I never used Google checkout, but the price is good, so I thought I'd pass it along.
Nice card. I highly recommend people to save up and get the X-Fi though. I have seen the basic card on sale for $80-sh. The card is the exact same as the higher priced ones except the very top lines have memory on them which I do not think games even really use anyway from all I read. So the basic cards are great!
The Surround effects when using normal headphones is simply fantastic! It has improved my game play considerably. I can totally localize sounds in game and know when people sneak up on me if it is quiet and know exactly where helicopters are.
Some system do have problems with them though so beware.
Paladin wrote: Nice card. I highly recommend people to save up and get the X-Fi though. I have seen the basic card on sale for $80-sh. The card is the exact same as the higher priced ones except the very top lines have memory on them which I do not think games even really use anyway from all I read. So the basic cards are great!
The Surround effects when using normal headphones is simply fantastic! It has improved my game play considerably. I can totally localize sounds in game and know when people sneak up on me if it is quiet and know exactly where helicopters are. Some system do have problems with them though so beware.
Beats on-board sound, and Soundblaster Live!'s from 1999, which I know some ppl here are using. More expensive cards are better, no suprise, but $50 means more to some ppl than others. . .
I tried to add a new soundcard today and nothing would boot! Gack. Sometimes better to leave well enough alone until it breaks. I wanted to have 5.1 over my onboard sound, but NO it had a fit 😉 Took it out and finally got a reboot, but lost a USB card.. arghh.. must be a lose connection, or perhaps I need to reinstall my better powersupply.
My new soundcard seems to have fixed my problems. I can be heard in TS now!!!! I guess my other card was bad.. That or the fact that I pulled one of my sticks of RAM.... either way WOOO HOOOO!
The audigy 4 is a great card. Doc I have a remote control and the software to hook it all up that I can send you that came with mine. It's pretty kewl for if you have surround sound, but I don't. I'm not gonna mess with sending the card back to creative even though it's still in warranty. So, if you want it it's yours for the taking!! 😀
lexx wrote: I tried to add a new soundcard today and nothing would boot! Gack. Sometimes better to leave well enough alone until it breaks. I wanted to have 5.1 over my onboard sound, but NO it had a fit 😉 Took it out and finally got a reboot, but lost a USB card.. arghh.. must be a lose connection, or perhaps I need to reinstall my better powersupply.
This may sound weird but check any USB hubs on your system. Always unplug those first when you reboot. For some reason some hubs can cause your system to not boot. Sometimes my old machine does not boot from the internal HD's and goes into network boot mode. I unplug the USB hub and all is well. I think it tries to boot off one of my external HD's or is a power drain etc.... unsure why but it works 😉
Paladin wrote: This may sound weird but check any USB hubs on your system. Always unplug those first when you reboot. For some reason some hubs can cause your system to not boot. Sometimes my old machine does not boot from the internal HD's and goes into network boot mode. I unplug the USB hub and all is well. I think it tries to boot off one of my external HD's or is a power drain etc.... unsure why but it works 😉
BTW I still have your power supply.
Maybe I can get it this week. I found my soldering iron and supplies if it still needs fixed. Don't have any hubs, just the 8 onboard ports plus a 2.0 card with 4 more. The card just quit working and doesn't respond to any attempt to reinstall a driver. Very wierd! I removed the soundblaster and a video capture card and it would once again reboot thank goodness.
Sindy, You will love the X-Fi. In 10 years of building computers, I have owned 3 sound cards. Creative Soundblaster, Creative Soundblaster Live and now the X-Fi. I only upgrade sound cards when there is a really good reason too. The X-Fi is a really good reason... It's amazing how much difference it has made for me.
Atomm wrote: Sindy, You will love the X-Fi. In 10 years of building computers, I have owned 3 sound cards. Creative Soundblaster, Creative Soundblaster Live and now the X-Fi. I only upgrade sound cards when there is a really good reason too. The X-Fi is a really good reason... It's amazing how much difference it has made for me.
