Sound Card

[Askari]

Of course the one I want is not in stock anywhere.

What do you peeps think of the AUDIGY2-NX USB sound card? Worth it or not?

[Albereth]

Isn't that for a notebook?

Not sure how it'll relieve the load on the CPU.

[rainy]

Apparently these things are a fullsize sound solution for the USB port, which means they have the same performance as a PCI card. Never tested it though...

[sss]

i have a bad feeling about it

[TG]

Well, the problem is bandwidth is limited on USB - even if it's USB 2 - if there are other devices on the same bus, there will be contention for the bandwidth.

I don't know if it will be as good as a PCI card, but it shouldn't be too shabby.

[sss]

well usb2 is like 480mbs.... a pci card can easily beat that.... but more importantly is the "lag" .... i just gotta wonder

[Albereth]

The reason why you'd add a sound card is that the on board chip consumes a whole bunch of CPU cycles. Putting in a sound card frees up some of the work the CPU has to do, and it has the whole sound effects library that adds to the game enjoyment. I am not sure if having your sound card on a USB port will free up enough of your CPU so while you may get all the noise you could wish for you still may be running slower than if it was dedicated.

Just a view - not engineering fact.

[gus]

I personally thing the USB sound cards should only be considered for laptops. For a desktop, one should get a real soundcard only.

[Askari]

Well thanks a whole bunch guys! While you were all on lunch and not responding I went and bought one! Now I come back and see I may have made a mistake....

From now on, no more lunch breaks for any of you!

[Albereth]

Just how early a lunch do you Durbs boys take? Maybe you can still take it back - within 7 days, original wrapping etc etc.

Can you guys get XFi cards down there? Incredible Corruption still only carries Audigy 2s but you should be able to get a card from Budget Technologies at the Pavillion

Sorry for using the 'b' word. :)

[Askari]

Lunch break??? I didnt even go to work yesterday! Got up too late due to a longer spell of BF2 than usual the previous night....

Now back to the piece of hardware in question:

I installed it and I can notice a difference in game load times and also that choppy period in the beginning of games is now shorter.

One thing I didnt consider when buying the Audigy 2NX was 64bit compatabilty... Although there are new drivers available that I downloaded, the full software suite like graphic equalizer etc doesnt seem to be available. Ill look some more today but overall the card has taken the strain off the CPU.

It is also usefull as I have a HP laptop as well so being USB the graphics 'card' can be used on it as well.

[Albereth]

Well then it sounds like you've found a good solution - sorry about the pun. If it does what you want at a price point you are comfortbale with, well great. And it is nice that you can use it on your notebook.