MaximumPC 2008 10

&-q MAXIMUMPC | oct 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com

deathmatch

Asus XonAr DX

$90, http://www.asus.com

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price

Price isn’t everything, but these days, an extra $50 in your

pocket translates into another 10.8 gallons in your tank. so

despite the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty being one of the cheapest

Fatal1ty cards (at launch), the Xonar’s $90 solution is an even

better deal.

Winner: XonAr DX

quickstart^

the beginning of the magazine, where articles are small

Creative SB X-Fi Titanium

vs. Asus Xonar DX

p

CI Express has graced motherboards since 2004, but few ap-

plications beyond graphics have really taken advantage of the

I/O interface—until now, with soundcards finally getting into the

game. Besides offering bandwidth far beyond that of the PCI bus,

PCI-E also has the potential to eliminate the bus-throttling issues

that have plagued PCI-based soundcards since the days of the

Voodoo2. We decided to throw two advanced PCI-E soundcards,

Creative’s new Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty and Asus’s

budget-minded Xonar DX, into a cage fight to determine which

audio solution is superior. –g o r d o n m a h u n g

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compatibility

Adopting new interface standards

can be painful, but PCi express has

been out for four years now, so we

didn’t expect any problems from

these cards. And we didn’t get any

from the X-Fi Titanium, but the

Xonar DX simply would not install

on our eVGA nForce 680i sLi board

without rolling back the Bios two

revisions. Asus said the issue seems

to be especially bad with reference-

design nForce 680i boards, but

newer-generation nForce boards

also seem to gag on Xonars.

Winner: X-Fi TiTAnium FATAL1Ty