Product Description The Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty sound card provides stunning 109dB SNR audio quality, accelerates gaming performance and includes 64MB of on-board X-RAM for high performance gaming. With support for EAX Advanced HD 5.0, the Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty card utilizes X-Fi CMSS 3D technology for stunning audio realism over headphones in LAN gaming. Free up system memory and improve overall gaming audio quality and performance in game titles like Battlefield 2, Prey, Quake 4, Doom 3 and others that take advantage of X-RAM. The Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty also includes all of the standard features, application software, power and performance capabilities of the Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum and Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music. Center, Subwoofer and Side Channels - 109dB FlexiJack - 3-in-1 functions (Digital I/O1 / Line In / Microphone) via 3.50mm mini jack Line level out (Front / Rear / Side / Center / Subwoofer) - 3.50mm mini jacks Aux-In line-level analog input - 4-pin Molex connector on card One AD Link (26 pin) connector - For linking to the X-Fi I/O Console (upgrade option) Coaxial SPDIF input and output - Two RCA jacks Auxiliary input - Two RCA jacks Optical SPDIF input and output - Two optical connectors MIDI input and output - Two mini MIDI female connectors Headphone output and volume control - 6.35 mm (1/4-inch) stereo jack Shared line-level analog Line/Microphone input - 6.35 mm (1/4-inch) stereo jack System Requirements - Intel Pentium III 1 GHz, AMD 1 GHz processor or faster, Intel, AMD or 100% compatible motherboard chipset, Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), 256MB RAM, 600MB of free hard disk space, Available PCI 2.1 slot for the audio card
Bait and Switch at its finest - included DVD software is 3 versions old!August 12, 2008 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
*updated review - see end* Great sound - after a couple hours I re-hooked up my old speakers and was *really* blown away by how much my entire sound stage "collapsed"
There is enough in the other reviews about the virtues of this card, everyting they said is right - if you want great sound, you will NOT be let down.
With that said, I would like to address a issue that I think is simply misleading and wrong.
WARNING: If you are buying because of the bundled powerDVD software *Don't*
PowerDVD has lost a customer due to the misleading and stupid bundling of their software with this card -- no its not all creative's fault - read on....
The package states "includes Cyberlink's PowerDVD software with DTS and Dolby Digital-EX decoding via free download for an unbeatable DVD movie watching experience"
You may want to remember that "unbeatable" line up there. That sorta implies that you are getting a pretty current version and that you can't beat it. (unbeatable?)
Cyberlink currently has 3 versions of this software available for sale:
1. versoin 7 2. version 8 3. version 8 ultra (blueray)
Now, I don't expect their top of the line software - however, I DO expect at least a currently shipping version!
Thats right - you get none of the above - you get version 6.
Now version 6 has all sorts of known problems (with new hardware - it IS 3 versoin old) - I was never able to get it to work with most of my movies and its decoding was ify at best.
Not only that, every time you run it it pesters you to "upgrade to version 7 or 8 and you can have a really great software program at a special price -- click here!" - (my paraphrasing...but you get the point)
OK - I'l bite -- how much is the "special pricing"
Are you ready for this -- instead of 99.00 you can buy it for 95.00 -- Thats right - you save 5.00!
Cyberlink obviously thinks that version 7, 8 and 8 ultra all "beat" version 6 - and they obviously rate version 6 as only being worth about $5.00.
Thanks guys!
Now, I don't mind bundling "trial versions" of software - or giving me old versions -- but AT LEAST warn me of that when I purchase it.
I don't want to buy a 130.00 card then spend almost the same amount to get software that it sounds like I am alread getting.
Now cyberlink -- if you really wanted to get me as a cuatomer - at least give me a *real deal* - say half off for having the bundled version of your software ---
Just my thoughts...
BTW - I am curretnly using the free "VLC Media player" and it seems to be working well. But the !hours! I wasted trying to ger version 6 of powerDVD to work correctly really left a bad taste with me. BTW - yes I did download powerDVD version 8's trial and yes - it does seem to work. However, I would spend MORE money with some other company rather than support this dishonest practice of "bait and switch"
Update: OK after spending even MORE time I have learned the following: Digital IN: Does NOT support dolby 5.1 (card is not a dolby decoder - yes you can soft of figure this out but the wording of everything certainly lets you (and hundreds of others looking at the sheer number of complaints out there) think that it does.
Digital OUT: Does NOT send out dolby 5.1 out the digital out.
What this means is if you attach a DVD or cable box to the digital in you only get stereo - no surround and if you attach the digital out to your dolby receiver you still only get stereo - no surround! You only get surround from internal programs (games dvd software) and then ONLY if you either use the analog outputs (!!) or purchase another device from creative for another 179.00...even then you still have to convert to analog - go to device - it converts back to digital then goes from there.
Creative support is certainly aware of this issue and simply chooses to make it as hard as possible to find out. All these are design decisions that Creative made and should have shared upfront in a *clear* manner with us. I downloaed the manual for the card ahead of time and it *clearly* states that it does several things it does NOT do -- turns out they only have one manual of their product line and all the different part do not relate to all the products.
You mean you really cannot have a seperate file for each product telling me what it does and how to do it? Really? That is just too much work???
I expected better from you creative.
Very good sound cardJuly 9, 2008 I like this card a lot.It's way better then my old one,which came with Abit mother board.There is a lot of software comes with this card.But if you have Nvidea chipset this card has some issues,so you have to check with Creative labs if they fix it.
im liking this for cod4June 24, 2008 My old sound card was not providing accurate sound in Call of Duty 4 with headphones. I figured i'd give this a try since i heard the CMSS-3D the x-fi had was great. The sound the x-fi giving me seems to be a bit more accurate than my previous card
AMAZING SOUND CARD GREAT BUYJune 14, 2008 The BEST 10+ it works what an awesome sound card it actually works i've been frustrated for years about my Auzentech 7.1 thx gpu but i actually found a soundcard that WORKS !!!!!!!!
Still bugged and now doesn't have MP3 Encoding!!!!!!May 22, 2008 4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This card is bugged to death with problems. MP3s randomly play at twice the speed. WMAs suddenly won't play and instead hiss or screech. To top off this incredibly poor bundle of rubbish, they won't even provide you with MP3 encoding so you can rip your CD collection - you have to buy that separately. This is incredulous for such an expensive card. I will NEVER buy from Creative again, their attitude and expertise with technology is worse than ever!!
Update (05/25/2008) - The "Super Rip" mode was generating garbage when I ripped using the "surround 5.1" option. I sent a support ticket to Creative and they fobbed me off with an article on how to record audio! Well, for starters, I'm no idiot and know how to rip CDs! On top of that, most of the email contained advertising for other products. It seems they don't care about their customers at all - they just want their money.
Well, I'm shoving this card in my old PC and I'll be getting an Asus Xonar D2 soon. I had to return several products in the last 6 months. It seems most manufacturers can't produce a quality kit any more. What's going on with tech these days? Does anything work? Some friends have told me to "hang in there" with X-Fi and wait for better drivers? Well, I don't really care anymore as I will follow Asus now. If they patch the X-Fi that would be great, but this company's record on product quality and customer service is appauling. I'll not be made a sucker again.
