Sound cards post-WinXP

[Chalenge]

I found another one that has a joystick port but I dont know anything about it.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2177471&Sku=D10-2092

EDIT: I would hate to find it its a disguised X-Fi.

[gyrene81]

I found another one that has a joystick port but I dont know anything about it.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2177471&Sku=D10-2092

EDIT: I would hate to find it its a disguised X-Fi.

That's a C-media chip on it.

[Chalenge]

It could very well be the same card then. The Riviera had a self-destruct sticker over the chip but I didnt check it to see what it was... not that I would remember now anyway.

EDIT: I got to thinking about this and I seem to remember the old A8N32 SLI MB had a gameport header. I wonder if any other motherboards do or not?

[Krusty]

Some older ones, but I've been window shopping and having a heck of a time determining if any new i7 boards have it. I don't think they do. I guess I need to save up the pennies and get one of those custom-made sidewinder-to-USB converter boxes. I don't think they were cheap, though.

[Chalenge]

Sidewinder? You would be much better off joining the rudder pedal crowd you know.  Might even save money buying full CH gear over trying to stay in the 90s control wise.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

My sidewinder came with a USB converter straight out of the box. I reckon any old gameport to usb converter will work.

Sidewinder is the best joystick I've ever had, after 10 years of use zero spiking. How many CH sticks are in use after that time and how many pot replacements etc?

[Chalenge]

All of mine have made it to 10 years without pot replacement. Im sure Sidewinder is a really good controller for what it is but if its the twisty type controller I think it is... no matter what you do with that stick there will be unintended control inputs (unless of course you turn the rudder axis off).

[Krusty]

Oh, it's definitely twisty, and I got really good at twisty-stick action (as much as one can) but I switched to pedals years back.



Ironically, the pedals are also gameport, but at least I can hack the guts out of a $5 disposable USB joystick and wire the pedals directly into that. I cannot do that with the Sidewinder. It's a long story, but suffice it to say the stick is simulating USB signals through an analog port. Some other Sidewinders were made to take the USB adapter plug, but not this specific model I have.

P.S. I use a USB CH throttle, so the stick is just the left-hand part of a HOTAS setup. It's a comfortable stick, not the best, but has no pots (works based on LEDs and light sensors) so I'll never have to worry about the pots going bad.

[BaldEagl]

My sidewinder came with a USB converter straight out of the box. I reckon any old gameport to usb converter will work.

Nope.  I've got an original Sidewinder 3D Pro and none of the Sidewinder USB (or any other) converters are compatible with it.

There was a guy who built custom converters but you had to send him the money, then, when he had enough orders he'd buy the circuit boards he needed and custom build the converters.  I researched this extensively when I built my new machine because I didn't want to give up my Sidewinder but it sounded like wait times were in the 6-12 month range.

In retrospect I'm glad I just bought (several) cheap Saitek stick(s).  I played on the old machine with the Sidewinder when I was doing the "just how bad a machine can play AH" tests and it (the Sidewinder) had gotten sloppy after 12 years of daily use...  I just hadn't realized it.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

All of mine have made it to 10 years without pot replacement. Im sure Sidewinder is a really good controller for what it is but if its the twisty type controller I think it is... no matter what you do with that stick there will be unintended control inputs (unless of course you turn the rudder axis off).

Yep there may be some unintended control inputs but it also frees me from having a clumsy pedal setup in my feet + having to relearn flight all over again. I tried pedals for a couple of days and my gunnery was destroyed using them.

As long as I'm going to play on-off a couple days per month as I am currently pedals are more of a pain in the butt than anything else IMO.

It's possible to rank way above average in AH using a twisty stick. So it's a combination of good performance and comfort.

[Chalenge]

Its those unintended control inputs that scrub energy and make everyone that uses them that much more ineffective.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Its those unintended control inputs that scrub energy and make everyone that uses them that much more ineffective.

You're right but the problem concerns mostly turn&burn type fighting. Everyone that knows me, knows also that I like to do fast straight hit&run strikes with my brewster. 

[doc1kelley]

I think the best card is the HT Omega Striker and I think you would be surprised how clear the audio is and how low the additional load on the CPU is (if there even is a load). The number one thing that bugs me about SB is the incompatibility with system chips and video cards but also Creative always loads a bunch of bloat programs on your system and probably you will never run a single one of those anyway. And then theres CPU load.

You can buy MUCH better sound like M-Audio but I dont know how well the M-Audio cards sound in games.

Well I've tried the HT Omega Striker and I have to agree with you about the clarity of the audio but the sound from VOX is not what I expected!  It sounds like I'm talking through one of them cardboard paper towel pipes.  I had tried everything to rectify that but haven't found a solution.  I finally had to rip it out and slap in an old SB Audigy PCI card.  I tried it in both Winblows XP and Winblows7 64 bit with the same results.  I'm holding off returning it as I really had some great sound directionality with my headphones and hope I can find a solution to the "pipe" effect with VOX.

All the Best...

   Jay