We didn’t have to forgo discrete
audio this year, so we reached for
a budget X-Fi card. There are two
options at this price range, but
only one is really worthy of being
called an X-Fi: the XtremeGamer.
Its cousin, the XtremeAudio,
doesn’t actually feature a full X-Fi
chip and does not support EAX 5.
One thing Creative did right with
the XtremeGamer is include a
standard front-panel audio header
on the card. This lets you use the
front headphone and microphone
jacks. Grab the CM Stacker cable
labeled “AC97, HD Audio.” Insertthe plug labeled “HD
Audio” into the header on
the card—it’s keyed and
should fi t only one way
(image A). Now remove
the expansion slot cover
from the back of the case
where the card’s ports rest
and fi rmly insert the card
into a PCI slot (image B).
As with the GPU, make
sure the card is fi rmly in
place and that all of the
contacts are connecting.
Screw the card in place
and you’re good to go.9
INSTALL THE SOUNDCARD
Once we decided to go
with Intel, we had a hard
time selecting a chipset/
motherboard combina-
tion. We would have liked
to have run an Nvidia
chipset, which would
have given us an option
to run SLI down the road,
but the current situation
with Nvidia’s chipsets is a
bit murky. The still-stellar
nForce 680i chipset (at
least for boards currently
available) has issues run-
ning Intel’s 45nm Penryn
CPUs in quad-core trim.
In fact, the combination
doesn’t work at all for
unfathomable reasons.
Boards using the new
nForce 780i chipset do
work with quads, but
they’re ultra expensive. In
the end, we decided that
Intel’s P35 platform made
more sense for our needs.
It supports the company’s
45nm parts and Intel
chipsets are rock-solid—
you don’t have to worry
about any of the teething
pains third-party chipsets
experience, especially
with new CPUs.
For our board, we
selected MSI’s P35 Neo2-
FR. It’s a budget board,
but it’s not totally strippo.
It has eSATA ports, fea-
tures MSI’s excellent
automatic driver and BIOS
update service, and runs
up to 8GB of RAM. OK,
maybe it’s a little strippo,
but when it posted on
the fi rst boot and didn’t
give us any troubles, we
weren’t complaining.MSI’S P
Neo2-FR
Motherboard
back scratchers. When
you put the card in,
make sure it is fi rmly
in place with all of the
contacts securely in the
PCI-E slot (image B).
A common error is to
insert the card so the
contacts sit just outside
the slot. Another com-
mon error is for the
contacts to not make
a complete connec-
tion with the slot. This
is usually the result of
a bent case enclosure
causing a gap between
the card and the case.
You can sometimes fi x the problem by bend-
ing the case back in place. Now use the twothumbscrews that had held the expansion
slot covers to screw the card in place.WHY WE CHOSE
26 MAXIMUMPC | APR 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com
B
A
B
$1,500 PC