Greetings and welcome to an LGR Windows XP thing! And this is the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi
Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series sound card, retailing at $179.99 in 2007. Yeah if you saw my Windows XP “Dream PC”
build video, I initially installed a Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum in there since I wanted
a dedicated sound card with EAX and hardware acceleration and that's what I had on hand. And while that’s a lovely card in its own
right, its front panel I/O drive was beige, which didn’t match the rest of the PC’s
jet-black, 2007 gaming rig aesthetic. I actually had an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum myself
in ‘07, with a black front panel that’d go great with my XP build, but that exact
unit has long since left my collection. Honestly I just kinda moved onto integrated
sound chips once they got quote “good enough,” so I sold that Audigy 2 in like 2009. But that brings us to today and the recent
XP PC build. And if you listen closely, you can hear it
calling out for EAX HD1 functionality. [PC whispers “Environmental Audio Extensions.”] So let’s do it desires and get it unboxed,
installed, and see what it can do with a handful of mid-2000s PC gaming classics. Speaking of a classic, remember Jonathan “Fatal1ty”
Wendel? I mean, it’s not like he’s not still around,
the brand is still going strong it seems. But for a while there his name was unavoidable,
being plastered on seemingly everything, from sound cards to headsets to computer cases. Even the SLI graphics card setup I have in
my XP build is Fatal1ty-branded, his stuff was just everywhere. This particular X-Fi Platinum happens to be
branded by him as well, though that’s not why I grabbed it. The main reason was the fact that it comes
with an I/O drive that looks pretty much just like the one from my old Audigy 2 ZS, but
the sound card itself is a pretty decent step up in terms of technical capabilities while
still being appropriate for a 2007 XP build. Not only does it provide 24-bit audio playback
at up to 192kHz, but it’s equipped with all of Creative’s contemporary bells and
whistles, like EAX version 5.0 and backwards compatibility with previous standards. It also packs a mighty capable on-board audio
processor and 64 megabytes of what Creative marketing dubbed “X-RAM.” As with any hardware accelerated sound card
like this, the goal was to achieve the highest fidelity audio playback with increased performance,
freeing up CPU and system memory resources. It also has what appears to be a gameport,
but it’s actually a proprietary “ad link” port for connecting external control modules. The next three ports to the left are 3.5mm
audio outputs for outputting to stereo speakers, headphones, or 7.1 channel surround sound
systems. And the one on the far left is a combination
SPDIF, line-in, and mic jack. Then there’s the front I/O box, which fits
into a 5.25” drive bay and connects to the X-Fi using this flat ribbon cable, interfacing
internally by plugging into the back of the card. The main reason I wanted one of these back
in the day is because I was pretty big into digital audio workstations and music production
and wanted as many ports as I could get for that, but nowadays it’s mostly because I
dig how it looks. The more ports the merrier in my book, and
starting on the right-hand side you have the infrared receiver, two miniature MIDI in and
out ports, RCA auxiliary input, line or mic input with a sweet amplification knob, headphone
output with volume control, SPDIF optical I/O, as well as coaxial SPDIF on the far left. So yeah, there are a crapload of things to
hook in, look at, and generally fiddle around with on this setup and I friggin love that. Also in the box is this remote control, which
was yet another selling point for me on this particular X-Fi bundle. And I especially enjoy that this one has these
four little scroll wheels. And finally there’s this goodie bag, packing
Windows XP and Vista software bundles on their own CDs, a Creative Xtreme Fidelity demo DVD
that’s never been opened so we’ll have to fix that, a few cables for connecting CD-ROM
audio and converting the front panel MIDI ports to full-sized ones, this decal for sticking
sound card color codes to the card itself, a fold-out ad for Battlefield 2142 in a surprising
multitude of languages, and a Quick Start leaflet that opens up into a cumbersome poster-like
contraption. At least it has some nifty full-color illustrations,
I’ve always enjoyed these kinds of hardware infographics where you’re given examples
of what each connection can do. Before we get everything installed though:
yes, for those of you that have asked, I went ahead and dropped in another DDR2 RAM stick
