Surround Gaming Setup

[CMB]

look i tidied my desk

[CMB]

sad i know but been meaning to do it for ages lol

[redgreenbluex3]

6.1 sorround speakers are they the ones fro creative ??
are they any good ??
i havnt been able to fine any good reviews.

[CMB]

hi, yes there great, there not as good as a decent 5.1 set up like the one i have for my widescreen tv but for £100 i didnt expect them to be. There much better then i thought they would be, the sound seperation is excellent.

slight problem though because i have had to send them back ( i bought mine straight from creative) there was a random bass thudding noise, like if i was pulling the power cable out then pushing it back in real quick. Hopefully they will send me new ones, but i noticed on the creative forums that i wasnt the only one with the same prob, maybe somethings up with the first run or whatever???

[redgreenbluex3]

thanx for that
im setting up up a new audio system for myself and looking ruffly around that price range
i wonder if Altec Lansing will release 261 (like the 251 5.1 but 6.1)
anyone know any speaker brands doing 6.1 know or in the near future so i have a viable alternative
might as well make good uses of the audigy 2 im gettting

[zandor]

My rig

I've got 3 screens, all different.
Last winter my old 17" monitor did that image turns into a really bright vertical (or was it horizontal? I forget...) line thing, so I took it as a sign that it was time to upgrade.
I've been wanting a 21" for years, but the price of two made me gag, so I bought a 21" and a 19" Hitachi CRT to hook up to my G400. Then last summer a former employer called me up and asked if I wanted a Sparc. (I still don't understand this) Naturally I said yes, and came home with an Ultra 10 and a Sun 19" monitor, along with as much junk as I could fit in my car for charity. (A guy at my current office refurbs old machines for kids from low income families) The sudden addition of a Sun to my computer collection eliminated the problem of needing Linux drivers for my PC. Adding that to having 3 monitors, I really had no choice but to buy a Parhelia and a new desk.
Just to make things a bit more messy, the Sun screen and 21" are also attached to the Sparc (card + integrated, switch on the Sun & the 21" has dual inputs), and I've got a PCI card (GF2MX200 pci... puke) so I can run triplehead independant.

[CMB]

Sounds like a nice set up

I just got an email from creative saying they have confirmed there was a fault with my speakers, they are sending some new ones, refunding my shipping costs and are very sorry.

Well looks like it will be a merry (SURROUND SOUND) christmas after all

i might go out and by ghost recon to celebrate hehe

[Gotcha]

Here is my Setup I hope its on here. I'm a newbie with a digital camera so let me try an post first and I'll comment in a sec.

[Gotcha]

I hope this works, I made the image smaller.

[Gotcha]

I hope you open the attachments, note the usefulness of my college books. I knew they would be used again. The center monitor is a 17" lcd with two 17" crt.

[Gotcha]

As you can tell I also hide some of the monitor casing behind my center monitor. I hope matrox comes out with another parhelia, I really like the surround gaming mode. They need to understand there is a big market for gaming video cards, why the hell does ati and nvidia have a new one out every six months??

My favorite games; sof2, jedi knight 2 outcast, gore, avp2 primal hunt, mohaa, mohaa spearhead, battlefield 1942, rtcw,c&c renegade, ut 2003, quake 3 and deadly dozen pacific theater.

My computer desk is way too small. I would love to see other gamers setup also. Gotta go.

MY SPECS:
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1 Build 2600

Processor: Intel Pentium® 4 @ 2.39 GHz

Graphics Card: Matrox Parhelia 128MB - English Driver version 1.2.0.42

Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC. (AGP 4X)

Motherboard Model: P4S533VX

Sony Vaio PCV-RX850

Bios Version/Date: Award Software, Inc. ACPI BIOS Revision 1001, 8/20/02

SMBIOS Version: 2.3

Creative Sound Blaster Extigy: 5.12.01.0038 (English) Creative 5.1 Surround Speakers

Efficient Networks SpeedStream 5360 Ethernet ADSL MODEM

Siemens Speedstream DSL/Cable router

Pc pit stop Bandwidth results 1250kb down 140kb up

1024 MB PC-2100 DDR RAM
• Cache Memory
512KB Integrated On-Die Level 2

• Front Side Bus Speed
533MHz

• Hard Drive
80GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive

• CD-RW Drive
CD-RW (32X max. write / 12X max. rewrite / 40X max. read)

• DVD-ROM Drive
16X max. DVD-ROM Read / 40X max. CD-ROM Read

• Floppy Disk Drive
3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Disk Drive

• Ethernet
10Base-T/100Base-TX Fast Ethernet

• Expansion Slots
One 4x AGP
Three PCI (one occupied by Modem)

Memory Stick® Media Slot

One (1) Envision 17" lcd monitor

Two (2) proview 17" crt monitor

[K6-III]

I'd change that Extigy to a true soundcard if I were you...

[Gotcha]

In my opinion believe in or not the external extigy sounds really good with 5.1 creative speakers considering in all goes over a usb cable. At the time with another pc I didnt have any pci slots available and I heard about the creative extigy. I want to upgrade as you say and move this extigy to another pc but would like some input from other gamers.

Does anyone have the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 platinum? What about 6.1 speaker setup is there any big difference? I havent heard too many reviews from gamers just what the manufacture reviews say

Thanks for your reply

[CMB]

Hi there. I have the audigy platinum 2 with the 6.1 speakers.. had to send the speakers back at first cos they were making funny noises.. but creative found a fault wth them and replaced them, and the new ones have been fine (touch wood)

There really is a marked improvment playing games in 6.1
though having said that.. ive gone from 4 speakers (2 font and back) to 2 spekaers to now having 6.1

not sure how much difference they would be going from 5.1 ro 6.1 also the quality of sound from the audigy2 is exellent. i had a sb live in my last machine and although good, sometimes sounds sounded down sampled almost, when lost of things tried to play at once...

surround sound in games is great battlefield 1942 especially... and the speakers sound really good. there not as good as the set i use for home theatre admittedly.. but what do you expect for £100 they sound suprisingly bassy too.

Hope this has been some help, nice set up by the way.. i use to have something similar when i has 2 monitors.. only instead of college books i wrapped black tape around vhs tapes i no longer watched lol

[crow8k3a]

couldn't fit everything in the picture, so i made a quick little picture of my box i built and the monitor setup.