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.
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.
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.
Also similar to Auzentech cards, the backside is clean and very well labeled.
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.
Also included are front panel and digital out connectors, the latter for connecting up to a HDMI capable video card.
And there be gold plating too.
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.
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.