VOGONS


First post, by Demo85

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Finally getting together the parts for a WinXP machine for the games that don't play nice with Win10. Finding it kinda hard to track down sound card information. I really want an authentic EAX and A3D experience under WinXP. I know some sound cards kinda emulate it but I'd rather have the real deal hardware on the card. I would also really want it to have drivers for Win10 as well since this PC will do double duty as the WinXP machine and modern surf the web machine in my retro game area, plan to dual boot XP and Win10 (running a I7 2700 powered Dell that has XP drivers that I hope to transplant in a more era correct case). I don't care if all the fun stuff works for Win10, just that audio works since I won't really be doing any gaming on that Win10 install. What should I be looking at?

Reply 1 of 24, by RandomStranger

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For the first part, no.

For the second, you don't need Windows 10 for web browsing and you shouldn't use it on a retro machine.

sreq.png retrogamer-s.png

Reply 2 of 24, by swaaye

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Yeah there is nothing that supports A3D 2.0 besides Aureal cards and only their Win98 drivers are feature complete.

X-Fi is great for XP through Win10 for EAX games though.

Reply 3 of 24, by Demo85

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RandomStranger wrote on 2022-01-17, 06:33:

For the first part, no.

For the second, you don't need Windows 10 for web browsing and you shouldn't use it on a retro machine.

I disagree, have WinXP installed on the machine right now and web browsing is awful and I used quite a few different browers. Kind of irrelevant if I'm honest, it's so easy to dual boot to get general purpose computing working easily. It's what i'm doing. When I move and get more space I plan to just run XP on this machine (and put together a 98SE machine as well) and use them just for that. Until then I can only have 1 desk setup with the space I got.

swaaye wrote on 2022-01-17, 06:41:

Yeah there is nothing that supports A3D 2.0 besides Aureal cards and only their Win98 drivers are feature complete.

X-Fi is great for XP through Win10 for EAX games though.

Ya know, until I just googled I didn't realize how old A3D was. That's really a Win98 thing huh? I'll have to keep that in mind when I put together a Win98 machine when I have more room. So for the X-Fi, I see a million different versions. Do they all have hardware EAX? What flavor of X-Fi should I be looking at? Am I going to be able to get plan 2 channel audio going in Win10?

Reply 4 of 24, by RandomStranger

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Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 07:05:

I disagree, have WinXP installed on the machine right now and web browsing is awful and I used quite a few different browers. Kind of irrelevant if I'm honest, it's so easy to dual boot to get general purpose computing working easily. It's what i'm doing. When I move and get more space I plan to just run XP on this machine (and put together a 98SE machine as well) and use them just for that. Until then I can only have 1 desk setup with the space I got.

I said not to use Windows 10, I didn't say to use Windows XP or any Windows.

sreq.png retrogamer-s.png

Reply 5 of 24, by TrashPanda

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RandomStranger wrote on 2022-01-17, 07:41:
Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 07:05:

I disagree, have WinXP installed on the machine right now and web browsing is awful and I used quite a few different browers. Kind of irrelevant if I'm honest, it's so easy to dual boot to get general purpose computing working easily. It's what i'm doing. When I move and get more space I plan to just run XP on this machine (and put together a 98SE machine as well) and use them just for that. Until then I can only have 1 desk setup with the space I got.

I said not to use Windows 10, I didn't say to use Windows XP or any Windows.

I would fire up Windows Vista or 7 for web browsing on a retro rig, windows 8,10 and 11 are generally slow as molasses on pre p4 era hardware and even on a P4 tend to have issues like lack of drivers and such. Vista can also run with a lowly 1gb of ram without much trouble so could be made to run on P2 if you dont mind a little HDD thrashing. (Vista Ultimate with all updates and a few community fixes is really good for retro PCs as a dual boot)

I own a copy of Vista Ultimate so I tend to dual boot with that as its more compatible with older P3/P4 era hardware, windows 7 can work in a pinch but thats better suited to late Core 2 quad/Nehalem/Sandy Bridge stuff.

