Creative are up to their bad tricks again

PogMoThoin

It looks like consumers aren't being treated fairly once again. It has come to our attention that a few popular vendors are now offering motherboards with a built-in X-Fi advertised as part of the features. Now you would expect to see an X-Fi audio chip on those motherboards - well, this is not the case. What you are going to get is a regular onboard audio chip (VIA, Realtek, AD) with additional limited Sound Blaster X-Fi software. It seems that Creative Labs is now licensing its X-Fi software to OEMs:

http://www.ngohq.com/news/17946-beware-of-onboard-sound-blaster-x-fi.html

Overheal

Sometime in the last 5 or so years I ceased using Creative's products and began using Logitech's anyhow.

Whatever happened to Creative Labs, they're really just taking the biscuit now.

PogMoThoin

That X-fi in my sig I've had for 4 yrs is the last Creative product I'll ever buy, I've a worthless Audigy 2ZS here, I was one of the customers they fcuked over. Thing is, onboard has nearly caught up, most mobos have decent onboard 7.1 surround with pretty decent sound quality at that

lmimmfn

ive my XfiXtreme music for about 4 or 5 years, fantastic sound card.

While im no fan of creative in general and their stupid antics( considering that brazilian guy who got shafted with his drivers ), that article is crap, if you know what Xfi is you know to differentiate between software( xtreme audio e.g. ) xfi and hardware xfi ( xtreme music etc. ) and therefore if youre buying a motherboard with that knowledge you would check.

Onboard is still crap in comparison, dont care what anyone says, nope definately not the same audio wise.

Solitaire

Onboard is great for 99% of people. The other 1% would be far better off getting one of the non-cack Xonars/Auzentechs (pretty much all the newer Auzzies are cack AFAIK ) than Creative rubbish! (including those newer rebadged Auzzies )

lmimmfn

Solitaire wrote: »

Onboard is great for 99% of people. The other 1% would be far better off getting one of the non-cack Xonars/Auzentechs (pretty much all the newer Auzzies are cack AFAIK ) than Creative rubbish! (including those newer rebadged Auzzies )

oh i agree those are better, but again cost more $$$, tbh if you play with onboard youll think its the biz, then get a dedicated card and cant believe you thought onboard was good

PogMoThoin

lmimmfn wrote: »

............and therefore if youre buying a motherboard with that knowledge you would check.

But lots of people won't check, they'll take it for granted cos its got Creative splashed all over it, it even shows a picture of an X-fi board.

lmimmfn wrote: »

Onboard is still crap in comparison, dont care what anyone says, nope definately not the same audio wise.

Its fine for the vast majority of customers who look for a mobo with as many features built in as possible.

ED E

Have to agree, Onboard is fine for 95% of the market, though the above is really scummy.

That said, I have an X-Fi myself and an external dual channel from Numark. Have yet to get my apps to run dual on the X-fi.

Ghost Train

I like the creative cards but not a fan of the way the software is

I guess you can't blame them though, there's not much reason to upgrade the hardware when you have a decent card so the only way they can get you to spnd more is to not support old hardware on new OS

lmimmfn

PogMoThoin wrote: »

But lots of people won't check, they'll take it for granted cos its got Creative splashed all over it, it even shows a picture of an X-fi board.

True but if you dont do some research on what mobo youre buying you probably wouldnt notice the difference

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Its fine for the vast majority of customers who look for a mobo with as many features built in as possible.

agree completely, but after youve played BF2 with an Xfi card and had onboard beforehand the difference is night and day as you can hear people creeping up on you from behind and you know where enemy snipers are shooting from based on the directional audio from the gun blast.

I dont know about Bad Company 2 as ive never compared with onboard on that though. I have 5.1 onboard on my media rig and its 100% fine for that.

Deano12345

Solitaire wrote: »

O (pretty much all the newer Auzzies are cack AFAIK )

I'm getting an X-FI Forte soon, I'll let you know how it is

Creatives driver's are rubbish, it doesn't say much about your company when a 3rd party (cant remember the dudes name ) makes better drivers than you....for your own product !

VenomIreland

Solitaire wrote: »

Onboard is great for 99% of people. The other 1% would be far better off getting one of the non-cack Xonars/Auzentechs (pretty much all the newer Auzzies are cack AFAIK ) than Creative rubbish! (including those newer rebadged Auzzies )

How's this Xonar? I'm thinking of getting one for Christmas/Birthday: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141346

Deano12345

VenomIreland wrote: »

How's this Xonar? I'm thinking of getting one for Christmas/Birthday: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141346

Very good, its very clean underneath that EMI sheilding (I mean the circutry is neat)

Do you use headphones alot ?

VenomIreland

Deano12345 wrote: »

Very good, its very clean underneath that EMI sheilding (I mean the circutry is neat)

Do you use headphones alot ?

Sometimes I do, and I plan to get some 5.1 speakers around christmas/birthday aswell.

Deano12345

Ah, then I'd go with the Xonar D2X, I was gonna say if you use headphones ALOT (like me) then you should look into some of Auzentech X-Fi Forte because of the built in headphone amp but if you dont use them often the the D2X is great

VenomIreland

Deano12345 wrote: »

Ah, then I'd go with the Xonar D2X, I was gonna say if you use headphones ALOT (like me) then you should look into some of Auzentech X-Fi Forte because of the built in headphone amp but if you dont use them often the the D2X is great

Thanks, looks like I know what one of my Christmas presents will be!

Deano12345

VenomIreland wrote: »

Thanks, looks like I know what one of my Christmas presents will be!

If memory serves me correctly, those model Xonars even light up !

VenomIreland

Deano12345 wrote: »

If memory serves me correctly, those model Xonars even light up !

Cool! Now all I need to do is check if the PSU I'm buying for my first build (which I'll be ordering the parts for on the 14th) has a floppy power connector.

lmimmfn

Deano12345 wrote: »

I'm getting an X-FI Forte soon, I'll let you know how it is

Creatives driver's are rubbish, it doesn't say much about your company when a 3rd party (cant remember the dudes name ) makes better drivers than you....for your own product !

DanielK