Question on a few peripherals

NoctisReitop · July 8th, 2007

1: Creative Labs X-FI Xtreme Gamer Fatality Sound Card 70SB046A00000 at TigerDirect.com
Is X-ram on an X-fi sound card worth it?

2: ViewSonic VX922 19" LCD Monitor - XTREME 2 ms, 650:1, SXGA 1280x1024, Silver-Black, DVI, VGA(D-sub), 170º Viewing Angles at TigerDirect.com
Gaming LCD? Wondering what other people's thoughts were on something like this. Worth it? I've been quite fond of Viewsonic so far.

3: Newegg.com - HP 375870-B21 72GB 15,000 RPM Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) Hard Drive - Retail
15k rpm HDD? How's this compare to the 10k raptors?

Dr. V · July 8th, 2007

Well of course the 15K RPM drives are faster than the 10K Raptors...but worth it? I wouldn't say so.

In terms of monitor, if you like regular (not wide) screen monitors, then that's an awesome monitor. I just can't stand them - I'm in LOVE with widescreen.

The sound card is simply amazing.

**stinger608** · July 8th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoctisReitop

1: Creative Labs X-FI Xtreme Gamer Fatality Sound Card 70SB046A00000 at TigerDirect.com
Is X-ram on an X-fi sound card worth it?

2: ViewSonic VX922 19" LCD Monitor - XTREME 2 ms, 650:1, SXGA 1280x1024, Silver-Black, DVI, VGA(D-sub), 170º Viewing Angles at TigerDirect.com
Gaming LCD? Wondering what other people's thoughts were on something like this. Worth it? I've been quite fond of Viewsonic so far.

3: Newegg.com - HP 375870-B21 72GB 15,000 RPM Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) Hard Drive - Retail
15k rpm HDD? How's this compare to the 10k raptors?

For one thing, the 15k hard drive is a Serial Attached SCSI drive!!!!
I kind of highly wouldn't think that you have a system that will support a SAS hard drive, unless of course you have a pretty serious server system or an add in SAS card!!!!

Panda Man · July 8th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoctisReitop

1: Creative Labs X-FI Xtreme Gamer Fatality Sound Card 70SB046A00000 at TigerDirect.com
Is X-ram on an X-fi sound card worth it?

2: ViewSonic VX922 19" LCD Monitor - XTREME 2 ms, 650:1, SXGA 1280x1024, Silver-Black, DVI, VGA(D-sub), 170º Viewing Angles at TigerDirect.com
Gaming LCD? Wondering what other people's thoughts were on something like this. Worth it? I've been quite fond of Viewsonic so far.

Stinger has that drive covered pretty well, as for the other 2, I'd recommend getting this q20wb

Optiquest Q20wb 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 5ms, 1000:1, WSXGA+ 1680x1050, DVI, VGA at TigerDirect.com

I have it, and LOVE IT! Your not going to miss anything between a 2 ms response time and a 5 ms response time, and the q20wb looks superb. No ghosting, no stuck/dead pixels, etc. etc.

I donnu if the x-ram is worth it, but i don't care as this x-fi xtrememusic card that I have rocks my world! I donnu about the fata1ty logo though, its just logo they stick on it as a marketing gimmick to increase the price.

Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic PCI Sound Card 70SB046000007 at TigerDirect.com

That's mine, but TD doesn't sell it anymore. And I'm just curious, why are you going between 2 different vendors?

NoctisReitop · July 9th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Panda Man

I donnu about the fata1ty logo though, its just logo they stick on it as a marketing gimmick to increase the price.

I hate that Fatal1ty guy. I wish his name was on NOTHING. Fatal1ty card is the only one with the X-ram. If I had to go with it, I'd scratch his name off of the drive bay and the card itself... If the X-ram is crap, I'd gladly go with the X-treme music =D.

OCNoob · July 10th, 2007

I'd say no to the X-RAM, but it's the cheapest version available, aside from the watered-down half-height versions of the chip.

The other two, I'd spend more money on a larger, quality monitor than a quicker hard drive. That's because if you're going to be staring at something, you might as well stare at something pretty. The hard drive, BTW, would likely require an expensive SAS controller of some type (these) and that'll balloon the expense. You might as well go with the Raptor X in that case.

NoctisReitop · July 10th, 2007

With the "bottleneck" of the sata150, is the raptor 10k rpm still worth the money? Is it still significantly and noticeably faster than a seagate 7200 rpm hdd?

**gvblake22** · July 10th, 2007

A 10,000rpm Raptor with a 16MB cache is only slightly noticeably faster than a current generation 7200rpm 16MB cache drive. Some synthetic benchmarks may tell you otherwise, but take it from someone who has tried 8MB cache 10,000rpm drives individually as well as paired in RAID 0, they are not that much faster (if at all) than a decent 7200rpm drive. If you want absolutely maximum performance and don't care about capacity, then maybe you could consider a Ratpor. But if you are even slightly unhappy about having small capacities and just want a good reliable HDD to put all your stuff on without spending an excessive amount of money, then you will be best getting a good 7200rpm drive with the largest cache size possible. If you want speed and don't mind having the higher risk of complete data loss on the drives, a RAID 0 setup with two good 7200rpm drives will outperform a single 10,000rpm Raptor.

Oh yeah, and that X-RAM stuff is more creative marketing than anything else. If your gaming framerates are that close to being unplayable, 64MB of memory on a sound card is not going to make a difference, a better video card is...

You can read my review of the Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic here...

NoctisReitop · July 10th, 2007

My thoughts were to have a small Raptor HDD as a primary drive. Anything that needed faster running (primary games, OS, etc) would be on it, nothing more. The rest of my storage stuff would go on a storage drive. I'm not familiar with the raid setups

.