For the more adventurous there is always a flavour of Linux that should work.

Reply 6 of 24, by mothergoose729

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You can install windows XP on almost any hardware. If you want a machine that can comfortably run windows 10 and windows XP you have lots of options.

For sound cards, that really isn't a reason not to use an X-Fi card. The X-Fi extreme music or the SB0770 cards are cheap and easy to find and have all the features you would really want.

The X-Fi cards also work just fine in modern windows.

Reply 7 of 24, by Demo85

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TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:05:
I would fire up Windows Vista or 7 for web browsing on a retro rig, windows 8,10 and 11 are generally slow as molasses on pre p4 […]
Show full quote
RandomStranger wrote on 2022-01-17, 07:41:
Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 07:05:

I disagree, have WinXP installed on the machine right now and web browsing is awful and I used quite a few different browers. Kind of irrelevant if I'm honest, it's so easy to dual boot to get general purpose computing working easily. It's what i'm doing. When I move and get more space I plan to just run XP on this machine (and put together a 98SE machine as well) and use them just for that. Until then I can only have 1 desk setup with the space I got.

I said not to use Windows 10, I didn't say to use Windows XP or any Windows.

I would fire up Windows Vista or 7 for web browsing on a retro rig, windows 8,10 and 11 are generally slow as molasses on pre p4 era hardware and even on a P4 tend to have issues like lack of drivers and such. Vista can also run with a lowly 1gb of ram without much trouble so could be made to run on P2 if you dont mind a little HDD thrashing. (Vista Ultimate with all updates and a few community fixes is really good for retro PCs as a dual boot)

I own a copy of Vista Ultimate so I tend to dual boot with that as its more compatible with older P3/P4 era hardware, windows 7 can work in a pinch but thats better suited to late Core 2 quad/Nehalem/Sandy Bridge stuff.

For the more adventurous there is always a flavour of Linux that should work.

The PC has a second gen Core i7. Windows 10 is not a problem for this machine. I would install 7 just to mess around but I have no nostalgia for 7. I ran XP from the time it was new to like 2016. I really really wish I kept my WinXP machines over the years but I move a lot for work and like 4 years ago it wasn't worth it to me to lug them around. Really, the Win10/XP is set in stone for me in this setup. I just wanted to get the audio card sorted.

mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:17:

You can install windows XP on almost any hardware. If you want a machine that can comfortably run windows 10 and windows XP you have lots of options.

For sound cards, that really isn't a reason not to use an X-Fi card. The X-Fi extreme music or the SB0770 cards are cheap and easy to find and have all the features you would really want.

The X-Fi cards also work just fine in modern windows.

Yeah, the i7 2600 I have runs both 10 and XP great. Gotta figure out the whole dual boot thing, right now I'm swapping SSDs to switch between them. Since the X-Fi Titanium is so cheap is their any reason not to go with it? It does indeed do hardware decoding of EAX right?

Reply 8 of 24, by TrashPanda

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mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:17:

You can install windows XP on almost any hardware. If you want a machine that can comfortably run windows 10 and windows XP you have lots of options.

For sound cards, that really isn't a reason not to use an X-Fi card. The X-Fi extreme music or the SB0770 cards are cheap and easy to find and have all the features you would really want.

The X-Fi cards also work just fine in modern windows.

You can use both a Vortex 2 card and EAX card together, you rout the line out on the Vortex into the line in on the EAX card and boom you can use either in the same machine and have both A3D and EAX.

This works quite well under XP but Vortex 2 drivers can be hit or miss so you might need to play around with A3D drivers till you get one that works well.

Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:21:
The PC has a second gen Core i7. Windows 10 is not a problem for this machine. I would install 7 just to mess around but I have […]
Show full quote
TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:05:
I would fire up Windows Vista or 7 for web browsing on a retro rig, windows 8,10 and 11 are generally slow as molasses on pre p4 […]
Show full quote
RandomStranger wrote on 2022-01-17, 07:41:

I said not to use Windows 10, I didn't say to use Windows XP or any Windows.

