On January 4, 2008, I have recieved a package containing an X-fi Xtremegamer sound card, I was eagerly awaiting this card for a week ever since I orderedit online, I got it for 84.99, $15 off the regular manufacturers price. The package came in a nice dark blue box with all the makers design intended on it. Inside there was an Installation CD for XP and another for Vista users, a Manual to Install the card, a demo disc, ads for games and software that take full advantage of the X-fi Xtremegamers features, and the actual, physical Sound Card.

The sound card was quite long and seemed to be in a slim-case design which was good to the point that its slim to fit in most slim form factor cases, yet tends to be quite long for the large case fans. This card is PCI interface meaning any computer bulit within the last 10 years can use this card, but you need to meet the system requirements for this card which is as follows: an Intel or AMD 1.0 Ghz processor or better, Windows XP or better, 256MB RAM, 600MB of free HDD space, PCI 2.1 slot, CD-ROM Drive, and DX9 Graphics card or better. I met the requirements easily and proceeded to install. I put the card in, made sure it was secure, and turned on my PC, the software installation was quite long for me, 20 minutes for the updates and included software, but once that was done, I went on to test the 2 diferent modes it had.

There are 3 modes which you can use: Gaming mode, Entertainment Mode, and Audio Creation Mode. I first tested out Entertainment mode, I was welcomed to a nice interface to tweak the settings in this mode, I found the sound quality in this mode to be phenomonal, absolutley phenomonal, It beat my Onboard audio to hell 5x back in my opinion, I used it to watch 2 movies, sound was crisp and clear. MP3 Files and Windows Media Player was exceptionally clear and fantastic. The Next mode I tested out was Gaming mode. I found this mode to be the best mode overall for my usage. I tested Bioshock and found the sound to be absolutley fantastic, not only that, it increased my FPS overall, I was really happy for that. Since it used the latest EAX: 5.0, the sound was unsurpassed to my old onboard audio. I tested a few other games with similar results, HL2 series sound was improved along with the AoE III and Civilization IV, all passed my tests with flying colors. The last mode was Audio Creation mode which is useful for mixing music files and creating audio files. Although Im not a hugh audio maker, I found this mode to be great for people who love to mix and match music.

The X-Fi XtremeGamer Audio Card is a great piece of Equipment to have and it increased my Audio Quality 200%, I love it. The 3 modes are really handy for switching from game to movie to editing, and the overall sound quality is just Phenomonal, I LOVE IT. Now theres the Next best thing: the X-fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty edition which is $40 more, that features 64MB of X-RAM, although, few games have yet to take advantage of this RAM, and if you want to save a bit of money and still want a fantastic audio card, then I would Highly Reccomend the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channel Audio Sound Card, you wont regret it

About a month and a half ago or so, I ordered an XFX 8600GT XXX edition Video card, I knew it would be a good upgrade from my old Video Processing Unit: an Intergrated nVidia 6150 GPU. When I recieved the card, I noticed its heatsink covering the Core, but not the RAM, It was nothing major in my Opinion. It came with 256MB memory, It had a 128-bit interface, and It came with a core speed of 620Mhz ( 540 was the stock speed ), and a memory clock of 1600Mhz ( 1400Mhz is the stock speed ). I also liked the card because I could only fit a single slot card in my machine, and it didnt have a 6-pin PCI-e connector, it would only consume 43W at maximum load.

When I inserted the Drivers and the card, I immediately started testing out some games. The first was AoE III, and At 1440x900 with All settings maxed out with 16xAF, I got an Average Framerate of around 50FPS. Bioshock was next, and at 1440x900 with everything max with no AA or AF, I got around 30FPS. Half-Life 2 at 1440x900 with max settings and 4xAA and 16XAF, I got an average Framerate of 70FPS. Episode 1 with same settings saw around the same FPS, but Episode 2, with the same settings, and one option turned Very High, I saw around 30-40FPS, due to the new shaders of the game. Portal with 1440x900 and max settings with 4XAA and 16XAF, I got around 40FPS. and Lastly, STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, I put all max settings at 1440x900 with no AA and 16xAF, I was recieving around 30FPS.

My experience with this Video card was recieved really well, and I thought it was a great choice for an upgrade from my Intergrated Video before, movie playback, games, and simple web browsing all came without a hitch. The only flaw I have with this product is its 128-bit interface, I really believe this one flaw is the one thing thats holding this card back in some performance, but overall for only 99.99 on newegg, It still is a great product.