Doom III is out there! W00T!


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Damn right. Not over 10 dollars, or for getting the wrong thing when he was trying to do something nice for you. You should have been THINKING it was nice of him to try to find it for you. Not publicy calling him a dumbass or whatever because he got the wrong thing.

never thought as the neowin forums to be so much of a 'public' place.

rather not talk about this anymore. at least w/ you 2 losers.

CONGRATS LASTSAMURAI!! Where did you get it? :happy:

lol in my experience, calling someone "you two losers" is not a good way to end the conversation, now you have just provoked them and made it personal. A mature person might be able to ignore that comment, key word might, lol but chances are as mature as these two bokes seem they are going to make a reply. Totally defeating your goal of not talking about it.

Damn right.  Not over 10 dollars, or for getting the wrong thing when he was trying to do something nice for you.  You should have been THINKING it was nice of him to try to find it for you.  Not publicly calling him a dumbass or whatever because he got the wrong thing.

people should get banned for calling their father a "dumpass" :crazy: :angry:

EDIT: correction

,Aug 1 2004, 19:59] never thought as the neowin forums to be so much of a 'public' place.

rather not talk about this anymore. at least w/ you 2 losers.

CONGRATS LASTSAMURAI!! Where did you get it??:happy::

Neowin is very public. Anyone on the internet could read what you wrote possibly for years to come. This is a highly active thread as well. Would you post secret information here? Of course not - because it is a PUBLIC forum.

More with the name calling I see. I'm a loser for calling you on calling your dad a dumb ass.

Just goes to show how spoiled many are in this country. Maybe the draft should be re-instated. Send some of these kids to Iraq & let them see just how lucky they are to have $60 to buy a game. And maybe they can see some kids who don't HAVE a dad anymore.

Fine if you want to avoid the issue we can drop it. Just take in to consideration how you come across and how low it is to call your dad a dumbass over something so trivial in the future.

wtf why are you lamers whining about rob and his life. get your own life, this is damn doom3 thread not a family problems thread. oh ya i just wanted to let you know, i picked up doom3 at bestbuy today, after complaining to the manager for about 30minutes. :)

Neowin is very public. Anyone on the internet could read what you wrote possibly for years to come. This is a highly active thread as well. Would you post secret information here? Of course not - because it is a PUBLIC forum.

More with the name calling I see. I'm a loser for calling you on calling your dad a dumb ass.

Just goes to show how spoiled many are in this country. I hope to god the draft is re-instated. Send some of these spoiled kids to Iraq & let them see just how lucky they are to have $60 to buy a game. And maybe they can see some kids who don't HAVE a dad anymore.

Will you just shut up?

I asked you to stop.

Be mature and respect a elder member's wishes. If you want to keep on discussing this with me, take it private. This isn't the thread to be doing it in. :rolleyes:

,Aug 1 2004, 20:09] Will you just shut up?

I asked you to stop.

Be mature and respect a elder member's wishes. If you want to keep on discussing this with me, take it private. This isn't the thread to be doing it in. :rolleyes:

Consider it dropped, but not because you're "an elder" member my teenage friend. Fortunately I can see when an argument is pointless.

Stay on Topic trek234. This is not a family issue thread, it's a doom3 thread. Either Stop posting or just step away from the computer. Seriously.

Very well. I apologize for the OT. I passed it the first time, but it got a little annoying after he did it again. Perhaps I should have ignored it regardless.

Again I apologize to anyone upset about the OT.

Consider it dropped, but not because you're "an elder" member my teenage friend. Fortunately I can see when an argument is pointless.

Just because you may be in your twenty's and i'm younger than you, doesn't mean i'm less knowlegable. :rolleyes:

If you want to go to a place where you can yell at younger members about their isses w/ family members, search google.

Someone PM me later and remind me to add Trek to my Dumbass list :yes:

,Aug 1 2004, 20:15] Just because you may be in your twenty's and i'm younger than you, doesn't mean i'm less knowlegable. :rolleyes:

If you want to go to a place where you can yell at younger members about their isses w/ family members, search google.