Atomm I noticed the difference immediately. I have a set of Altec Lansing desktop speakers that I paid like $30 for not too long ago and they have never sounded as good as they do now. I was really disappointed in them because I thought it was them that were not handling the quality of the sound. But now, I realize that my card had to have been not quite right from the get-go. Because those speakers ROCK now!! 🤘
sindy wrote: My new soundcard seems to have fixed my problems. I can be heard in TS now!!!! I guess my other card was bad.. That or the fact that I pulled one of my sticks of RAM.... either way WOOO HOOOO!
The audigy 4 is a great card. Doc I have a remote control and the software to hook it all up that I can send you that came with mine. It's pretty kewl for if you have surround sound, but I don't. I'm not gonna mess with sending the card back to creative even though it's still in warranty. So, if you want it it's yours for the taking!! 😀
Hey thanks Sindy, but hang onto it and see if you can find another use for it. I passed on the deal I posted. I'm not all that unhappy with the card I'm currently using, and I want to scour the local pawn shops looking for a 2nd monitor this weekend. Saw a 15" trinitron for $35 a couple weeks ago, but I'm holding out for a 17". . .maybe I'll get lucky and someone who got a nice LCD for Christmas will have sold their old CRT.
lexx wrote: Gotta love the diversity around this place 😉
.. or is that perversity?? 🙂
HAHA Lexx works either way for me!! But really I have this awesome recording of Tom Jones doing a version of "kiss" from Prince. It's a really high quality file so I use it to test out my speakers and stuff!! Well, and you just can never go wrong with Tom Jones. 😆 😛
OK... I have decided, using my great will power to refrain from posting anymore on this topic. :-) Note the immeasurable amount of will power this is taking.
Atomm wrote: Dude! Stop fantasizing about me!!!! It's starting to freak me out!!!!
Tom Jones Rocks!
Doc, I have a 15" and a 19" Trinitron. Too bad you weren't closer. I imagine shipping costs on these babies would be more than they are worth.
Hey thanks Atomm, yeah, I imagine the shipping on a monitor is pretty high, going by weight. I leave near an army base, and there are several pawn shops that keep very busy as a result (soldiers leaving, buying stuff then getting tired of it, etc). I'm sure I'll find something good at a dirt cheap price pretty quickly.
DocJon wrote: Hey thanks Atomm, yeah, I imagine the shipping on a monitor is pretty high, going by weight. I leave near an army base, and there are several pawn shops that keep very busy as a result (soldiers leaving, buying stuff then getting tired of it, etc). I'm sure I'll find something good at a dirt cheap price pretty quickly.
Fine jsut talk about monitors like they are nothing.. thats it I am moving to my 7ft screen.. and that is not diagonal. its just a projector 😳
ok.. nevermind thats in the living room.. I will just wait until my darling wife buys me one for my b-day for the office.
sindy wrote: *Bubba, your weak willpower attempt is noted* And way to bring this thread back on track Doc, good work!!! 😆
Well, I WAS about to say that it never would've worked without Bubba's cooperation, but it looks like his willpower lasted about 31 minutes. . .
Here's something Sarge posted once. . . I believe it's gone beyond appropriate and is now a manditory posting.
COLD, you might check the for-sale newspaper ads, or ads in your version of the free ads paper (Green Sheet, Pennysaver, etc) PPL are moving to LCD's now, and you might get a great deal on a perfectly fine CRT.
COLD, you might check the for-sale newspaper ads, or ads in your version of the free ads paper (Green Sheet, Pennysaver, etc) PPL are moving to LCD's now, and you might get a great deal on a perfectly fine CRT.
Once again the loving wife is planning on getting two matching LCDs.. I am bucking for 30"ers or something at least larger than my 14" CRT right now.. . I used to use the projector and had that large projector screen attached to the PC, great for gaming, better for movie watching, bout worthless for word processing. Alas, we have since moved it into the living room to provide for guests and entertainment of them.
