Recommend a replacement for X-Fi Fatal1ty (2007)

E

Edwe

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Sparknotes version: I want to replace my slightly-broken, non-Win10-friendly Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty with something equivalent.

Long version:

I'm running an older system with a 2500K on a Z68 board. This machine is perfectly adequate for my needs and I don't see myself replacing anything except my hard drive and GPU within the next 2-3 years. I'm planning on upgrading to Win 10 soon, and it seems there are no drivers for my Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty (original 2007 version which looks like this http://images.techtree.com.s3-ap-so...ttimages/story/72385_x_fi_fatal1ty_pdt_hi.jpg ). Creative claims that they will eventually roll out Win 10 support for my card, but there have been no new drivers since before Windows Vista, so I am highly skeptical.

Over and above the Win 10 support issue, my card sometimes loses contact with the PCI slot and causes my system to hang. I think it's a manufacturing tolerance issue, because it has happened since new, at first very infrequently, but it has become progressively worse on each machine I have used it (it has been through 3 PC builds). The audio quality is really excellent and I'll be sad to see it go, but the Win 10 driver issue over and above the losing contact problem have now, after 8 years, convinced me that it's time to let go.

So, any suggestions for what I can get to replace this card when I upgrade to Windows 10? Ideally I want the exact same thing, just in working condition on Win 10. Importantly, the replacement must have some sort of I/O panel accessible from the front of the PC with a 6.35mm headphone jack (see the picture above), preferably with hardware volume control, and it must provide decent ASIO support.

TIA
 
Last edited:
ponder said:
How & what do you use the card for?
Budget?

Would a external dac maybe suffice?
Click to expand...

I am not 100% against the idea of an external DAC, but I think my requirements are more in-line with a PCI card? But my knowledge is limited, and I am open to suggestions.

I use the card 50/50 for gaming and amateur mixing/creation of electronica (the music genre); the latter use case is where the ASIO requirement comes from. In terms of gaming, legacy EAX support is kinda a minor requirement, but not having it isn't a deal-breaker. I also listen to a lot of music, in lossless formats whenever possible. I do have lots of stereo recordings that I want to play through additional channels, but I literally just want "copies" of the stereo channels, without attempting to do anything fancy to simulate a surround recording (i.e. NOT CMSS).

About 90% of the time the audio is played through entry-level-audiophile Sennheiser open acoustic headphones. The rest of the time, output is to an external amp via analog line-out.

I almost never need to record from an external source and have never used the optical IO or the MIDI ports on my current card, although the optical IO could arguably be useful in the future when I replace my amp (which is almost as old as I am).

Budget: lets say R2500? I don't really know if this is realistic, because I haven't looked at pricing recently.
 
Alright that could be annoying, my card doesnt have that addon, although the front ports on my case do work.
 
Tinuva said:
Alright that could be annoying, my card doesnt have that addon, although the front ports on my case do work.
Click to expand...

For me, the front panel is a huge bonus, because of the larger headphone jack (all my headphones have 6.35mm plugs) and hardware volume control. The hardware volume control is especially critical because the card sometimes loses contact with the PCI slot and then lets out a flat-out-volume whine which blew R2500 worth of headphones last year :(. My safeguard is to turn the hardware volume way down and the software volume up. Note: the danger to my amp and headphones is the other big reason that I want to replace the card.
 
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