Someone PM me later and remind me to add Trek to my Dumbass list :yes:

dude he stopped. you need to chill.

unfortunately Rob is right.we shouldn't hijack this thread.I'm sure it would get closed if we do.

@[Rob.Baker]

but, baker, please don't call your parents "dumpass" anymore. thanks in advance.

@RaNDoM HeRo

Dear mother

Dear father

What is this hell you have put me through

Believer

Deceiver

Day in day out live my life through you

Pushed onto me what?s wrong or right

Hidden from this thing that they call life

Dear mother

Dear father

Every thought I?d think you?d disapprove

Curator

Dictator

Always cencoring my every move

Children are seen but are not heard

Tear out everything inspired

Innocence

Torn from me without your shelter

Barred reality

I?m living blindly

Dear mother

Dear father

Time has frozen still what?s left to be

Hear nothing

Say nothing

Cannot face the fact I think for me

No guarantee,it?s life as is

But damn you for not giving me my chance

Dear mother

Dear father

You?ve clipped my wings before I learnt to fly

Unspoiled

Unspoken

I?ve outgrown that ****ing lullaby

Same thing I?ve always heard from you

Do as I say not as I do

Innocence

Torn from me without your shelter

Barred reality

I?m living blindly

I?m in hell without you

Cannot cope without you two

Shocked at the world that I see

Innocent victim please rescue me

Dear mother

Dear father

Hidden in your world you?ve made for me

I?m seething

I?m bleeding

Ripping wounds in me that never heal

Undying spite I feel for you

Living out this hell you always knew

,Aug 1 2004, 20:15] Just because you may be in your twenty's and i'm younger than you, doesn't mean i'm less knowlegable. :rolleyes:

If you want to go to a place where you can yell at younger members about their isses w/ family members, search google.

Someone PM me later and remind me to add Trek to my Dumbass list :yes:

I thought we dropped it? Send me a PM if you want to talk about it more.

switching topics, i thoroughly believe that Halo 2 will skunk Doom III... it just looks a lot better in my opinion, key word my opinion. Also in my opinion however, Halo 2 will be the greatest game of all time... following such legends as PONG and PAC-MAN and and and.... ARAKNOID....yes i said ARAKNOID...and i capitalized it too.

switching topics, i thoroughly believe that Halo 2 will skunk Doom III... it just looks a lot better in my opinion, key word my opinion.  Also in my opinion however, Halo 2 will be the greatest game of all time... following such legends as PONG and PAC-MAN and  and and.... ARAKNOID....yes i said ARAKNOID...and i capitalized it too.

Jesus christ. this isn't a halo2 thread. Stay on topic. Jesus is it really so hard?

