I'm going to buy a new sound card. My budget is $350. I though about Creative X-Fi Elite Pro or ASUS Xonar D2X. What do you say?Or any option else?

My CPU spec :
Intel Core2Duo E6300
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
Corsair TWIN2X2048 PC2-6400
Silverstone ST65ZF 650W
Creative GigaWorks S750

Thank you.

(Sorry for my bad english)

Your budget for a sound card is $350 ??

try www.newegg.com ftw

Yes, but it's too much I think. Can anyone help me?
Thank you.

X-Fi 100%

Buy it BUY IT NOW!!!! *Arnold impression*

Heya,

It depends what you want to do with your sound card. Some people swear by EAX, X-Fi, what have you. I on the other hand don't care about that stuff and want hardware dolby digital instead so that I can benefit awesome sound from movies, and not just games. And if you're in that kind of crowd, the Auzentech cards are top notch. Otherwise, only the highest end Creative lab card is worth a damn, because the lower end ones take poewr from your cpu and don't have the same actual hardware decoding going on. The higher end creative labs cards do though, but they're still pricey. Asus and Auzentech cards are noted to sound better. Check out the Prelude 7.1.

As for me, I use the simple but perfect Auzentech X-Plosion Cinema 7.1.

Very best,

Creative Titanium series is the way to go. They are newer so will be supported for longer, on a PCI-e interface and have DDL

+1 for Auzentech X-Plosion Cinema 7.1.

I usually use my speaker to :
40% games.
30% music.
30% movies.
What's the best companion for my GigaWorks S750?
Thanks to all.

Again, it completely depends.

First, what speakers will you be fueling. Having a super sound card is pointless if you have just average speakers or even a cheap set of 5.1 or 7.1 speakers. There's nearly no point going all out on a soundcard unless you have really high quality speakers to put them too.

Games - which audio settings? What added settings? EAX? Just direct 3d? Dolby Digital Live? Creative has great gaming cards on their highest end. Performance is the main thing in gaming soundcards; you want to unload most of the work from your system and keep it on the card. After that, it's all about how many simultaneous sounds the thing can playback. Higher is better of course. Again, the big creative latest cards are good here.

Music - Performance means nothing, you just want it to sound as good as possible. Crisp, clear, and plenty of outputs. Asus cards and Auzentech cards are fantastic here. You don't need creative at all; they have a reputation for having a bit less quality on this part.

Movies - Output is king here. And by that, I mean dolby digital or DTS. There's no point in caring about the card unless you have a good sound setup that can manage high quality DTS or DD. And for this, the X-Plosion is simply boss (because it does all of it, hardware, for the cheapest, with the higher quality).

Overall, you sound more like an average user. So you could go with either a latest gen Creative, or you could get the Auzentech Prelude 7.1. Overall, the Prelude is the one I would recommend. For the cost and it's overall output, I'd go with it due to quality.

This is merely my opinion though.

Very best,

Thanks for your information and recommendation marveaux. It's very helpfull for me.

All I can say is don't get anything made by creative; their customer and driver support are horrendous right now.

Creative's latest drivers are just fine right now, and they work just fine in Vista64 too. Unless you really have some decent speakers it doesn't really matter. X-Fi, Prelude, or Xonar. For your the Prelude would meet your needs and is a good all-around card. Its Vista 64 drivers need a little refining in my opinion, but they're usable and offer a lot of the same functionality as Creative's while offer DDL which all but the X-Fi Titanium don't offer at all.

The Xonar? Great card if gaming if you're not looking for hardware-accelerated audio in gaming. TBH, if Creative would sell the X-Fi Elite Pro's sound card without the breakout box for less $$ they'd have a real winner. Their drivers are more solid than Auzentech's right now (at least in Vista64) and the Elite Pro card is still a good piece of hardware with currently very solid and functional drivers.

What's a good soundcard that takes all responsability and processes from the CPU. This is for 99% gaming and 1% listening to music.

I'm looking for speakers. I was going to either get the Logitech Z-2300 2.1 system or the Z-5500. I'm not sure if I will get the Z-5500's though, when I was looking at them at Best Buy, my wife gave me the look of you'll be sleeping on the couch mister! Last time I got that look, I bribed her with a Cannon Powershot lol. If the Z-5500's don't go sale, what's the next best speakers right below the 5500's?