Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1e X-Fi Audio Card

Soundcards and Speakers 106 Page 3 of 9 Published by

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Page 3 -- Overview

 

Overview

I like to poke fun at packaging, but Audiotrak did a nice job with this one, being a small red-and-white box, it stands out even if it isnt the largest box ever.

No-frill, lots of chills, low cost

The Prodigy 7.1e can best be described as no-frills.  Literally, theres not a lot going on inside the box. You get a flyer for other Audiotrak products, the Prodigy manual, the Prodigy card, a Driver CD, a sticker, and few more bits of cardboard.  Usually we find some extra cables, like an optical cable, but not here.  I can see the logic though, if youre chucking one of these into a HTPC, then most likely youve got all the cables you need already.

Well, I thought it was a cool effect...

Being a PCIe 1x card, the Prodigy 7.1e card is not very long, but it is full height to accommodate all those 3.5mm jacks.

Shadow control, I have heard of it

Also similar to Auzentech cards, the backside is clean and very well labeled.

Back dat... uh...

 I'll take the time to point out the PCIe stabilization tab next to the PCIe pins.  It's wider than standard width, which caused us to perform some minor surgery on our DFI motherboard to get the Prodigy 7.1e seated in the socket.  This will probably frustrate some users who won't know what to do about it and just return the card.

Well labeled.

Also included are front panel and digital out connectors, the latter for connecting up to a HDMI capable video card.

Front Panel and S/PDIF for HDMI output

And there be gold plating too.

Not for want of extra plugs.

Digital connections are optical (S/PDIF) along with 7.1 channels of analog, then the headphone out and mic/line-in jacks on the far right.

Surprising amount of capacitors

The layout is fairly standard and clean for a PCIe X-Fi board.  Also, there are a lot of filter capacitors, all of various brands.  The white PCB is pure bling, and of course we like that!

Diving into the chips on the board begins on the next page. Click next to continue.

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