My main problem with the sound cards is that I can't find an x-treme music. I've searched and searched for they've pretty much gotten rid of the music to make room for the Fatal1ty. Problem two is that the fatal1ty championship sound card, with the bundle (remote and drive bay), is cheaper than any of the other cards on Newegg, currently ($50 rebate). Creative says that the fatal1ty card IS an x-treme music, just labeled differently and added X-ram. Creative's store doesn't even offer the xtreme music

. This crap infuriates me....

Amazon is the only one I've found to have it. 90 bucks.

Newegg has the fatil1ty for 129.99. The fatal1ty is the xtrememusic + drive bay. Drive bay is something I was interested in. Maybe that idea is bad. Anyone have one of those drive bays?

Forgive me for the ranty post... I've juts had a lot of trouble with this.

Dr. V · July 10th, 2007

I LOVE that drive bay add-on. I built a high high end system for a friend using the X-FI with that bay attachment, it's a damn dream.

July 8th, 2007	#1
NoctisReitop lvl 63 Bargain Hunter Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 514	Question on a few peripherals 1: Creative Labs X-FI Xtreme Gamer Fatality Sound Card 70SB046A00000 at TigerDirect.com Is X-ram on an X-fi sound card worth it? 2: ViewSonic VX922 19" LCD Monitor - XTREME 2 ms, 650:1, SXGA 1280x1024, Silver-Black, DVI, VGA(D-sub), 170º Viewing Angles at TigerDirect.com Gaming LCD? Wondering what other people's thoughts were on something like this. Worth it? I've been quite fond of Viewsonic so far. 3: Newegg.com - HP 375870-B21 72GB 15,000 RPM Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) Hard Drive - Retail 15k rpm HDD? How's this compare to the 10k raptors?

July 8th, 2007	#2
Dr. V Yes - the Doctor is back. Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Posts: 1,761	Re: Question on a few peripherals Well of course the 15K RPM drives are faster than the 10K Raptors...but worth it? I wouldn't say so. In terms of monitor, if you like regular (not wide) screen monitors, then that's an awesome monitor. I just can't stand them - I'm in LOVE with widescreen. The sound card is simply amazing.

July 10th, 2007	#6
OCNoob Yo soy tu papa Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 204	Re: Question on a few peripherals I'd say no to the X-RAM, but it's the cheapest version available, aside from the watered-down half-height versions of the chip. The other two, I'd spend more money on a larger, quality monitor than a quicker hard drive. That's because if you're going to be staring at something, you might as well stare at something pretty. The hard drive, BTW, would likely require an expensive SAS controller of some type (these) and that'll balloon the expense. You might as well go with the Raptor X in that case. Opty 165 @ 2746 MHz (305x9, 1.32V) Stock cooler \| DFI nF4 LanParty Ultra-D \| G.Skill DDR500 3-3-2-7 2x1GB \| NEC 3540A \| MSI X800 XL (Stock) \| Antec Super LanBoy \| Antec SmartPower 2.0 500W \| WDC 800JB + Seagate 7200.9 400GB (IDE) \| Logitech MX510 \| In need of upgrading: Samsung SyncMaster 955DF

July 10th, 2007	#7
NoctisReitop lvl 63 Bargain Hunter Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 514	Re: Question on a few peripherals With the "bottleneck" of the sata150, is the raptor 10k rpm still worth the money? Is it still significantly and noticeably faster than a seagate 7200 rpm hdd?

July 10th, 2007	#8
gvblake22 Modder-ator Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Tempe Desert Posts: 6,481 Blog Entries: 1	Re: Question on a few peripherals A 10,000rpm Raptor with a 16MB cache is only slightly noticeably faster than a current generation 7200rpm 16MB cache drive. Some synthetic benchmarks may tell you otherwise, but take it from someone who has tried 8MB cache 10,000rpm drives individually as well as paired in RAID 0, they are not that much faster (if at all) than a decent 7200rpm drive. If you want absolutely maximum performance and don't care about capacity, then maybe you could consider a Ratpor. But if you are even slightly unhappy about having small capacities and just want a good reliable HDD to put all your stuff on without spending an excessive amount of money, then you will be best getting a good 7200rpm drive with the largest cache size possible. If you want speed and don't mind having the higher risk of complete data loss on the drives, a RAID 0 setup with two good 7200rpm drives will outperform a single 10,000rpm Raptor. Oh yeah, and that X-RAM stuff is more creative marketing than anything else. If your gaming framerates are that close to being unplayable, 64MB of memory on a sound card is not going to make a difference, a better video card is... You can read my review of the Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic here... Last edited by gvblake22; July 10th, 2007 at 21:38.

July 10th, 2007	#9
NoctisReitop lvl 63 Bargain Hunter Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 514	Re: Question on a few peripherals My thoughts were to have a small Raptor HDD as a primary drive. Anything that needed faster running (primary games, OS, etc) would be on it, nothing more. The rest of my storage stuff would go on a storage drive. I'm not familiar with the raid setups . My main problem with the sound cards is that I can't find an x-treme music. I've searched and searched for they've pretty much gotten rid of the music to make room for the Fatal1ty. Problem two is that the fatal1ty championship sound card, with the bundle (remote and drive bay), is cheaper than any of the other cards on Newegg, currently ($50 rebate). Creative says that the fatal1ty card IS an x-treme music, just labeled differently and added X-ram. Creative's store doesn't even offer the xtreme music . This crap infuriates me.... Amazon is the only one I've found to have it. 90 bucks. Newegg has the fatil1ty for 129.99. The fatal1ty is the xtrememusic + drive bay. Drive bay is something I was interested in. Maybe that idea is bad. Anyone have one of those drive bays? Forgive me for the ranty post... I've juts had a lot of trouble with this.

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