I would fire up Windows Vista or 7 for web browsing on a retro rig, windows 8,10 and 11 are generally slow as molasses on pre p4 era hardware and even on a P4 tend to have issues like lack of drivers and such. Vista can also run with a lowly 1gb of ram without much trouble so could be made to run on P2 if you dont mind a little HDD thrashing. (Vista Ultimate with all updates and a few community fixes is really good for retro PCs as a dual boot)

I own a copy of Vista Ultimate so I tend to dual boot with that as its more compatible with older P3/P4 era hardware, windows 7 can work in a pinch but thats better suited to late Core 2 quad/Nehalem/Sandy Bridge stuff.

For the more adventurous there is always a flavour of Linux that should work.

The PC has a second gen Core i7. Windows 10 is not a problem for this machine. I would install 7 just to mess around but I have no nostalgia for 7. I ran XP from the time it was new to like 2016. I really really wish I kept my WinXP machines over the years but I move a lot for work and like 4 years ago it wasn't worth it to me to lug them around. Really, the Win10/XP is set in stone for me in this setup. I just wanted to get the audio card sorted.

mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:17:

You can install windows XP on almost any hardware. If you want a machine that can comfortably run windows 10 and windows XP you have lots of options.

For sound cards, that really isn't a reason not to use an X-Fi card. The X-Fi extreme music or the SB0770 cards are cheap and easy to find and have all the features you would really want.

The X-Fi cards also work just fine in modern windows.

Yeah, the i7 2600 I have runs both 10 and XP great. Gotta figure out the whole dual boot thing, right now I'm swapping SSDs to switch between them. Since the X-Fi Titanium is so cheap is their any reason not to go with it? It does indeed do hardware decoding of EAX right?

Didn't realise that its an i7 ...my fault for skimming over that bit.

Reply 9 of 24, by Demo85

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TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:21:
You can use both a Vortex 2 card and EAX card together, you rout the line out on the Vortex into the line in on the EAX card and […]
Show full quote
mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:17:

You can install windows XP on almost any hardware. If you want a machine that can comfortably run windows 10 and windows XP you have lots of options.

For sound cards, that really isn't a reason not to use an X-Fi card. The X-Fi extreme music or the SB0770 cards are cheap and easy to find and have all the features you would really want.

The X-Fi cards also work just fine in modern windows.

You can use both a Vortex 2 card and EAX card together, you rout the line out on the Vortex into the line in on the EAX card and boom you can use either in the same machine and have both A3D and EAX.

This works quite well under XP but Vortex 2 drivers can be hit or miss so you might need to play around with A3D drivers till you get one that works well.

Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:21:
The PC has a second gen Core i7. Windows 10 is not a problem for this machine. I would install 7 just to mess around but I have […]
Show full quote
TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:05:

I would fire up Windows Vista or 7 for web browsing on a retro rig, windows 8,10 and 11 are generally slow as molasses on pre p4 era hardware and even on a P4 tend to have issues like lack of drivers and such. Vista can also run with a lowly 1gb of ram without much trouble so could be made to run on P2 if you dont mind a little HDD thrashing. (Vista Ultimate with all updates and a few community fixes is really good for retro PCs as a dual boot)

I own a copy of Vista Ultimate so I tend to dual boot with that as its more compatible with older P3/P4 era hardware, windows 7 can work in a pinch but thats better suited to late Core 2 quad/Nehalem/Sandy Bridge stuff.

For the more adventurous there is always a flavour of Linux that should work.

The PC has a second gen Core i7. Windows 10 is not a problem for this machine. I would install 7 just to mess around but I have no nostalgia for 7. I ran XP from the time it was new to like 2016. I really really wish I kept my WinXP machines over the years but I move a lot for work and like 4 years ago it wasn't worth it to me to lug them around. Really, the Win10/XP is set in stone for me in this setup. I just wanted to get the audio card sorted.

mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:17:

You can install windows XP on almost any hardware. If you want a machine that can comfortably run windows 10 and windows XP you have lots of options.