This topic is now closed to further replies.
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    • You literally have to do it on a desktop, which is incredibly annoying in our mobile-first world. What???
    • What part of "you can’t really depend on service providers to maintain features forever" is not clear enough?
    • Nope. That lack of surround sound capability (analog) won't fly with me. Sure, I use headphones most of the time, but still.
    • Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe review: your headphones will love it by Steven Parker If you have been reading Neowin for any length of time, you may remember that I reviewed the Sound Blaster Audigy FX Pro back in April. I found it to be an excellent budget sound card, even though it lacked support for formats such as DTS over the included SPDIF port. Anyway, Creative reached out to me again asking if I was interested in reviewing the Sound Blaster AE-X. It is a card mainly targeted at headphone wearers, which I'll get into a bit later. Before we get underway, here is a disclaimer: Creative Labs provided a free sample without any review pre-approval. Here are the full specs of it: Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Dimensions: 179 x 126 x 18 mm Weight: 263g / 9.28 oz Platform: PCI-e DAC: ESS ES9039Q2M Connectivity Options Side: Rear: 1 x HD Audio Front Panel Connector, 1 x ⅛“ Headphone port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Left) port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Right) port, 1 x Coaxial SPDIF-out port, 1 x ⅛“ Mic in/Line-in port, 1 x TOSLINK SPDIF-in port Surround: No DNR / SNR: THD+N: 0.0001% Dynamic Range 130 dB Recording Resolution: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Direct Mode: Line Out (Stereo): PCM up to 32-bit  384 kHz Coaxial SPDIF Out: PCM up to 24-bit 192.0 kHz Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 384kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 Output Impedance: 1Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 8–600Ω, IEM: 0.5Vrms, Low: 1.5Vrms, Mid: 3Vrms, High: 6Vrms, Maximum output power: 350mW @ 32Ω (High), Maximum output voltage: 6Vrms (High) Front Panel Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128 Output Impedance: 10Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 32–300Ω, Maximum output power: 40mW @ 32Ω, Maximum output voltage: 1.9Vrms ASIO: ASIO 2.3 Total Harmonic Distortion: THD+N: 0.0006% Dynamic Range: 114 dB Scout Mode: Yes EMI shielding: No (but it passed all the FCC emission tests) Operating temperature: 0–45°C Input Power: 12V⎓0.5A Warranty: 1 Year (MSRP) Price: $179.99 / £169.99 The Sound Blaster AE-X was announced at the end of May, and it becomes clear that it is mainly for headphone wearers. I should also note that the card does not support DDL/DTS encoding technology, but it is said to support decoding through the coaxial SPDIF port. I was able to test this working with the classic Windows Sound properties, but I could not get a DTS (decode) signal through my Logitech Z906, it defaulted to 3D sound whenever I played DTS content through Plex or Emby. In addition, this card only supports two channels (stereo) over the speakers. The surround support is limited to the Headphone Amp, so before I get underway, what we have here is a card mostly intended for headphone use, especially with its SPDIF In (Toslink) port where you could connect another device like a console. So what about the highlights of this card? The AE-X is powered by the ESS SABRE DAC (ES9039Q2M), which is capable of a 130 dB dynamic range. In addition, it supports 32-bit/384 kHz playback for deeper detail and clarity. The headphone amplifier delivers up to 350 mW @ 32Ω, which admittedly far surpasses standard onboard audio, offering support for studio-grade headphones. DSD256 and ASIO 2.3 are also supported. What doesn't it have? No support for What-U-Hear, Super X-Fi, or the SmartComms Kit No EMI shielding, but it passed all the FCC emission tests (from the FAQ) I also want to make it clear that I am no audiophile. For me, it's purely subjective and it should just "work" out of the box. First impressions As I said in the introduction, I was a bit sad to see that the AE-X only supports stereo output, meaning it would not be on par with my ALC1220 over my speakers, as I mentioned it seems like this card is marketed toward headphone users. Since I am not an avid gamer that would rule me out as a potential customer, but I can still test its capabilities! The card arrived in a nice-looking box, as shown above. It's quite a bit larger than the Audify FX Pro that I reviewed back in April, and at first I thought the covering meant that it was EMI shielded, but it isn't as mentioned above in the highlights section. What's in the box: 1 x Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe card 1 x 3.5 mm CTIA TRRS to Dual TRS Headset Splitter Cable 1 x Quick Start Guide Aside from the Quick Start Guide, which someone at my age (I guess) needs a magnifying glass to read thanks to the tiny fonts, Creative Labs also has the manual online, which first requires you to prove that you're human in order to access it (so I can't direct link it). Anyway, the box is mostly made up of cardboard, and the only plastic in it is the anti-static bag for the card itself. Design Top Bottom The card itself looks pretty cool and actually wouldn't look out