to get the max of four gigabytes on this machine. Well, max for what 32-bit Windows can address
by default anyway. And no I won’t be installing 64-bit on here,
at least not as the main installation, since it causes a range of issues with certain older
games. So yeah, four gigs is plenty and this video
is about the X-Fi Platinum dang it, so let’s go ahead and get the old Audigy card removed. [shunk] Sigh! Still a cool little card that I have future
plans for, but that’ll be another video, time permitting. Anyway, getting the X-Fi installed is just
a matter of dropping it into the same PCI slot and screwing it into place. It doesn’t have an HD audio header so I
still won’t be able to plug in my case’s audio ports on top, but seeing as we’ve
got this beefy 5.25” interface to install I’m not too bothered by that fact. What does bother me a little is the necessity
for this chunky old ribbon cable to connect the two, considering I went out of my way
to improve airflow inside the case, but eh, it is what is I guess. All right, time to get that Creative Sound
Blaster software package installed and try out that DVD demo disc, I’m quite curious
about that thing! Driver and software installation works as
you’d anticipate, while also offering to install more than you’ll likely need. Take a look at all this potential bloatware,
good grief! Whatever, gonna go ahead and install everything
because that’s why I’m here. [Windows XP shutdown sound] Ooh, got sound! And we also have remote control support. Being infrared it does require a pretty direct
line of sight to the front panel receiver. But as a fan of remote-controlled anything
when it comes to computers, I’ll take what I can get. And at this point we can start dialing in
the basic speaker settings. [“Left channel.”]
[“Right channel.”] If you go with the default settings the Windows
volume controls are replaced with this Creative sound panel application, providing access
to levels adjustments, sound profiles, and features specific to Creative X-Fi cards. One they advertised quite a bit is the Crystalizer,
which can quote, “restore portions of the sound which were lost during compression." [“Quarter Mix” plays, Crystalizer doing
its thing] It actually does a decent job of both restoring a bit of dynamic range as well
as making lower bitrate audio sound cleaner. Another of the defining features on offer
is CMSS-3D, which produces virtual 3D sound from 2-channel stereo speakers, like this! [CMSS-3D helicopter demo plays,
spinning "around" your head] This doesn’t exactly make that helicopter sound like it’s legit rotating around you, but much like the
older Aureal Vortex cards it still produces a convincing effect for stereo sound. Heh, and while it’s not exactly what most
people were buying an X-Fi for in 2007, it also has a respectable wavetable chipset with
SoundFont support for General MIDI playback. [onestop.mid plays] Plus it comes with an
impressive allotment of software for manipulating SoundFonts and GM instrument layouts, and
a fascinating program called 3D MIDI Player that applies CMSS on top of MIDI playback
so instruments move around in 3D space. [POP_3D.mid plays in "3D" with
instruments moving right to left] All right let’s slice open the sleeve and check out that DVD-ROM demo disc. And whadduya know, it comes with demos. Something called Sounds Best on Sound Blaster and demos for two games F.E.A.R., which is already on here, and Battlefield 2, nice choices. We’ll get to some gaming soon, but first
there’s the Sound Blaster demo program: an interactive multimedia info dump boasting
about the Creative product lineup and letting you know just how awesome your new X-Fi Platinum
can be. Speaking of which, a good chunk of the DVD
is packed with video clips and trailers for products that work well with Creative sound
devices. Unfortunately, the video and audio compression
don’t do them justice, but oh well, still neat to have an archive of mid-2000s game
trailers. [“Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Rated M for Mature.”] Finally, let’s get to some actual gaming
on this gaming-focused sound card! And we’re starting with the demo it came
with for Battlefield 2. [sounds of the field of battle commence] [shooty shooty bang bang] Man do I love the older Battlefield games. Never did get to play BF2 when it was new,
but even just messing around with bots in single player is darned enjoyable. As for the audio, well it sounds fantastic
to me. The demo has an X-Fi specific mode you can
enable in the options menu, so that’s what I did, cranking the quality to the max. Which is what I’ll be doing with each of
the games we’ll be looking at, because there is no reason not to go for the absolute highest
