PoleCat

On crappy speakers you may not hear the difference. But even without this consideration an add in sound card is better. Always yielding better sound and often yielding a marked improvement in FPS on many games/sims. This is not opinion, it is factual widely held knowledge. If you do not have the money or the desire to buy one that is fine but it does not change the fact that onboard is inferior to a good quality add-in sound card.....always. Out

Yes it is. Driver support was shaky at one time but is much better now and I don't use linux for gaming sir. You are a software engineer and get paid well as you point out. I can handle the driver installs and uninstalls without much issue (even manually cleaning up if needed) and I am a lowly technician and network admin. Sounds like your last experience with CL drivers etc was quite a while ago. Most all works pretty good at this time, even dummy proof auto updating. I stand behind your right to be completely wrong on this point. Best of luck to you and any one who takes this bad advice from you. ;) Out

All good quality sound cards (Creative X-fi etc.) are better then ANY on board solution period. A good sound card handles almost all processing on the card while on board solutions almost always lean on your CPU. Get an X-FI Fatality and you will hear the difference for yourself. I build and sell systems for a living and I can tell you first hand that on board solutions are all pretty much inferior to a good <100USD X-Fi gaming card. In fact I would bet even the last generation Audigy 2 is better then most/all of the on board solutions on most current mother boards. "Why should I get a soundcard when my Motherboard has onboard sound? I would say onboard sound is basically a marketing tactic used by motherboard manufacturers to sell an all-in-one solution. These soundchips undoubtedly have come along way since the first onboards, and would be fine for a basic office or home, but they still do not stand up to a quality add-in PCI card for many reasons. Onboard sound chips need to use CPU cycles to process sound. This robs your sytem of performance. If your sound chip has EAX which alot of them do these days the issue is compounded usually degrading your performance somewhere in the area of 5-15 FPS in games. This is usually the reported number of FPS that users report getting when then install a PCI sound solution. This is not the worst issue though." But my onboard sounds fine to me? Of course if a user has been using their soundchips for quite a while, the ear gets used to the less than stellar sound quality boasted by onboard sound chips. When a user installs a PCI solution they are literally blown away by the sound quality. They report hearing things in games and music that previously was not noticable. Once a user is used to a PCI sound card they can hear the deficiencies inherent to onboard sound chips and will never use one again. They sound very cold and sterile. DSP effects are usually overwhelming and washed out. These chips have no qualities usually associated with good sound, so alot of times the user will not know what they are missing until they hear it. You will need a set of decent speakers to be able to hear the difference however. $10 speakers won't cut it. Now over the years various companies have released onboard sound chips that have tried to get over these issues. Connecting to the bus in different ways so they don't use CPU cycles etc. In terms of sound quality they are still lacking. All in all that's what we all want, I could care less about other things as long as I have great sound quality. People spend so much time building up there video subsystems, studying and reading about the best video components, but then they have an older onboard sound card connected to small multimedia speakers. Very sad indeed. If they invested half the time researching audio as they spent on video they wouldn't be using onboard sound. They would be using at least an entry level soundcard with surround sound speakers. Modern games are productional masterpieces with equal attention paid to audio as well as video. Without this hardware you're only getting half of what the game developers wanted you to experience. Sound is definitely an important part of all modern games. Indeed most new games contain EAX, surround sound support and directional audio, all used to make your game more enjoyable. Unfortunately all are limited by the sound hardware you have. So the choice is up to you, and the question becomes: Why wouldn't you replace your onboard with a quality PCI/PCI-E sound card? ;) By ROBSCIX (Quote taken from guru3D forums) Out

Yes well my 4 high end sytems all running X-FI fatality Pro sound cards (Both PCI and PCI-E versions) work excellent under XP/32 and VIsta 32/64 as well as windows 7. PCI or PCI-E they are pretty much trouble free for all the gaming boxes I build to sell as well. EAX, 7.1 etc. Of course this assumes you know what the hell you are doing when it comes to hardware as well. Do you? What else you got that is as good in this price range anyway? Furthermore they are widely accepted as one of the best gaming SPU's out there. You may have had trouble but the vast majority of users prefer CL over the competition. The X-Fi are pretty much todays standard for gaming. Out

I don't think any one said there was something wrong with waiting to try a demo before a purchase. I think what they said in an effort to help was that there is no demo at this time and they posted the price and a few places where he might purchase if he wants to. No one is twisting any ones arm here mate. You seem a wee bit defensive.;) Out

Disagree. I use a headset mic with no phones. I have a 7.1 speaker system surrounding me and I have no problems using VAC with speakers. The trick to this is simply to use a mic that is close to your mouth. A desktop mic will not work well with or without speakers. Out

Because Vac is simply a much better program then shoot IMHO.Only advantage to shoot is it is free. VAC wins on all other counts, including recognition. Out

X-FI Fatality. Excellent card in either PCI or PCI-E. Under Vista or XP. Out

Make sure that your joystick is programmed to hold the keystroke down for as long as you are pushing the button. Maybe it is not programmed to hold the key down till you release the button? Also I find vac works much better when you push the PTT for a second then begin to speak and then do not release for a moment after speaking. (I use middle mouse button in Flaming cliffs and DCS Black Shark for PTT). Good luck! Out

Thnx again guys. Appreciate the postive feedback very much. Out

Happy Birthday Torwak! Many more. Out

Absolutely both at once visually stunning and the most craptacular clunky controlling game ever released. Very very silly....no depth at all. Fun on the same level as space invaders with wicked graphics. Very little of this is changed from game platforms. This is a good example of why I have always disliked them. Holds your attention for 3 - 37 seconds and then DONE! Out

^^^^ Agree. Particularly true on most of the newer cards at high resolutions, ATI or Nvidia. Out

Incredible work on this most excellent mod. Thank you for continuing to work on it. Much appreciated! S!

Still just do not like it. Steam. Out

I would be quite sure that ATI CCC would also have a way to apply application specific profiles. Out

No horizontal or vertical span in Windows 7 beta. Not sure if planned for release but I doubt it. Windows 7 looks and feels like Vista SP2 to me. Needed a re-brand anyway as the Vista name is fairly muddied by a premature release and horrible 3rd party driver support. By SP1 it was looking much better but first impressions really matter in an OS. Out

Happy B-day! Out

Nice guitars buddy. I will post some photos of my Axes asap. 2 USA made Jackson Strats with EMG actives, one with maple neck and maple fingerboard (Mabel) and one with maple neck and rosewood fingerboard (Rose). Also have an Ibanez double neck 6/12 string electric, a Kramer Bass with custom electronics and an Alvarez acoustic. Out

Thank you for listening and the kind comments guys. We are hard at work on our first CD. Out

104th Phoenix Squadron Theme song. Release Candidate #1 Release candidate 1. Still mixing. :idea: http://www.104thphoenix.com/downloads/PhoenixRC1.rar Written, recorded, and produced by 104th_PoleCat and 104th_WildCat.:punk: Enjoy! Out

Beautiful looking work Ricardo! Simply stunning detail. Rep inbound. Out

All I can say is that what ever 3GO, Simmod, or Ruggbutt does next in the DCS/FC mod department, I will be some where near the front of the line to grab it. This type of high quality modding is transforming one of our favorite combat flight sims into a thing of even greater beauty and deeper immersion. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all of your outstanding effort and generosity in creating these Mods! Out

Very nice work! Out

Absolutely couldn't care less about this one. I do not intend to re-lock any destroyed target once I have destroyed them anyway. Seems rather insignificant in the larger picture. Out