New
#11
The X-Fi Titanium Hd is a very card.
When I was shopping around for a new card a couple months back, I went through many reviews deciding which one I wanted. And they all seemed to have this common conclusion:
-The X-Fi Titanium HD (the HD part is important) was a huge improvement from the older X-Fi cards, and considered Audiophile grade.
-In music only, it performed very well, but the Xonar was slightly ahead of it in this area.
-In Gaming, the X-Fi was the better card.
So I think it depends on what your looking for as to which one to choose. But both are very good cards.
I chose the X-Fi it because I do alot of gaming, and switching to the X-Fi chip for gaming makes a huge difference in games to my ears.
And although the Xonar performed a bit better in music, the X-Fi is still no slouch. So it was a good comprimise between both areas.
As bonkn said, they are often geared more toward a digital reciever. My X-Fi has 2 RCA ports for a digital reciever (or can be converted to 3.5mm for stereo speaker) and a headphone jack.
That is somewhat of a downside, but I think some newer models out now may have support for analog 5.1.
One other downside to the X-Fi (or at least 1 thing people seem to complaina bout alot) is that it was built for Win7, and only works for Win7. The drivers will not install on any older OS. I don't find this a downside, but many do for some reason.
On mine, once you plug in headphones, it disables those RCA ports.
I use 2.1 Klipsch Pro Media Speakers, but mostly my Sennheiser Headphones, so this card suits my needs perfectly.
Also, the main reason I suggested going with a x1 is because PCI is a older technology. If you plan on keeping the card for a while, it may be the best bet. My motherboad for example doesn't have any PCI slots. Only 2 x16, 1 x8, and 3x1 slots.
Others may soon start following the same idea.