New computer or should I wait?

[Delirium]

I'm hesitant to go out and purchase a $150 sound card and risk having the same noise/pops/hisses like before.

I'd buy a cheap Creative Audigy, but it doesn't have the 5 ports I need I need the regular 5.1 plugs with mic and an input/aux port. None of the older Audigy have them.

I did put in the 9800 last night and except for one strange lock up in AH, everything is working great. Frames don't really drop below 50 at 512 textures with everything 100%.

[BaldEagl]

I'm hesitant to go out and purchase a $150 sound card and risk having the same noise/pops/hisses like before.

I'd buy a cheap Creative Audigy, but it doesn't have the 5 ports I need I need the regular 5.1 plugs with mic and an input/aux port. None of the older Audigy have them.

I did put in the 9800 last night and except for one strange lock up in AH, everything is working great. Frames don't really drop below 50 at 512 textures with everything 100%.

Don't.  The X-Fi Gamer Pro Fatality card is $150.  You don't need it.  Just get the X-Fi gamer for about $80-90.

I have the Pro Fatility version.  There's nothing wrong with it but I wish I'd have saved the $ and gone for the regular X-Fi Gamer.

The nice thing about the X-Fi's is they have their own processors and RAM and unload all of the audio processing off of the main system.

[Chalenge]

Neither the BGears bEnspirer or the Xonar have any hissing or popping under V64. Im not encouraging you to spend the extra money if you are using XP.

[Delirium]

I've read up on the Xonar soundcards alot lately, it appears they have a real issue with EAX with everything except a couple titles. If you do not disable it before you start software that uses it, it will crash your system and Asus hasn't been very quick with any patches.

Does anyone have a xonar sc and have they given anyone problems?

[Grits]

So if I have a P4 3.0 will I see a FPS gain going from a Audigy 2 to a X-Fi Gamer?

[Fulmar]

So if I have a P4 3.0 will I see a FPS gain going from a Audigy 2 to a X-Fi Gamer?

I have no idea about an Audigy 2 to X-Fi, but I saw some from an Audigy 1 to X-Fi

[BaldEagl]

So if I have a P4 3.0 will I see a FPS gain going from a Audigy 2 to a X-Fi Gamer?

I would think you should but I'm not sure how much.

[Delirium]

So if I have a P4 3.0 will I see a FPS gain going from a Audigy 2 to a X-Fi Gamer?

The difference is moving from onboard sound to a soundcard, that will save you a bit in cpu cycles.

I don't think you'd see any moving from one sound card to another, unless the software supported that X-ram (or whatever Creative calls it) on the X-Fi card.

[Fulmar]

Brief comparison on all Sound Blaster cards.
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=174276

[Chalenge]

I use the bEnspirer and Xonar both and with either one you should turn EAX off. I have never had it cause a crash of Windows but the game itself (in this case Doom 3) would go 'Not Responding.' On the upside either one of those cards will give you much more dynamic sound then EAX can provide. I mean its not even close.

[Delirium]

I put in the 9800 vid card (after using a driver cleaner) and I'm having lock ups from time to time. The screen will display a bunch of random patterns/colors and I have to turn off the machine.

Because of my situation, I think it is one of 4 things.

1. I don't have the power to run the card properly. I have this PS and the 9800 I have needs both PCI-E power connectors. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817702003

2. The 9800 card won't run being not being reverse compatible with my A8N-SLI Deluxe MB which only supports PCI-E x16 1.0 and not 2.0

3. The card is defective. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143162

4. I have to change a setting on the vid card or bios to make this thing work properly.

Again, thanks for all the help and advice, gents. 

[Delirium]

I think when I go home in the morning I'm going to try rolling back drivers a bit.

If that doesn't work;

I'm going to try and check the temps on the card, maybe the thermostat on it is set too low;

If that is it, or neither idea works I'll likely RMA it.

Anyone think of anything else I may have missed?

[Anodizer]

I put in the 9800 vid card (after using a driver cleaner) and I'm having lock ups from time to time. The screen will display a bunch of random patterns/colors and I have to turn off the machine.

Because of my situation, I think it is one of 4 things.

1. I don't have the power to run the card properly. I have this PS and the 9800 I have needs both PCI-E power connectors. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817702003

2. The 9800 card won't run being not being reverse compatible with my A8N-SLI Deluxe MB which only supports PCI-E x16 1.0 and not 2.0

3. The card is defective. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143162

4. I have to change a setting on the vid card or bios to make this thing work properly.

Again, thanks for all the help and advice, gents. 

1. Don't think it's the PSU (you've got 2 12 volt rails at 20 amps each while card only requires 26 amps) unless you've got a lot of other stuff running as well (multiple drives and whatnot).
2  I'm pretty sure PCI/E 1.1 and 2.0 are backwards compatible..  Shouldn't be an issue there..
3. Could be defective..  Only one way to find out (RMA)
4. Changing low-level settings and "upgrading" the bios will void warranty.  BFG is VERY sensitive on this issue.  Shouldn't have to do anything but plug it in, connect power, install driver, go go go...

Personally, I'd send it back and try a new one..  If the same thing happens, probably gonna have to have a session with their techsupport..

[Anodizer]

I think when I go home in the morning I'm going to try rolling back drivers a bit.

If that doesn't work;

I'm going to try and check the temps on the card, maybe the thermostat on it is set too low;

If that is it, or neither idea works I'll likely RMA it.

Anyone think of anything else I may have missed?

What driver version are you using?  I upgraded to the latest driver available from Nvidia a few days ago and my 9800GTX didn't like it very much..
After uninstalling and cleaning out any traces left by the 180.48 driver, I found the 180.60 beta and it works great.  Try this: http://www.nvidia.com/object/thankyou.html?url=/compute/cuda/2.1-Beta/drivers/180.60_CUDA_XP_beta.exe

[BaldEagl]

I put in the 9800 vid card (after using a driver cleaner) and I'm having lock ups from time to time. The screen will display a bunch of random patterns/colors and I have to turn off the machine.

Sounds like a PSU issue to me.  PCIe x16 and PCIe X16 2.0 are cross-compatible.