X-FI NoteBook Xtreme First Impressions

Hey everyone, just got my x-fi notebook shipped to me here at college and i thought id like to give you some first impressions of it.(ill get my camera next weekend when i go home and make this a proper review going to use product pictures for now).


Package Contents: Comes with the Card, decent creative in ear headphones, Installation CD and a nice leather carrying case for the notebook travaler. The speaker adapter is sold separately
<---Speaker adapter


OK so it fits into your express slot, which most new laptops have, (google it if your not sure what it is Have a picture below). The card is a little big, good construction but sticks out from the laptop but nothing to worry about if its staying on a desk, whats a bit annoying is it is only held in by friction, this means if you don't hold it in when you unplug something from it will come out, leaving your computer soundless if your running windows XP until restart or with vista you'll have stock sound until restart.


Setup and first impression:

Now when i first plugged it in the install was easy, simple disk run it through bunch a goodies from creative for converting files and controlling the card. I have a set of ATH-AD700's from audiotechnica and some logitech 5.1 speakers.



First thing i noticed with my headphones was how much more you can hear clarity between sounds, each kind of sound sounded different, nothing really mushed together that was not supposed to like it did with my stock sound. With my speakers i finally got true surround sound and i was loving it, plus its bass boost was quite fun to play with with my sub. Ill talk more about the features down a bit.


Possible FPS Increase?

Ok now i had heard before i bought this that it could increase your FPS if you have mobo sound but i have not really done alot of testing yet, but you can kinda feel sound intensive games run a bit better, im not 100% sure if its actually an FPS improvement yet but it feels as if im getting a few extra fps and never have i had sound skip in graphic or sound intensive moments, this difference from the stock sound really impressed me. Clear sound all the time.


Features:
Alot of cool features here,

-Different Console Modes: There are different modes for the card, i usually stick with Entertainment mode which is optimized for Music, movies but there is a Gaming mode for games which i did not find a large difference from entertainment mode in games, and there is an audio creation mode optimized for sound editing and recording for any sound junkies. You right click on the tray icon go to switch modes and select it its refreshes the console and your good to go. When you switch mode the settings are default again so you can change your CMSS-3D or bass settings for each mode.
<---Main X-FI Console

-X-fi CMSS-3D: I really like this feature it really pinpoints sounds like footsteps in COD4 and such(i compete so this was real important for me) and it allows for a real sound stage on music tracks meaning it rolls the sound around the headphones/speakers according to how it was recorded, though not all tracks are recorded with this.

-MP3 Crystalizer: This cool feature takes mp3 files or similar music tracks and un-flattens them so you get more punch out of peaks and drops, really works pretty well, though if you put it up 100% it kind of overdoes the effect, but when set right it makes symbols and beats stop mushing together and each tap of a symbol can be heard, and really makes the sound have some more clarity.

-EAX Effects: Feature on creative sounds cards and software are distortion effects to make your sounds sound like they are in an array of different locations from a ballroom to a jazz club. For me this feature is a bit useless but its still there for anyone who was wondering

-Digital Equalizer: I used to do a bit a sound work back in highschool and i think its pretty cool that they include a full equalizer on the console, it has tons of presets for different music types and sound types but it really allows you to tune your sound and if you know how to equalize well it can add a whole new level to the sound quality of this card. Another standard feature for creative but a great one.

-Bass Boost: Standard feature for more sound cards but this one is nice and simple, boost amount and cut off frequency and really lets me tune my music and games to the sound i like, pretty standard feature but im enjoying it.

-Stock speaker playback: Cool little feature here, if you are on the road or something and are not using headphones or dont want to you can have the x-fi card search through the hardware and find the stock laptop speakers and play the sound through them using the x-fi's quality, its a cool feature for laptops like mine with decent speakers but if you dont have decent speakers on your laptop not really going to make a difference from stock sound, so id recommend having a good pair or headphones or speakers for this card, still a cool feature.

Conclusion:

Now thats really all ive got so far, these have been out of stock everywhere i went online so i got mine from the UK off ebay and then bought the separate piece for the speakers from creative, they tend to have the best prices and most in stock, they were still waiting on more at the creative site for the actual card and it was listed when i checked at $75ish plus tax, the speaker adapter will run you about 25-34 bucks, my card was 50 pounds off ebay about 85 bucks at the time and so far i think it was worth it, though the speaker module can push this into a high price range i believe that if you want to use speakers its worth it, plus its a great buy alone for just your headphones.

Alot of fun with this card so far i believe its worth it

8.5/10 so far for me just because of some minor inconveniences because its an express slot card, but nothing creative could avoid making a model like this.

Stay tuned ill get some pictures up with the speaker adapter and how it sits in the laptop and ill add some more info about FPS performance

D_Sage44

 

Very nice......they're quite expensive where I live,so will try and wait for a second hand one to pop up some time.

Thanks for the info

 

I had that sound card with my laptop last year. It is a nice card indeed.