SB Live vs Audigy LS

[Blade195]

My uncle has a set of 5.1 speakers (Creative Inspire 5100), but he doesn't have a soundcard to support it. So he told me to go get a soundcard that supports these channels. Now, he gave me a budget just enough to buy a SB Live or an Audigy LS. There's almost no difference in price between them here.

Considering the Audigy LS is running EAX 3.0 in software mode, that'll have some load on my cpu, which is only a 2.0GHz. For current FPS games, I know I need spare as much cpu power as I can. However, if the cpu load the soundcard causes is only trivial, then I might think otherwise.

So please help me decide on this one. Please consider the best match with the speakers and the cpu, etc.. Thank you very much.

 

[Electronic Punk]

Audigy is the sequel, if you like, to the Live range of cards.
Not sure what LS is tho

*reads up*

Yeah. Definatly the LS

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/audigyLS/compare.asp

Basically they are aimed at the same consumers, but the LS is a slightly new generation of card.

One thing tho, Hardware Acceleration of EAX &/or EAX ADVANCED HD is not done by it.
But they can both do 5.1

How much is the card tho, I have a Audigy2 ZS myself and it's the mutts (well cept the platinums)

 

[devynal]

Yes, avoid the live at all costs.

 

[Blade195]

Eh... avoid Live at all cost? Please elaborate on that. What makes them so bad? They lasted quite a while to be THAT bad, right?

Well, the LS and Live is about the same price here. Live being a bit cheaper. Not being able to support the EAX 3 with the hardware is what makes me look the other way. I really need to save all the proccessing power I can get from my 2.0 GHz cpu. Yeah, so...

I'm thinking of getting an Audigy 2 myself. Most people are saying an Audigy 2 would be an overkill for a inspire 5100. I guess i'll be going against the consensus... stupid EAX 4.0 is tempting me!

 

[Sazar]

the audigy is that much better

turtle beach santa cruz is also a nice card if you can get it.. usually runs cheap..

I personally have been looking @ the audigy2 NX

I always wanted an external USB sound card

 

[Blade195]

Why an external one? Any advantages to it? I only find it to take up more space (really bad for my small room).

 

[dreamliner77]

The live is bad because it resamples all audio output to 48kHZ and does a piss poor job of it. The reason it lasted so long is because Creative has basically cornered the market on consumer level cards.

 

[devynal]

It's just that I had a Live! before my Audigy 2 ZS. I've had the Live! crash games before and/or my PC, snap/pop during games (even with up-to-date drivers), and it has just been a piece of **** all around. I've never had a problem yet with my Audigy and it sounds beautiful.

 

[Sazar]

Why an external one? Any advantages to it? I only find it to take up more space (really bad for my small room).

so I can carry it round if needed to other peoples places and still get good sound and plus I am on my headphones most of the time and this way I am able to monitor settings and stuff with the device right in frnt of me

its not very big so unlikely to take up much space...