Which one???

Borderfox

Hi all,
I have a choice to make and I would like your opinions on it, I am going to get a new soundcard and can't decide between a Audigy 2 ZS and a Audigy 2 NX

http://ie.europe.creative.com/products/product.asp?prod=517

http://ie.europe.creative.com/products/product.asp?prod=510

I want to be able to change to headphones really easy without reaching around the back of the computer but I don't want to lose performance by using USB 2.0 any ideas?? I know it's really lame that that's all I have to think about but there I am....


Thanks

Mutant_Fruit

Without knowing too much about either card, i can tell you this.

If you are a quality freak (:P) then the audigy 2 internal is for you. It has a 108DB SNR rating, which is quite a lot better than the external one, which only has an SNR rating of 102db.

Basically SNR stands for Sound to Noise Ratio, and the higher the value of this, the better the sound quality. With the decibal scale every time the sound intensity doubles (i.e. the volume doubles) the DB rating increase by 3 decibals. This means that the internal card can give out sound 4 times louder than the external one (108db), at the same quality as the external one (102DB).

With USB devices, you need to use CPU cycles to keep em running. Therefore if you do a lot of CPU intensive stuff, the card may experience cut-outs. Also, you need a seperate power cable, which just adds to the mess of cables outside your computer.

Considaring there is only a ten euro difference, i would definately go for the internal card. Its exports better quality sound, and is internal, which in my opinion is better.

EDIT: The internal one is only 136euro in komplett.

astrofool

for a desktop pc, definitely the internal one, no contest. Using the USB bus for sound is not really great performance wise.

The audigy 2 zs platinum pro has a breakout box, giving the best of both worlds

Mutant_Fruit

out of interest, whats a "breakout box".

Col_Loki

Yea the USB one is for people with laptops or something definetly the PCI one.

You could always go for the Audigy2 and save some case, fantastic sound .......... supports 6.1 instead of 7.1 . Think creative have them refurbished? or www.hitide.ie have them pretty cheap either.

joePC

Hi, If your interested, I'll give ya a brand new Audigy 2 ZS for €100

Thanks JoePC

Creamy Goodness

Originally posted by Mutant_Fruit
out of interest, whats a "breakout box".

it's a gizmo that sits in a spare CD-Rom 5.25" slot and has loads of connectors and twidely knobs

silverside

The creative don't support 44.1 native AFAIK -everything gets resampled to 48 and downsampled to 44.1 again.

This means that if you want to play WAV's / MP3's recorded at 44.1 (ripped from CD's) - you are better off getting a M-Audio or Terratec card, than a Creative one.

For games, Creative are fine.

John R

If you need to swap headphones regularly then get a headphone extention cable, they can be got for less than €10 in any decent electrical shop.

Borderfox

Thanks for all the help I think I will definitely go for the PCI card now and just make my case a bit more accessible.....thanks again...:D