X-FI Xtreme Gamer or Music, OEM or Retail?

ginjaninja · 27 Nov 2007 at 16:23

Can anyone advise whats the difference between Gamer and Music ..and the oem and retail versions of these cards...as listed on OCUK website at the mo.

Dazza_Random · 27 Nov 2007 at 21:11

Basically buy the "Gamer" soundcard not the Music one because - scroll down to the table on wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_X-Fi

The gamer is an updated music card... i also atm have the X-Fi Audio and will too be upgrading to the Gamer in a week or too along with some nice Logitech Z 5500s

Also buy OEM is you wanna save some money and dont want fancy packaging and when the card comes just head over to creatives website and download the latest drivers.

Hope this helps i have been researching this for a few days now....

sosrandom · 27 Nov 2007 at 22:50

Do all the X-Fi cards have EAX 5.0 (except the audio)?

In particular the Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Music OEM Soundcard

Also will a dedicated soundcard increase fps in games on an AMD 6000+ or would it be negligible

Tute · 27 Nov 2007 at 23:07

The Music has better quality components on the card.

And OEM is more than enough - all you need is the card. Drivers can be downloaded if need be.

badbob · 27 Nov 2007 at 23:07

My OEM Music was supplied with install CD.

helmutcheese · 27 Nov 2007 at 23:14

There is plenty of posts with same topic.

The Extreme Gamer is far cheaper built than the Extreme Music fact.

You can see even looking at it and the anal geek Audiophile sites who mod the cards state the CAP's and DAC's are lesser.

WiKi is written by any member of Public and can be wrong, the fact is the Extreme Music is the better card, its the same as the Fatal1ty minus the 64MB of XRAM.

There is a cheap "Audio" Card do not confuse with the "Extreme Music"

Shakey_Jake33 · 28 Nov 2007 at 21:17

The Gamer is also optical, compared to the Music being Coaxial. This may be a decision-maker for some.

They're usually regarded as basically identical, I didn't know the Music had better quality components. It's harder to get the Music now because the Gamer essentially replaced it in Creatives lineup.

helmutcheese · 28 Nov 2007 at 21:20

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-043-CL&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=

Even if OEM and no CD (unsure) Creative no longer make you have the basic drivers/apps installed to grab newer ones unlike older days.

james.miller · 28 Nov 2007 at 21:30

Shakey_Jake33 said:
The Gamer is also optical, compared to the Music being Coaxial. This may be a decision-maker for some.

They're usually regarded as basically identical, I didn't know the Music had better quality components. It's harder to get the Music now because the Gamer essentially replaced it in Creatives lineup.

not all gamers do actually. mine didnt.

RussZS · 28 Nov 2007 at 22:47

Doesn't the Gamer also have the IntelHD Audio front connector thingy? Which my Xtreme Music annoyingly doesn't

smsmasters · 28 Nov 2007 at 22:50

Has anyone managed to get their x-fi xtrememusic working via coaxial digital output to the logitech z5500s?

Shakey_Jake33 · 29 Nov 2007 at 07:26

smsmasters said:
Has anyone managed to get their x-fi xtrememusic working via coaxial digital output to the logitech z5500s?

Yes, I use my XtremeMusic over Coaxial digital to my Z-5500's. You need a mono 3.5mm adaptor to connect a Coaxial cable to the Flexijack socket, but they're not too expensive.

smsmasters · 29 Nov 2007 at 11:27

Shakey_Jake33 said:
Yes, I use my XtremeMusic over Coaxial digital to my Z-5500's. You need a mono 3.5mm adaptor to connect a Coaxial cable to the Flexijack socket, but they're not too expensive.

What settings do you have enabled to get digital output to work? I tried it but couldn't get any digital signal coming through. Does it work with playing songs from iTunes or only with DVDs that have the digital stream already encoded?

Shakey_Jake33 · 29 Nov 2007 at 23:49

Works fine with anything, I just had to enable the Digital IO in the Control Panel sound options (yeah I know it's got nothing to do with the IO, but that's what you gotta do).

smsmasters · 4 Dec 2007 at 19:54

Cheers mate, freaking works! Much better sound quality via digital.

Phil2008 · 5 Dec 2007 at 10:40

Is my Extreme Music card better then the Extreme Gamer? I got my card just over a year ago now, and its the updated one, with the heatsink on the chip.

james.miller · 5 Dec 2007 at 10:55

dont see the point of using digital form an xfi unless its for music only. you buy an xfi for multi channel gaming, something you cant do over digital?