Silent Cold wrote: Once again the loving wife is planning on getting two matching LCDs.. I am bucking for 30"ers or something at least larger than my 14" CRT right now.. . I used to use the projector and had that large projector screen attached to the PC, great for gaming, better for movie watching, bout worthless for word processing. Alas, we have since moved it into the living room to provide for guests and entertainment of them.
Sorry, I thought you were wishing your wife would buy you one the same way some ppl wish they would hit the lottery. . .and the opening line of your post ("Fine jsut talk about monitors like they are nothing." ) made me think you might be closer to the end of the economic scale where buying a monitor was a bit of a stretch, not on the end where you can plan on getting two matching 30" LCD monitors. Just trying to help.
DocJon wrote: Sorry, I thought you were wishing your wife would buy you one the same way some ppl wish they would hit the lottery. . .and the opening line of your post ("Fine jsut talk about monitors like they are nothing." ) made me think you might be closer to the end of the economic scale where buying a monitor was a bit of a stretch, not on the end where you can plan on getting two matching 30" LCD monitors. Just trying to help.
The economic scale I am on does not include children so its a bit easier. And the two matching, though it would be nice is prolly more of a pipe dream with the likeliness of 20"ers much more likely, one for me and one for the wife. All depending of course, as long as the new job beginning on the beginning of the year works out all will be good. I appreciate the comment on the green sheet/pawn shops, I have seen such items in there just never thought to go looking around town for them to buy. It is strange going from dual 24" lcd widescreens at work to a single 14" crt at home.. I think its a 14.. might only be a 13. 🙁
Atomm wrote: I plan on making the jump to LCD in 07. I am just not sure what to do with my monitors. Guess I could throw them up on Craig's List.
I still prefer CRT's for gaming. Much crisper display and better refresh rates. They just perform better for games. LCD's are getting much better though.
I use to feel that way, but with my new Video card, I am starting to see the limitation on my monitor. If I use anything other than 60Hz on the refresh, it's all wavy. I've had this thing over 5 years, so it's time to get something new.
i think the most important thing about the LCD's is the refresh rate. Just make sure you get one thats fast enough and you shouldn't have any problems. Mine is a .8 ms and I hardly ever get any ghosting. Only every now and then CS it will ghost in free look mode when I'm dead. I haven't had any other issues with any other games. Now they have the .4ms ones so they are even better!
sindy wrote: i think the most important thing about the LCD's is the refresh rate. Just make sure you get one thats fast enough and you shouldn't have any problems. Mine is a .8 ms and I hardly ever get any ghosting. Only every now and then CS it will ghost in free look mode when I'm dead. I haven't had any other issues with any other games. Now they have the .4ms ones so they are even better!
.8? crap, and here I thought the 3ms were decent.. I need to brush up on my LCDese..
You're right Silent. The lower the number the faster it is. A .8 is the slowest I would go, anything higher and alot of games will ghost. At the time I bought my monitor though, the .8 was the fastest they had... 🙁
OK Sindy do you really mean .8ms or 8ms? Mine I think is a 6ms, and it's pretty good about ghosting. The one problem with mine is it's native resolution is 1600x1200. When not at native res, LCD look worse. My vid card can't push bf2 at 1600x1200 with any success witch causes something similar to ghosting.
OK picky yuni... If you want to be technical I suppose it's 8ms... LOL 🙄
I couldn't remember when I was typing that!! HEHE and I am at work, so I was trying not to spend toooooo much time goofing off!! 😳
My monitor is a Samsung 19" LCD. It is pretty much digitally controlled by the software that came with it. I mean I can adjust size settings and stuff like that, but all the other stuff is all done automatically. The only thing I did was go to the Microsoft site and do the clear view (i think) thing that smooths out how the text looks on your screen so that it's not tooo LCD'ish.
My vid card will push BF2 in high settings all the way, and I have never had a prob with it. But I don't usually play with it on the highest settings, it's usually somewhere around the 1200 x whatever setting. 😀
They are making 2ms LCD's, but I read there is a catch. I'm not sure I understand all of this either, but it's not as good as you think it is or at least the geeks at OKGG said something to that affect....