Asustek Xonar DX/XD PCI-E Low Profile Sound Card

Creative have had many problems with their vista drivers and some still manage to have problems. I upgraded from an onbaord Realtek ACL888 to this which is the same as the D1 just slot differences. The major difference was noticed during games crisp clear voices and sounds. Music had more definition than usual no more muddled bass lines. It is currently ran by vista x64 ultimate, and they run Logitech's Z-5500. All i can say is that they do the job exceptionally well and perhaps better than some of the other pricey soundcards out there.

I bought this sound card because i was not satisfied with my onboard sound!!!! In the moment i start listen my music with this Asus Xonar DX i just said Woaawoa, just incridble sound , the bass was amazing, cristal clear, i just didnt wanna stop listening my music.When i start playing my games was exactly the same, incridble sound definition, and because i played alot FPS games is critical to have a best sound possible and this board have everything.The only issue that i have is the magic voice is not working for me (i tryed everything but without sucess).
So for all people that is looking a new sound card , buy this one u dont gonna regret!!!

I bought this sound card because I found the onboard sound on my Gigabyte EX58-UD3R motherboard, whilst being fairly clear, was not loud enough in some of the games I was playing and lacked punch. I searched the internet and this seems to be a problem associated with using the Windows 7 operating system rather than the integrated sound chip according to many posters. I already have a Creative X-Fi Soundblaster Xtreme Gamer sound card but can't use it with this motherboard. Unfortunately I use two graphics cards and the PCI slot I would have to use for the Soundblaster is so close to the PCI-E x16 slot for my lower graphics card that the sound card obstructed the graphics card cooling too much for safety. I bought this Xonar DX card because it fits into a PCI-E x1 slot I have available without blocking anything. Apparently it also works in PCI-E x4 and x16 slots if you have one of those spare also.

I didn't use the drivers on the disc supplied but downloaded the Windows 7 specific drivers from the Asus website (only about 13MB).The good news with this card is that it sounds superbly clear, can go very loud without additional amplification and has an easy to use control panel. I normally play games while listening to headphones and all I had to do was select Dolby headphones, the game mode (which is a preset that changes a few frequencies), and set the volume in the mixer to maximum (I control volume using a dial on my Logitech G11 keyboard) and I was away. The sound quality is slightly better than the Creative card (which was petty good). The sniper rifle in Far Cry 2 for example sounded very sharp with a slight echo whilst the Uzi sounded beautifully staccato. For older games there is a DS3D switch which seems to replicate the EAX effect that Alchemy does for Creative cards.

The bad news about the card and the reason I only give it thee stars is the set up is pathetic. I read a review of this card in Custom PC and neither this nor Amazon's product details made it clear the card needs additional power. This seems ridiculous given that some mid-range graphics cards are now able to run on the power from the motherboard alone. This is just hassle and clutters up the case further. Anyway you need a spare lead from your power supply with a Molex connector on the end. This plugs into the supplied floppy 4-pin connector which fits into the back of the card. If you havn't got a spare lead on your psu this card will not work. When I installed the card it wouldn't work initially and I kept getting a message saying the card wasn't plugged in (which it was). I did an internet search and found this was a common problem. It seems the connection on the card is badly designed and the 4-pin connector doesn't fit properly. The plug snaps in quite reassuringly but there is far too much play on it and it doesn't take much to lose the electrical connection. This is completely unacceptable on what is supposed to be a high quality electronic product and I am very surprised at Asus who normally excel in quality design. One chap on the web has resorted to bending the pins on the card to get a tighter fit whilst another has resorted to sellotape - ridiculous! I very nearly sent the card back for a refund but eventually got it to work by rerouting the cable through a higher entry point to the motherboard tray (I have an Antec 1200 case where you route cables behind the motherboard tray). This meant gravity was not pulling on the cable so the connection was secure.

In summary this is an extremely good sound card for pc gaming (I can't comment on other uses) with excellent vibrant sound and plenty of grunt. It is also very good value for money given its high specification and very low noise level. If you have a spare molex power cable on your power supply and are prepared to fiddle about with the connection to get it working it is well worth buying.