For sound cards, that really isn't a reason not to use an X-Fi card. The X-Fi extreme music or the SB0770 cards are cheap and easy to find and have all the features you would really want.

The X-Fi cards also work just fine in modern windows.

Yeah, the i7 2600 I have runs both 10 and XP great. Gotta figure out the whole dual boot thing, right now I'm swapping SSDs to switch between them. Since the X-Fi Titanium is so cheap is their any reason not to go with it? It does indeed do hardware decoding of EAX right?

Didn't realise that its an i7 ...my fault for skimming over that bit.

It's ok, wish I just left the Win10 part out of the OP since it's really off topic from my real question.

Reply 10 of 24, by mothergoose729

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TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:21:
You can use both a Vortex 2 card and EAX card together, you rout the line out on the Vortex into the line in on the EAX card and […]
Show full quote
mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:17:

You can install windows XP on almost any hardware. If you want a machine that can comfortably run windows 10 and windows XP you have lots of options.

For sound cards, that really isn't a reason not to use an X-Fi card. The X-Fi extreme music or the SB0770 cards are cheap and easy to find and have all the features you would really want.

The X-Fi cards also work just fine in modern windows.

You can use both a Vortex 2 card and EAX card together, you rout the line out on the Vortex into the line in on the EAX card and boom you can use either in the same machine and have both A3D and EAX.

This works quite well under XP but Vortex 2 drivers can be hit or miss so you might need to play around with A3D drivers till you get one that works well.

Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:21:
The PC has a second gen Core i7. Windows 10 is not a problem for this machine. I would install 7 just to mess around but I have […]
Show full quote
TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:05:

I would fire up Windows Vista or 7 for web browsing on a retro rig, windows 8,10 and 11 are generally slow as molasses on pre p4 era hardware and even on a P4 tend to have issues like lack of drivers and such. Vista can also run with a lowly 1gb of ram without much trouble so could be made to run on P2 if you dont mind a little HDD thrashing. (Vista Ultimate with all updates and a few community fixes is really good for retro PCs as a dual boot)

I own a copy of Vista Ultimate so I tend to dual boot with that as its more compatible with older P3/P4 era hardware, windows 7 can work in a pinch but thats better suited to late Core 2 quad/Nehalem/Sandy Bridge stuff.

For the more adventurous there is always a flavour of Linux that should work.

The PC has a second gen Core i7. Windows 10 is not a problem for this machine. I would install 7 just to mess around but I have no nostalgia for 7. I ran XP from the time it was new to like 2016. I really really wish I kept my WinXP machines over the years but I move a lot for work and like 4 years ago it wasn't worth it to me to lug them around. Really, the Win10/XP is set in stone for me in this setup. I just wanted to get the audio card sorted.

mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:17:

You can install windows XP on almost any hardware. If you want a machine that can comfortably run windows 10 and windows XP you have lots of options.

For sound cards, that really isn't a reason not to use an X-Fi card. The X-Fi extreme music or the SB0770 cards are cheap and easy to find and have all the features you would really want.

The X-Fi cards also work just fine in modern windows.

Yeah, the i7 2600 I have runs both 10 and XP great. Gotta figure out the whole dual boot thing, right now I'm swapping SSDs to switch between them. Since the X-Fi Titanium is so cheap is their any reason not to go with it? It does indeed do hardware decoding of EAX right?

Didn't realise that its an i7 ...my fault for skimming over that bit.

There are no official A3D drivers for windows XP. There is an unofficial driver but I am not sure how many features it supports.

Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:21:
The PC has a second gen Core i7. Windows 10 is not a problem for this machine. I would install 7 just to mess around but I have […]
Show full quote
TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:05:
I would fire up Windows Vista or 7 for web browsing on a retro rig, windows 8,10 and 11 are generally slow as molasses on pre p4 […]
Show full quote
RandomStranger wrote on 2022-01-17, 07:41:

I said not to use Windows 10, I didn't say to use Windows XP or any Windows.

I would fire up Windows Vista or 7 for web browsing on a retro rig, windows 8,10 and 11 are generally slow as molasses on pre p4 era hardware and even on a P4 tend to have issues like lack of drivers and such. Vista can also run with a lowly 1gb of ram without much trouble so could be made to run on P2 if you dont mind a little HDD thrashing. (Vista Ultimate with all updates and a few community fixes is really good for retro PCs as a dual boot)

I own a copy of Vista Ultimate so I tend to dual boot with that as its more compatible with older P3/P4 era hardware, windows 7 can work in a pinch but thats better suited to late Core 2 quad/Nehalem/Sandy Bridge stuff.

For the more adventurous there is always a flavour of Linux that should work.

The PC has a second gen Core i7. Windows 10 is not a problem for this machine. I would install 7 just to mess around but I have no nostalgia for 7. I ran XP from the time it was new to like 2016. I really really wish I kept my WinXP machines over the years but I move a lot for work and like 4 years ago it wasn't worth it to me to lug them around. Really, the Win10/XP is set in stone for me in this setup. I just wanted to get the audio card sorted.

mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:17:

You can install windows XP on almost any hardware. If you want a machine that can comfortably run windows 10 and windows XP you have lots of options.

For sound cards, that really isn't a reason not to use an X-Fi card. The X-Fi extreme music or the SB0770 cards are cheap and easy to find and have all the features you would really want.

The X-Fi cards also work just fine in modern windows.

Yeah, the i7 2600 I have runs both 10 and XP great. Gotta figure out the whole dual boot thing, right now I'm swapping SSDs to switch between them. Since the X-Fi Titanium is so cheap is their any reason not to go with it? It does indeed do hardware decoding of EAX right?

Yes, the X-Fi titanium was one of the last cards to do it. It stop being supported in windows vista.

Last edited by mothergoose729 on 2022-01-17, 08:38. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 11 of 24, by Demo85

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mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:35:
There are no official A3D drivers for windows XP. There is an unofficial driver but I am not sure how many features it supports. […]
Show full quote
TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:21:
You can use both a Vortex 2 card and EAX card together, you rout the line out on the Vortex into the line in on the EAX card and […]
Show full quote
mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:17:

You can install windows XP on almost any hardware. If you want a machine that can comfortably run windows 10 and windows XP you have lots of options.

For sound cards, that really isn't a reason not to use an X-Fi card. The X-Fi extreme music or the SB0770 cards are cheap and easy to find and have all the features you would really want.

The X-Fi cards also work just fine in modern windows.

You can use both a Vortex 2 card and EAX card together, you rout the line out on the Vortex into the line in on the EAX card and boom you can use either in the same machine and have both A3D and EAX.

This works quite well under XP but Vortex 2 drivers can be hit or miss so you might need to play around with A3D drivers till you get one that works well.

Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:21:

The PC has a second gen Core i7. Windows 10 is not a problem for this machine. I would install 7 just to mess around but I have no nostalgia for 7. I ran XP from the time it was new to like 2016. I really really wish I kept my WinXP machines over the years but I move a lot for work and like 4 years ago it wasn't worth it to me to lug them around. Really, the Win10/XP is set in stone for me in this setup. I just wanted to get the audio card sorted.

Yeah, the i7 2600 I have runs both 10 and XP great. Gotta figure out the whole dual boot thing, right now I'm swapping SSDs to switch between them. Since the X-Fi Titanium is so cheap is their any reason not to go with it? It does indeed do hardware decoding of EAX right?

Didn't realise that its an i7 ...my fault for skimming over that bit.

There are no official A3D drivers for windows XP. There is an unofficial driver but I am not sure how many features it supports.

Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:21:
The PC has a second gen Core i7. Windows 10 is not a problem for this machine. I would install 7 just to mess around but I have […]
Show full quote
TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:05:

I would fire up Windows Vista or 7 for web browsing on a retro rig, windows 8,10 and 11 are generally slow as molasses on pre p4 era hardware and even on a P4 tend to have issues like lack of drivers and such. Vista can also run with a lowly 1gb of ram without much trouble so could be made to run on P2 if you dont mind a little HDD thrashing. (Vista Ultimate with all updates and a few community fixes is really good for retro PCs as a dual boot)

I own a copy of Vista Ultimate so I tend to dual boot with that as its more compatible with older P3/P4 era hardware, windows 7 can work in a pinch but thats better suited to late Core 2 quad/Nehalem/Sandy Bridge stuff.

For the more adventurous there is always a flavour of Linux that should work.

The PC has a second gen Core i7. Windows 10 is not a problem for this machine. I would install 7 just to mess around but I have no nostalgia for 7. I ran XP from the time it was new to like 2016. I really really wish I kept my WinXP machines over the years but I move a lot for work and like 4 years ago it wasn't worth it to me to lug them around. Really, the Win10/XP is set in stone for me in this setup. I just wanted to get the audio card sorted.

mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:17:

You can install windows XP on almost any hardware. If you want a machine that can comfortably run windows 10 and windows XP you have lots of options.

For sound cards, that really isn't a reason not to use an X-Fi card. The X-Fi extreme music or the SB0770 cards are cheap and easy to find and have all the features you would really want.

The X-Fi cards also work just fine in modern windows.

Yeah, the i7 2600 I have runs both 10 and XP great. Gotta figure out the whole dual boot thing, right now I'm swapping SSDs to switch between them. Since the X-Fi Titanium is so cheap is their any reason not to go with it? It does indeed do hardware decoding of EAX right?

Yes, the X-Fi titanium was one of the last cards to do it. It stop being supported in windows vista.

I'm saving the A3D stuff for when I get around to a 98 machine. I only even asked about it because before this thread I would have sworn I was using A3D in WinXP for most of the 2000s. Apparently my memory is faulty because I swore I played Vampire on XP with A3D but that's not a possibility. I was under the impressions that A3D which I knew was it's own thing but after they got bought out by Creative that Sound Blasters started doing A3D. Like how SLI became a NVidia thing after they bought out 3Dfx.

Anyways, ordering a X-Fi Ti and moving on with the project. Now I gotta start asking how to dual boot XP and 10, right now I'm physically swapping drives and I really don't want to keep doing that 🤣. Ya know for using computers since I was like 10 I'm fairly computer stupid.

Reply 12 of 24, by mothergoose729

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Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:48:
mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:35:
There are no official A3D drivers for windows XP. There is an unofficial driver but I am not sure how many features it supports. […]
Show full quote
TrashPanda wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:21:

You can use both a Vortex 2 card and EAX card together, you rout the line out on the Vortex into the line in on the EAX card and boom you can use either in the same machine and have both A3D and EAX.

This works quite well under XP but Vortex 2 drivers can be hit or miss so you might need to play around with A3D drivers till you get one that works well.

Didn't realise that its an i7 ...my fault for skimming over that bit.

There are no official A3D drivers for windows XP. There is an unofficial driver but I am not sure how many features it supports.

Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:21:

The PC has a second gen Core i7. Windows 10 is not a problem for this machine. I would install 7 just to mess around but I have no nostalgia for 7. I ran XP from the time it was new to like 2016. I really really wish I kept my WinXP machines over the years but I move a lot for work and like 4 years ago it wasn't worth it to me to lug them around. Really, the Win10/XP is set in stone for me in this setup. I just wanted to get the audio card sorted.

Yeah, the i7 2600 I have runs both 10 and XP great. Gotta figure out the whole dual boot thing, right now I'm swapping SSDs to switch between them. Since the X-Fi Titanium is so cheap is their any reason not to go with it? It does indeed do hardware decoding of EAX right?

