The X-Fi may not be anything too hot in the looks department, but boy it does it sound sweet. Sweeter than obscenely expensive speakers submerged in a tub of honey, in fact. Boasting 24-bit 192KHz DACs, a dedicated APU (Audio Processor Unit) that can re-configure itself on the fly, on-board memory, and a bundle of new hardware based features such as the 24-bit Crystalizer, you can bet the X-Fi is going to become the new de-facto standard for PC based sound.

One of the rumoured new features of the card is a significant enhancement to headphone gaming, irrespective of the title being played. After some hands on testing with this feature in Half Life 2 and the FEAR demo we can confirm this is one beautifully delivered feature that lives up to the hype.

Whether it's all worth the upgrade from an Audigy 2 series remains to be seen, and you can read all about it in Atomic issue 57 on the stands from 14th September.