sound card? which of the 2 should i buy for gaming?

[Thundrchez]

Yup, just get the cheapest SB-Live and it will do just as good for gaming as all of the other SB-Lives. The "X-Gamer" adds a digital output to the "Value" card and it has a slightly different bundle of games.

And no, half life day 1 != full version of half life. It is just a teaser of the first part of the game to get you hooked enough so you will buy the full version.

[HollyBerri]

(in a very dignified voice)*sniff*The verdict on Aureal's fate is not yet in, gentlemen.*sniff*

Not to say that you shouldn't get the SB, blades... I'm just pointing out that some people may be being prematurely negative....

And that's so very unusual, too...

---------------------
Holly

[Mark F]

OK just one more voice chipping in...

I love my AUREAL cards. Had MX200, have a MX300, and SQ2500. And really, really wanted a SQ3500 (Vortex2 with DSP, sweet!!!)Diamond's hardware was good but everything else...well that's been covered. At least we had Aureal to fall back on. Untill the fate of AUREAL becomes clear, be carefull.
Creative's SB cards are a solid choice, if not always the most creative (sorry).

I'll find out how the Live will get along with a new G400, if I get around to the new box soon. After all the horror stories of G400's and VIA chipsets and SBLives I'm now trying to get all of them to get along. Hey I wanted a LiveDrive for my Video Editing box.

Mark F.

------------------
OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a DVD...
and burped out a movie

[Gurm]

The only thing any of the new Live series cards (X-Gamer, MP3+, Player1024, and umm... that other one) have over the value edition is the proprietary digital out (which needs an adapter to become an ACTUAL digital out) plug.

The other item of note is that if you get the value you will simply have to get a DIFFERENT upgrade board later to get full digital in/out. Not better or worse, just different.

- Gurm

------------------
Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[blades]

ok thanks for the replies i think ill go for the cheapest live! ..i dont think ill upgrade it anyways..the live! drive does look good but ..its also too costy

thanks again

[Salmonius]

As it turns out, I have both the X-Gamer and the value. The hardware itself is exactly identical. So are the drivers. The only difference is that the x-gamer comes with 3 games which is why I got the x-gamer in the first place. I liked the live! so much I decided to get the value for my other computer.

About Diamond, they truly suck. About Aureal, they produce cards which they sell to the other vendors. In other words, Aureal makes the Sonic Impact and Diamond sells it. I don't know who puts Diamond's logo on the card though... if they even bother to do it. I wonder who would make the drivers now for the Sonic Impact.

I had an old Sonic Impact (not that old really). Last driver update, june 98 or something. The chip was an ESS Maestro2 but I was never able to find the generic drivers at ESS website for that chip. It sounded pretty good at least.

ps:
SBLive is great.

ps2:
I will never buy anything from Diamond ever again... (I also had other stuff: video, modem and scsi adapter). Plus the packaging was incredibly cheap and forget about documentation other than the stupid CD. I give Diamond a big middle finger.

Nick

I can not stop bitching about Diamond just yet. I had problems with NT and the Sonic Impact, but of course trying tech support was a waste of time. In conclusion, Diamond is the worst.

I don't like Creative because they killed the Gravis ultrasound and now Aureal but at least they support linux and I like the sblive (all their other cards before didn't sound very good). I was also impressed at the high quality of the sblive, in terms of physical components. And the color is cool. I might even consider getting a video card from them if Matrox doesn't do something soon (at least say something positive like specs or something). I now use my 810e to play quake3 because it's faster then my g200! This is sad. In defence of the g200, it's powered by a k6-2 450 and the 810e by a celeron 533.

[Salmonius]

I bought both of my live! recently. Maybe before the value was cheaper, but right now the x-gamer and the value are 100% the same card. Same expansion capabilities and both have digital out. I just checked and they both have digi-out.

Nick