PCI-Express X-fi sound cards a reality now?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/.....%2bExpress

I was wondering if anyone had heard or read a review about the above linked soundcard. I know that Creative had run into some problems with PCI-Express a while ago, and that they were trying to over come it. Random postings around the net seem to indicate this lacks EAX4 and does its processing via software, but still interesting nonetheless because its the first PCI-Express card I've seen, as well as being the first card from Creative in recent memory to have Optical out on the card itself.

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After a little reading I found this here: "All the x-fi xtreme-audios lack the hardware DSP. In fact, they aren't even X-fis, they are just rebranded Audigy SE/LS that use the x-fi software."
http://forums.techpowerup.com/.....hp?t=37772

I would guess it is just the pci version of the card hooked up to a pci to pci-e bridge chip. Same thing for the express card version.

Looks like Creative and Asus both plan to have PCI-e sound cards out soon, if you can believe the inquirer:
http://www.theinquirer.net/def.....icle=41326
Who new Asus had sounds cards? news to me...

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somethingcool wrote:

Who new Asus had sounds cards? news to me...

Same here. Asus made a lot of things - mainly mobos and vidcards - but sound card is new.

Now, what I'm trying to see here is Why would you want to have a PCI-e SC? Better sound quality?

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I'm guessing mainly to make use of the otherwise mostly useless pci-e x1 slots on mobos. I'm sure eventually mobos won't even have pci buses anymore, so hardware needs to transition in that direction.

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Workstation: Phenom II 920, Foxconn A7GM-S, EVGA GT260, 6 GB Tracer DDR2 800, Intel X-25M G1, Samsung Spinpoint F1 1 TB, OCZ GameXStream 700W, Mountain Mods Twice 7, Acer 24" LCD 1920x1200
HTPC: HDHomerun, C2D E6750, Intel DQ45EK ITX board, Antec P182, Antec earthwatts EA380, 3 hard drives. 50W load idle, 90W max.

Xelmon wrote:

somethingcool wrote:

Who new Asus had sounds cards? news to me...

Same here. Asus made a lot of things - mainly mobos and vidcards - but sound card is new.

Now, what I'm trying to see here is Why would you want to have a PCI-e SC? Better sound quality?

My board has 2 pci slots and i have a PCI sound card, tv tuner and a pci raid card or something else equally important. My board also has 4x pci-e slots not being used. Now...since their spitting out a pci-e sound card which one should I swap out?

Or more and more mother boards are getting rid of old specs, ide and pci so eventually were gonna need the new spec cards and drives.

hity645 wrote:

My board has 2 pci slots and i have a PCI sound card, tv tuner and a pci raid card or something else equally important. My board also has 4x pci-e slots not being used. Now...since their spitting out a pci-e sound card which one should I swap out?

Heh, I would swap out the raid card. Of the 3 you listed the raid card would be the only one with a chance of ever saturating a PCI bus, it would be the only one that could realize a speed gain from PCI-E. There are quite a few nice PCI-E sata or ide raid cards out there now.

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Workstation: Phenom II 920, Foxconn A7GM-S, EVGA GT260, 6 GB Tracer DDR2 800, Intel X-25M G1, Samsung Spinpoint F1 1 TB, OCZ GameXStream 700W, Mountain Mods Twice 7, Acer 24" LCD 1920x1200
HTPC: HDHomerun, C2D E6750, Intel DQ45EK ITX board, Antec P182, Antec earthwatts EA380, 3 hard drives. 50W load idle, 90W max.