of place in an all-white build. There's only one connector, and for some reason it is awkwardly placed on the side (front-facing) that is for the front panel audio connector, which will let you use the headphones through the front PC audio jack. Since the front panel Headphone Amp has fewer capabilities than the rear headphone port, I decided not to use it. Rear of card PCI-e interface The rear of the card is completely open and is normally where you would find the front panel connector. The PCIe interface side is completely covered, which initially made me think it was EMI shielded. I/O panel Side (front-facing) with Front panel connector On the outer rear bracket side we have the TOSLINK SPDIF in, Coaxial SPDIF out, RCA line out (Right), RCA line out (Left), Headphone out, and Mic/Line in ports. On the front facing portion of the card itself is the F-panel connector. Usage Test System Our test system consists of the following: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER (BIOS F12) Corsair RM1000x (2024) Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut (33x33x0,2mm) 2x 32GB Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR5 6000MT/s CL36-38-38-80 T-Force Z540 2TB (PCIe Gen5) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition (NVIDIA) Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Windows 11 25H2 Pro I installed the card into the Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER which includes the RealTek ALC1220 onboard audio. For our subjective listening tests, I used the Coaxial SPDIF port to my Logitech Z906 speakers. For headphone tests I used the OneOdio Studio Max 2 Wireless DJ Headphones that I reviewed last month. After installing the audio driver, I installed Creative Nexus, which is a relatively new app designed for the latest Sound Blaster cards. Then I discovered the AE-X needed both a driver update from 1.00.15.0001 to 1.01.09.000 and a firmware update from 1.00.06.0000 to 1.00.06.0002, then I was set to go. It should be noted that the card did not work without the driver (not Plug and Play). As you can see above, you can manage the firmware, driver, and inputs via Advanced Settings on the Device tab. By default Nexus enabled "Direct Mode". Upon clicking on Acoustic Engine, the Equalizer can be enabled and set to four different presets, which are: Gaming Music Movies Footsteps Enhancer There's also a dedicated Scout Mode for gamers. I mainly used Tidal and Spotify in the past week to listen to some of my Liked Songs (which now total over 700) in Shuffle mode; there were no pops or interference that I could hear. I also found a 5.1 Surround Music playlist on Tidal that sounded really great over Studio Max 2 headphones. When I reviewed the Audigy FX Pro, I went out and purchased a Logitech Z906 set second-hand for €100 specifically to use with the card, but in this instance all I could get on the AE-X was the 3D output of surround sound through Coaxial SPDIF and although it still sounded great, it isn't quite as good as DTS Interactive via my onboard Realtek ALC1220. Conclusion So what have I learned? The AE-X lacks multi-channel support for 5.1/7.1 setups and drops support for modern surround technologies like Dolby or DTS, functioning strictly as a stereo output device. So to really benefit, you will need Studio-grade headphones to "hear" the benefits of this card. With that being said, I can imagine it will appeal to gamers who are switching between console and PC. By utilizing the SPDIF in port, you could just plug your headphones into the AE-X (front or rear port) and then switch between PC and Console without having to move the headphones to a different port. As I said in the Sound Blaster Audigy review, the EQ in the Creative Nexus app offers safe presets, which allows a user to further tweak the lows, mids, and highs for a personal listening experience. Of course it all depends on the headphones you hook up to it. Speaking of headphones, I kind of wish I had higher-quality Studio-grade headphones to really test this card with; I'm not usually wearing headphones in my day to day duties. The only time I will wear them is if I want to listen to music very late at night and I don't want to disturb my neighbors, so my rating (verdict) is based on this fact. Someone with a PC/Console setup and wears headphone religiously to game, and consume media will benefit much more than I from the high-quality Headphone Amps that are included in the AE-X. Once again, I do feel like Creative could have gone the extra mile to support the S/PDIF port a bit more. Why include it if you're not supporting the main popular digital formats? It seems like the decision was more of a legacy-based one, offering uncompressed 2-channel PCM audio, for users with high-fidelity audio systems and external DACs. Maybe I will be lucky enough to review a card that truly includes all these features in the future. I am sure readers with far more knowledge on audio systems than me will correct me in the comments below. I'll just say I am happy to learn what I don't know! Where to buy The Sound Blaster AE-X is available to purchase now in preorder for $179.99 on the U.S. Creative website, or for £169.99 on the Creative UK website and will start shipping to customers from June 25.
    • $80 or 90%, anything else would be financial suicide one way or another.
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