with pops and clicks with my Sound Blaster cards ... and I've had 3 of them in the PCI flavors. But I was thinking that with the 64 MB RAM you could load all the music for a game level into onboard RAM and not have to disk cache, use local RAM, or pull audio from a CD/DVD. I suppose that would be a nice thing if you truly want near-zero CPU utilization.

Jammrock