Yes, the X-Fi titanium was one of the last cards to do it. It stop being supported in windows vista.

I'm saving the A3D stuff for when I get around to a 98 machine. I only even asked about it because before this thread I would have sworn I was using A3D in WinXP for most of the 2000s. Apparently my memory is faulty because I swore I played Vampire on XP with A3D but that's not a possibility. I was under the impressions that A3D which I knew was it's own thing but after they got bought out by Creative that Sound Blasters started doing A3D. Like how SLI became a NVidia thing after they bought out 3Dfx.

Anyways, ordering a X-Fi Ti and moving on with the project. Now I gotta start asking how to dual boot XP and 10, right now I'm physically swapping drives and I really don't want to keep doing that 🤣. Ya know for using computers since I was like 10 I'm fairly computer stupid.

GRUB or another boot loader should be able to do it. Personally, I just install them on separate hard drives and switch the boot priority in the bios.

Reply 13 of 24, by Demo85

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mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 09:01:
Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:48:
mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:35:

There are no official A3D drivers for windows XP. There is an unofficial driver but I am not sure how many features it supports.

Yes, the X-Fi titanium was one of the last cards to do it. It stop being supported in windows vista.

I'm saving the A3D stuff for when I get around to a 98 machine. I only even asked about it because before this thread I would have sworn I was using A3D in WinXP for most of the 2000s. Apparently my memory is faulty because I swore I played Vampire on XP with A3D but that's not a possibility. I was under the impressions that A3D which I knew was it's own thing but after they got bought out by Creative that Sound Blasters started doing A3D. Like how SLI became a NVidia thing after they bought out 3Dfx.

Anyways, ordering a X-Fi Ti and moving on with the project. Now I gotta start asking how to dual boot XP and 10, right now I'm physically swapping drives and I really don't want to keep doing that 🤣. Ya know for using computers since I was like 10 I'm fairly computer stupid.

GRUB or another boot loader should be able to do it. Personally, I just install them on separate hard drives and switch the boot priority in the bios.

Would that really work? If I install XP to a drive, yank it, then install 10 to another. Plug them all in at the same time (plus a third shared drive) I could just use the boot menu to toggle what OS boots?

Reply 14 of 24, by RandomStranger

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Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:48:

Now I gotta start asking how to dual boot XP and 10, right now I'm physically swapping drives and I really don't want to keep doing that 🤣. Ya know for using computers since I was like 10 I'm fairly computer stupid.

I actually prefer to physically swap drives. I think that's the safest method for multi-booting. Though I generally use various types of IDE racks as well as SATA which makes it easy and I don't have to open the PC itself.

Sometimes operating systems mess up each other of they have access to each other's drives.

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Reply 15 of 24, by cyclone3d

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For dual booting XP and 7 or 10, you will want the BIOS in legacy/BIOS and NOT in UEFI mode.

If the BIOS has the SATA option set to RAID, you will most likely need drivers to do the XP install.

From what I am finding, it should just work if you install XP and then 7. I would, at the very least have the drive partitioned beforehand. A better option is to use separate drives.

When you install 7, it is supposed to set up the multiboot option so you can choose which OS to boot to on power up.

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Reply 16 of 24, by Demo85

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cyclone3d wrote on 2022-01-17, 16:29:
For dual booting XP and 7 or 10, you will want the BIOS in legacy/BIOS and NOT in UEFI mode. […]
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For dual booting XP and 7 or 10, you will want the BIOS in legacy/BIOS and NOT in UEFI mode.

If the BIOS has the SATA option set to RAID, you will most likely need drivers to do the XP install.

From what I am finding, it should just work if you install XP and then 7. I would, at the very least have the drive partitioned beforehand. A better option is to use separate drives.

When you install 7, it is supposed to set up the multiboot option so you can choose which OS to boot to on power up.

