Welcome to the forum! 😃
The X-FI Xtreme Gamer was still being sold in that time frame even though it was released in 2006. It's the only XP gaming worthy LP soundcard I can think of.

thank you,will consider it for a mid period 2004-2009 xp build. you know how it is with the period correct thing... must be in that time interval.

marinescuiuri wrote on 2022-01-31, 19:14:

thank you,will consider it for a mid period 2004-2009 xp build. you know how it is with the period correct thing... must be in that time interval.

Sounds cards are in a weird spot since they hardly if ever get upgraded so a sound card from 2006 would likely be reused in a 2009 build especially a XI-Fi one, so it would be period correct unless you were one of these odd people who had to upgrade sound cards even though the ones from 2009 were garbage and lost a ton of features the earlier XP XiFi based cards had.

2009 was also where integrated sound on motherboards was generally good enough for the majority of people so sound cards pretty much stagnated for quite a while.

You've got a bunch of SATA ports on that system board, so put them to good use with some SSDs. That will shave a chunk of power off your consumption and the system will be far faster and more stable.

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2022-01-31, 19:26:

You've got a bunch of SATA ports on that system board, so put them to good use with some SSDs. That will shave a chunk of power off your consumption and the system will be far faster and more stable.

i heard xp shortens the life of the SSD. is there a way around it?

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-31, 19:24:

marinescuiuri wrote on 2022-01-31, 19:14:

thank you,will consider it for a mid period 2004-2009 xp build. you know how it is with the period correct thing... must be in that time interval.

Sounds cards are in a weird spot since they hardly if ever get upgraded so a sound card from 2006 would likely be reused in a 2009 build especially a XI-Fi one, so it would be period correct unless you were one of these odd people who had to upgrade sound cards even though the ones from 2009 were garbage and lost a ton of features the earlier XP XiFi based cards had.

2009 was also where integrated sound on motherboards was generally good enough for the majority of people so sound cards pretty much stagnated for quite a while.

this means i should stick to the onboard conexant or go with the upper recommendation " The X-FI Xtreme Gamer " ? i'm thinking your words are true, not always is the new better than the old. that is why i posted, to find opinions. thank you

For XP I'd personally stick with onboard audio unless I had a specific EAX or A3D game I really wanted to play. Especially since you're going low power, no point wasting energy on a sound card for minimal improvement.

marinescuiuri wrote on 2022-01-31, 19:36:

i heard xp shortens the life of the SSD. is there a way around it?

XP doesn't support the "trim" function of SSDs. I suppose you could just take the SSD out and put it in a newer machine every once and a while to trim it.

AirIntake wrote on 2022-01-31, 20:09:

marinescuiuri wrote on 2022-01-31, 19:36:

i heard xp shortens the life of the SSD. is there a way around it?

XP doesn't support the "trim" function of SSDs. I suppose you could just take the SSD out and put it in a newer machine every once and a while to trim it.

also found this in the mean time. it's about what you're saying, the trim.
Anyone Know of TRIMing Software for Windows XP?

marinescuiuri wrote on 2022-01-31, 19:36:

RetroGamer4Ever wrote on 2022-01-31, 19:26:

You've got a bunch of SATA ports on that system board, so put them to good use with some SSDs. That will shave a chunk of power off your consumption and the system will be far faster and more stable.

i heard xp shortens the life of the SSD. is there a way around it?

That was ages ago , when SSDs were new and the software was poopy, requiring manual maintenance on SSDs and special software to run annually. SSDs have their own built-in maintenance software and processes now, so people run XP on current NVME SSDs! That being said, you can pretty much run XP flawlessly on any cheapo SATA or NVME SSD that you could pick up in today's marketplace.

I like the XtremeGamer too. Had it in a Vista system for a while until either the card or the PCI slot crapped out. It's one of the few (only?) cards in Creative's Audigy/X-Fi lineup with a standard HD Audio front panel header that needs no adapters and no custom breakout box or anything.

But, honestly, sound-quality-wise, it may not have an advantage over onboard audio of 2009 and later motherboards. EAX support is a different matter.

dr_st wrote on 2022-01-31, 21:40:

I like the XtremeGamer too. Had it in a Vista system for a while until either the card or the PCI slot crapped out. It's one of the few (only?) cards in Creative's Audigy/X-Fi lineup with a standard HD Audio front panel header that needs no adapters and no custom breakout box or anything.

But, honestly, sound-quality-wise, it may not have an advantage over onboard audio of 2009 and later motherboards. EAX support is a different matter.

currently the mobo has Conexant CX20642.

googling reviews about this codec found almost nothing, except that it plays a huge role how the mobo manufacturer designed the audio hardware layout, meaning how far apart the components are one from another, at least that is what I understood from here:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/best-integrat … cx20671.553122/

that being said, and the fact that dedicated sound cards from 2006, might not be better than integrated sound post 2009 sounds, I'll have to go with a dedicated sound card post 2009 (2009-2013 te bo period correct since it's a important aspect).

still searching

I have.. not use.. just have.. X-fi usb. Supposed to support everything, havent gotten around to test, except that it works.
So just plug in the usb and you are good to go, better than pci anyway.

guys i've decided to go classic on the sound and go with older creative sound blaster since i have 2 bose speakers 30w both, from 2001, so the sound will go classic on this battlestation with modern i5-3rd generation.

thank you guys. here creative sound blasters go with 10-25 dollars, i'll post in a single final thread what i have accomplished and how i got there. i said it before and i'll say it again: we battlestation builders (especially retro) are very picky:D. thank you guys .

now to start a thread about video card.

Your motherboard doesn't have an ISA slot so you can't use any of the classic Sound Blasters. The oldest compatible Sound Blaster you can use in a PCI slot in the Live!, but it's not "classic" because it has to emulate classic Sound Blaster compatibility in DOS.

AirIntake wrote on 2022-02-02, 15:55:

Your motherboard doesn't have an ISA slot so you can't use any of the classic Sound Blasters. The oldest compatible Sound Blaster you can use in a PCI slot in the Live!, but it's not "classic" because it has to emulate classic Sound Blaster compatibility in DOS.

I'll only play red alert 2 and heroes 3.

marinescuiuri wrote on 2022-02-02, 20:41:

I'll only play red alert 2 and heroes 3.

Both of those games are Windows games. Just get a Sound Blaster X-Fi. It supports up to EAX 5.0 as well as the older versions.