sound settings with this card installed. Not that it’s much of a challenge for this
PC anyway considering the Intel QX6850 and all that, but yeah. Let’s move onto something with a more notable
difference in audio: Doom 3. As of the 1.3 patch it offers EAX 4.0 support
when used with OpenAL-supporting drivers so this seemed like an obvious test for this
card. But to start things off, check out how it
sounds under the software sound mode. ["Welcome to Mars. All new arrivals need to check in at reception."] ["All right bio-scan looks good, you're cleared for entry."] [Doom 3 atmospheric noises] ["On behalf of the UAC, welcome to Mars City"] It’s steady
and clear and more often than not that’s just how Doom 3 sounded, especially if you
were playing on a typical integrated chipset. But now listen to the hardware-accelerated
EAX 4.0 mode. ["Welcome to Mars. All new arrivals need to check in at reception."] ["All right bio-scan looks good, you're cleared for entry."] [same voices and sounds as before, just with far more reverb and depth] ["On behalf of the UAC, welcome to Mars City"] Dude,
it sounds like a different game! ["Okay, there's a few things we need to take care of first."] ["This is your personal data assistant."] ["You'll need this to access all secure areas."] Each room and environment has its own sound
profile, character voices no longer sound flat and have some distance to them, and the
combat is sheer chaos with some serious punch to it. [chaotic combat with punchy seriousness ensues.] Punch and reverb, lots of reverb. I dig it though. And yes I know there are ways to get EAX audio
on non-Creative cards through software, even on a more modern system. But I’m sure y’all know by now that I’m
almost always gonna go with original hardware when I can, and Doom 3 is a prime example
as to why. Another reason why is it just gives me an
excuse to revisit some of my favorite games from the time, like FlatOut 2 here. Yeah I figured it’s time I show a racing
game that’s not an NFS title, and this one was great. [engines revving, metal crunching, dirt flying] FlatOut 2’s sound effects have never been particularly noteworthy in my opinion, really
it was the licensed soundtrack that stood out. But blasting Audioslave is probably not the
best idea in the realm of YouTube Content ID, so you’ll have to settle for the sounds
of exploding cars and shearing metal. [exploding cars, shearing metal] All right that’s it,
I just wanted to play this game again. Uh moving onto Age of Mythology! Once again it doesn’t push the X-Fi card
to its limits or anything, but you always ask me to play more RTS games, and this one’s a classic with lots of memorable sound effects, so why not. [sound effects and music of a mythologically memorable variety] Yeah I ended up playing this a lot longer than intended, it’s just a dang fun game! And hearing that lovely soundtrack and all
those loud goats in the highest quality possible makes me happy. Finally, let’s give a snippet of time to
Half-Life 2, a game that still boasts one of the best aural soundscapes to this day
if you ask me. ["Welcome to City 17. You have chosen, or been chosen,"] ["to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centers."] [shot rings out, helicopter flies over] [general soundscape of City 17, with various sci-fi sirens and distant trains] Again I don’t think
this is pulling off anything specific to the card itself, but when a game is as well-made
as this one in terms of sound design I really don’t mind. Half-Life 2 just oozes style, with its dystopian
world of Combine soldiers and headcrabs and SMGs echoing off the decrepit walls of City
17. It’s an engaging soundscape to this day
and whether or not this card makes much difference, I’m happy it sounds as good as it possibly
can. And that’s about it for the Sound Blaster
X-Fi Platinum Fatal Champ whatever. Really it’s just about the single best card
I could ask for in a Windows XP machine, and even today the specs are still pretty excellent. It beats the pants off every integrated sound
chipset I’ve used and there’s a reason I go with dedicated sound hardware to this
day. Granted I stopped using internal cards a while
back on modern systems due to things like noise and interference. But when it comes to PCs I put together for
playing older games with specific sound hardware in mind and wanting to capture gameplay as
legit as possible, something like a mid-2000s X-Fi setup makes all the sense in the world. If you enjoyed what you just saw then sweet! Lemme know in the comments what kind of sound
card you had in 2007, or whether you had one at all. I’ve also covered a variety of sound devices
in the past so maybe check those out too if you’re interested. And as always thank you very much for watching!
