Rated: 67.5% (8 votes)
Loading ...A new X-Fi, but it’s not from Creative
garethogden
It’s no secret that Custom PC is a big fan of Creative’s X-Fi sound chip, and I’m also personally a big fan of the technology too. So it was with great interest that I opened an email today from Auzentech, a Californian company that is to become the first manufacturer (other than Creative, of course) to release a sound card based on the X-Fi chip.
Creative knows about this, of course, because it gave its permission for the third-party license in the first place (in exchange for a big, fat cheque, no doubt). Even more interesting is that Creative even seems to be looking forward to the competition; I spoke to Neil McGuinness from the company a few months ago and I certainly got the impression from him that being the only serious player in the sound card business wasn’t necessarily good for business.
So, what can Auzentech offer with its X-Fi product, the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1, that you can’t get from a Creative X-Fi? First impressions seem to suggest not a lot - the Auzen X-Fi has 64MB of X-RAM and supports EAX Advanced HD and OpenAL in Vista, which means it has similar basic features to Creative’s X-Fi Fatal1ty and Pro. However, the Auzen X-Fi has a wider range of inputs and outputs on the backplate, including S/PDIF in and out, plus support for a daughtercard called the X-Tension DIN, which adds MIDI in/out and a few additional inputs and outputs. Auzentech says that it will also add support for Dolby Digital Live, DTS Interactive and DTS NEO:PC by the end of this year/early the next, all of which are features that Creative’s X-Fis currently lack (you can read more about the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 on Auzentech’s website, here).
But is this enough to convince you to buy an Auzen card instead of a Creative X-Fi, especially as the Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 is set to cost £129.99 for the PCI version (no PCI-E models have been announced), which is the same as a high-end Creative card with a breakout box?
Auzentech certainly thinks so. A spokesperson for the company wasn’t pulling any punches when she told me that ‘Creative Labs is fully aware that Auzentech can and have made superior sound cards, and this collaboration is going to create the most advanced card on the market, in the form of the X-Fi Prelude.’
She then took off the gloves and had a pop at Creative’s drivers, ‘Auzentech have a faultless reputation for support and driver updates including full Vista support, which has been somewhat questionable in the Creative camp over the last year.’ Meow!
Auzentech is sending us a review sample of the X-Fi Prelude 7.1 so we’ll be able to put their claims to the test in an upcoming issue. But what do you think - in principle, would you buy an X-Fi card that’s not made by Creative?
About time Digital Live encoding was featured on the X-Fi. The only reason I have not bought a creative card, I was waiting a long time for this to happen. My second reason for waiting is PCI-e, though less of a priority.
As creative have now released a PCI-e bottom spec X-Fi, maybe a Higher end model is on the way? - Eitherway, AuzenTech have scored high with this product.
Just 1 Q = is live encoding in hardware? is so, then why didn’t creative implement it?!?