Hi,

I have a problem with my sound card, when the mic is boosted I get loads of hissing then if I am loading a game or viewing a website and scrolling up and down I hear high pictched frequencies. My mic also sound bad over VOIP I try all different mics and they sound exactly the same, so something must be wrong I have about £200 to spend, not on a sound card but on a graphics card aswell so I was looking at this

http://soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=14066

I just have one query I have a front headphone and mic socket can I connect them up to this card I use my sound for music, playing games and audio editing and hopefully it will get rid of the hissing and make me sound a bit better.

If this is what I am looking for it will leave me with about £150, I allready have a 3.40ghz processor so there is no point upgrading that I have 2gb of ram allready and I have a 256mb graphics card but I cant see how it can get any better than this my graphics seem amazing so I dont want to waste money on something that is good, if I had a bigger mointor than 19" I think I might need a more powerfull graphics card, the only thing that will decrease would be the loading time for games, any comments please?

So it leave me with about £150 to spend on my computer upgrading it what can I upgrade, can I add it to a better audio card?

Thanks alot

I'm pretty sure that you will not be able to use your front headphone ports with that sound card. Usually all the extra headers on a Creative card output a digital signal that would have to be converted to analog for you to be able to listen to it. Creative wants you to buy the card with the drive bay to be able to use the extra headers. All computers have some hiss and whine coming from the sound card. I'd go to the sound cards manufacturer's website and download and install the latest driver before I'd spend any money for the Sound Blaster but the XFi will probably help some with the hiss and whine.

"I just have one query I have a front headphone and mic socket can I connect them up to this card I use my sound for music, playing games and audio editing and hopefully it will get rid of the hissing and make me sound a bit better"

The Xtreme Music is a good card. The card has a Creative 10-pin propriety connector that you can use to hook-up your front-panel jacks. The issue is if you can find a cable that matches the pinout on your front panel connection.
Creative doesn't sell the cables or support them but if you visit their forum there are 3rd options available.

Thanks guys I got a current audio card connected to the front so I guess I will just use the wires. I have downloaded the latest drivers and that doesnt help.

Can anyone comment on the graphics card or can anyone suggest a better audio card, that one seems the best around though

Thanks

What video card and PSU do you have currently? For a new video card, you may or may not need a new PSU. As for the sound card, this has almost all the features of the X-Fi without the hefty price tag.
Also, here are my recommendations for a new PSU and graphics card.
ASUS X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card - £81.95 inc VAT
Coolermaster IGreen 500W PSU - 85% Efficiency ATX12V v2.2 120mm Fan - £52.05 inc VAT
Hope I helped.

Opps I thought the XFi and my Audigy II had the same connectors, but they do not. This thread explaines the situation.

Thanks but I think I will go with http://soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=14066