I'm going to install them on separate hard drives and switch the boot priority in the bios like the other guy said. Soon as I get some time to mess with it again i'm just gonna plug everything in and see what happens.

Reply 17 of 24, by swaaye

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Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 07:05:

So for the X-Fi, I see a million different versions. Do they all have hardware EAX? What flavor of X-Fi should I be looking at? Am I going to be able to get plan 2 channel audio going in Win10?

Look for any XFi with at least one RAM chip next to the audio processor. If EAX 5 is appealing to you then find one with 64MB RAM but there are really only a handful of games that might do something with this and I'm not sure it's actually tangible. I think if there are 2 RAM chips it is a 64MB configuration.

Yeah they all support the full range of channel outputs. Up to 5.1 or 7.1.

Reply 18 of 24, by mothergoose729

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Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 09:06:
mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 09:01:
Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 08:48:

I'm saving the A3D stuff for when I get around to a 98 machine. I only even asked about it because before this thread I would have sworn I was using A3D in WinXP for most of the 2000s. Apparently my memory is faulty because I swore I played Vampire on XP with A3D but that's not a possibility. I was under the impressions that A3D which I knew was it's own thing but after they got bought out by Creative that Sound Blasters started doing A3D. Like how SLI became a NVidia thing after they bought out 3Dfx.

Anyways, ordering a X-Fi Ti and moving on with the project. Now I gotta start asking how to dual boot XP and 10, right now I'm physically swapping drives and I really don't want to keep doing that 🤣. Ya know for using computers since I was like 10 I'm fairly computer stupid.

GRUB or another boot loader should be able to do it. Personally, I just install them on separate hard drives and switch the boot priority in the bios.

Would that really work? If I install XP to a drive, yank it, then install 10 to another. Plug them all in at the same time (plus a third shared drive) I could just use the boot menu to toggle what OS boots?

Yep, just that easy. I pulled the hard drive between installations to avoid the windows installer getting its own ideas.

swaaye wrote on 2022-01-17, 21:31:
Demo85 wrote on 2022-01-17, 07:05:

So for the X-Fi, I see a million different versions. Do they all have hardware EAX? What flavor of X-Fi should I be looking at? Am I going to be able to get plan 2 channel audio going in Win10?

Look for any XFi with at least one RAM chip next to the audio processor. If EAX 5 is appealing to you then find one with 64MB RAM but there are really only a handful of games that might do something with this and I'm not sure it's actually tangible. I think if there are 2 RAM chips it is a 64MB configuration.

Yeah they all support the full range of channel outputs. Up to 5.1 or 7.1.

Yeah, any X-Fi card is just as good for games. That is why I recommend the X-Fi Extreme Music or SB0770 because they are cheaper, they support EAX 5, and they have hardware acceleration. The X-Fi titanium has 64mb of RAM and so it can hardware accelerate a little harder, but it so doesn't make any meaningful difference. Even back in the core2duo days the difference was like a handful of FPS in some titles, with your 2600k you will never, ever notice the difference. Even if you get the value cards that do EAX 100% in software it will be fine.

Reply 19 of 24, by swaaye

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mothergoose729 wrote on 2022-01-17, 23:31:

Yeah, any X-Fi card is just as good for games. That is why I recommend the X-Fi Extreme Music or SB0770 because they are cheaper, they support EAX 5, and they have hardware acceleration. The X-Fi titanium has 64mb of RAM and so it can hardware accelerate a little harder, but it so doesn't make any meaningful difference. Even back in the core2duo days the difference was like a handful of FPS in some titles, with your 2600k you will never, ever notice the difference. Even if you get the value cards that do EAX 100% in software it will be fine.

Oh yeah definitely. I have used a mix of the PCI, PCIe, 2MB, 16MB, 64MB X-Fi cards over the years and they all seem the same in the end. I even picked up the Titanium HD out of curiosity and I can't tell the difference between all its fancy analog circuitry and the output of even the plain Titanium. Or an Audigy 2 for that matter heh.