BeauCoupDinkyDau Posted August 22, 2003 Share Posted August 22, 2003 ...you have seen for under $200. I am getting ready for HL 2. I am interested in buying a HERCULES Fortissimo III 7.1 to replace my crappy Soundblaster card with. I am sick of Creative Lab's processor dependant cards holding back my system's performance. With a P4 1.5, I am looking for a top quality sound card that won't tax my processor so much. This card seems to run in the $50 range. That leaves me with $150 to spend on a good 5 speaker surround set. Logitech Z560 4.1 Computer Speakers look good, although Amazon wants a little more than I would like to spend ($142, but I could afford it). So anyone know of good places to buy these for less, or better suggestions altogether? BTW, does CM support surround? Can I hear an 88 go off behind my camera position? [ August 22, 2003, 06:52 PM: Message edited by: Vader's Jester ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauCoupDinkyDau Posted August 23, 2003 Author Share Posted August 23, 2003 Nevermind. I found that speaker set for $119. Not bad. Well within my set budget ($170 total; with shipping, I should do okay). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easytarget Posted August 23, 2003 Share Posted August 23, 2003 my recommendation would be to skip the speakers and get some really good phones sounds like you've already made up your mind though gl p.s. hope you saved some bones for a wicked fast vid card or you'll be playing a slide show in hl2 or d3 i just installed a fx5900 specifically for the above two games (well, and a few others that are around the corner) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaylord Focker Posted August 23, 2003 Share Posted August 23, 2003 This is a great site for in depth reviews of PC Speakers, 3dSoundSurge. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaylord Focker Posted August 23, 2003 Share Posted August 23, 2003 I remember coming across a review for the 2.1 Planars i beleive they were called which are made by the company Monsoon that recieved a great review in an issue of Maximum PC. IIRC the pricetag on them was $100. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauCoupDinkyDau Posted August 24, 2003 Author Share Posted August 24, 2003 Originally posted by easytarget: my recommendation would be to skip the speakers and get some really good phones p.s. hope you saved some bones for a wicked fast vid card or you'll be playing a slide show in hl2 or d3 I already have a great sounding set with a built in mic for teamchat. I run a Ti4200, so I have enough juice to run HL2 with most of it's settings turned up I'm sure. Everyone thinks HL2 and D3 are gonna need a dang HAL 9000 to run 'em! I think everyone is going to be suprised at how well they're going to run and look on even mid-range systems. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauCoupDinkyDau Posted August 24, 2003 Author Share Posted August 24, 2003 Thanks for the link Gaylord. I'll look into that site. :cool: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauCoupDinkyDau Posted August 24, 2003 Author Share Posted August 24, 2003 Gaylord, That site gave the speakers I have been looking at a very good review indeed! And the suggested retail on them is $200! I have found most sites want $135-$200, so the $119 I found is a total steal! :eek: EDIT: The wankers wanted $59 in shipping?!! It has to travel a whole 140 miles from LA to my house for godsakes! I used to work freight, and I know stuff in the same state moves by truck to the destination city, not by air to a central processing hub and then out again. 59 bucks?!! Is the subwoofer made of lead?!! LOL I'll have to see if there is a local deal, otherwise I may stick with easy target's suggestion for now. Edit again: I can get them through Dell. Since I am already a customer, I get $13 off and the $35 in shipping is dropped as well, so I pick 'em up for $121 total! Schweet! :cool: [ August 24, 2003, 01:57 AM: Message edited by: Vader's Jester ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easytarget Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 Originally posted by Vader's Jester: I already have a great sounding set with a built in mic for teamchat. I run a Ti4200, so I have enough juice to run HL2 with most of it's settings turned up I'm sure. Everyone thinks HL2 and D3 are gonna need a dang HAL 9000 to run 'em! I think everyone is going to be suprised at how well they're going to run and look on even mid-range systems. Might want to visit Tom's or Guru3d, to name but a couple of the many sites that have run D3 on currently available hardware. And I'm not talking about the leaked copy of D3 either. At least a couple of the reviews are with id's blessing and cooperation. And while the code may not be optimized, as is stated repeatedly, the numbers are pretty low even on a 5900 or 9800. You'll be lucky to run 8x6 with everything turned off in order to get decent frame rates. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauCoupDinkyDau Posted August 25, 2003 Author Share Posted August 25, 2003 Dude, I telling you it's not going to be like that. I don't care what the egg heads with late betas are saying. They always freak when a new graphics engine comes out. I mean, they treated Quake III like you couldn't run it on anything less that the freaking Death Star's main computer. LOL Do you really think Valve or ID would release a product that 95% of their consumers can't play? That's like a car company releasing a new car that runs on urainum. They'd go belly up, because they'd have no market to sell too. Most people do not have uber $4000 gaming systems, and very few will be able to upgrade to a state-of-the-art rig for these games. Half Life and Quake III were both state-of-the-art when they released, and were both playable with most of their eye candy intact on mid range systems. Hell, I remember everyone saying you would not be able to run HL on a rig without a 16mb graphics card, and it ran very well on my 8mb VooDoo 2. It's overhype BS man. Besides, betas are often glitchy and have performance issues. That's why they're betas. I think that anyone with a decent 128mb graphics card will do just fine. Valve even claims that you can run HL2 on a 64mb card with the settings turned down. There is no game now or within the next year that will use a 256mb card. The new generation of cards are overpowered at this point. They will only be useful to get the full effect out of games like D3 and HL2, otherwise, they are overkill. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaylord Focker Posted August 26, 2003 Share Posted August 26, 2003 Glad you found a set of speakers you like! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaylord Focker Posted August 26, 2003 Share Posted August 26, 2003 Half Life 2 will run on even DirectX 7 cards.... But it will run better on DirectX 8 cards and 9. I realy don't think the game would look or run bad on a Geforece 3, it's just the Geforce 3 won't get the new water and fog effects the game is highly touting which most gamers probably won't mind. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauCoupDinkyDau Posted August 26, 2003 Author Share Posted August 26, 2003 Thanks for the advice and the link GF. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaylord Focker Posted August 27, 2003 Share Posted August 27, 2003 Anytime! I would highly suggest the Father of None Sound Mods for CMBB as well. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easytarget Posted August 27, 2003 Share Posted August 27, 2003 vader, not to worry, i'm not trying to talk you into buying more hardware than you feel comfortable with i'm simply saying i'll be moderately surprised if a few months from now when HL2 comes out, and 6 months from now when D3 comes out that you're not back here posting that you bought a new vid card while what you say is true for the most part, what you're leaving out of your calculations on hardware needs is the fact that the source engine and the new d3 engine are a fairly significant departure from previous iterations real time rendering of what used to be the cut scenes doesn't come cheap and all fps games subsequent to the release of these two engines will be licensed on one or the other occasionally something comes along that forces everyone to upgrade - HL2 and D3 are examples of such an event (every 4-5 years) so yeah, i'm basically telling you that with a 4200 you're going to either play these two titles in 640 with everything turned off, or you're going to be watching a slide show 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Carr Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Was just wondering why you don't like the Creative Labs product? I have a Soundblaster Audigy Gamer 5.1 with Creative Labs Soundblaster 5.1 speakers and have not had any problems. Appreciate your feedback about your dissatisfaction. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauCoupDinkyDau Posted August 28, 2003 Author Share Posted August 28, 2003 Creative's sound card processors and drivers force some of the workload onto your processor's shoulders. As a result, system performance takes a hit, and this is bad news if you are on a older processor like me (P4 1.5). In addition, this can cause sound anaomolies such as the occasional pop or skip when you processor is being over-worked. Second, I own a Creative Jukebox MP3 player, and it has been nothing but a headache for me. I should have been patient and saved up the extra bones for an Apple Ipod. I short, I am sick of Creative's ****. Much like EA in the games arena, they are the one of the most popular brands, but are not even close to the best that are out there. I just bought a Santa Cruz Turtle Beach card. Where my sound blaster needed 33% of my CPU to run MP3's on Musicmatch Jukebox player, the SC needs 4%. And the SC has the best sound I have ever heard in a card, even better than Audigy! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaylord Focker Posted August 29, 2003 Share Posted August 29, 2003 The Santa Cruz is a damn good card. I only opted for the Audigy 2 for the better positional sound in surround sound games. Having both sound cards i personaly like the Audigy 2 better as i think Creative is starting to make use of the Aureal tech that they bought out. I would suggest either sound card as both are top notch. I miss Aureal though, that company had some great technology. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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