Much hay has been made of the incredible speed advantages PCI Express offers over PCI. Beyond GPUs, however, we haven't found much worthy of occupying those slots. Asus hopes to change that with its Xonar D2X card-the first soundcard we've reviewed that makes use of the PCI Express interface.

The EAX 5 hack is commendable and the card's LED lights add flash

Initially spotty PCI-E support that must be fixed with a BIOS update

Asus' Xonar D2X is an excellent sound card with a strong software bundle that will appeal to gamers and audiophiles alike, but we hope to see improvements in its software.

Superb audio quality; Supports all major audio standards; PCI Express interface; Includes numerous audio cables

Cumbersome control panel software; PMP music converter is extremely limited; Converter required if you have no available floppy power connector

The ASUS Xonar D2X features a host of impressive features, a generous bundle of software, and a variety of connections and cables to help you get fully connected. The Aluminum EMI shield gives it the appearance of a high end graphics card, while the PCI Express x1 connector finally gives you...

» Excellent audio performance in games and multimedia; » Excellent bundle of software and accessories; » PMP software creates good quality; unrestricted 'backups' of DRM files; » Finally something useful to stick in a PCIe x1 slot; » Colored LED illuminated 1/8" jacks

» Requires power from a floppy connector; adapter not included; » PMP software is a bit limited and rough around the edges; » Price

A couple of months ago, we took a look at ASUS' first true entrant into the burgeoning discrete sound card market, the Xonar D2 .  While we were impressed with the cabling and software bundle, the actual hardware proved itself to be a jack of all trades but master of none, with audio quality not

Today we are reviewing the Asus Cine5 sound bar in combination with Asus' older Xonar D2X 7.1 channel sound card. The Cine5 is a compact speaker designed to simulate 5.1 channel sounds with just one front unit.

In some regards the D2X represents the rather pathetic state of the soundcard industry as a whole – we've had PCI-Express for nearly four years now and the only performance card worth buying on the interface has to use a bridge chip.

The nicest thing for me is how I can connect external A/D and D/A converters to this card, either optically or coaxial, on the same connector. Masterful! I love not having to try to read the fine print on the card to figure out what goes where, just follow the color LEDs. Awesome.

71 surround system; Digital Ins and Outs; LED backlit connectors; Sound Panel in Win XP; Sound quality; Works in Windows 7 Beta

Wish for updated drivers

[...] Everything was quick and easy to install, i found that this is also a great introduction to recording digital audio with cakewalk software included. Very easy to make the decision to buy this again with outstanding value.

Easy To Install; Easy To Use; Quality Output; Reliable Performance

Disclaimer: I am not an expert, but simply want to convey my overall impression of this card. There are plenty of expert reviews on the web, which are worth reading before a potential purchase. The sound that this card produces blew me away the first time I used it and still does.

After one month of testing of the Padfone 2 its time to give my view of the product. So let us first of all lets look at the specifications of the smartphone. It has a 4.7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. Gorilla glass also protects the display from scratches.

Padstation; quality; performance; innovative

Short recharge cabble