Sound Card: Built-in, X-Fi XtremeGamer,
X-Fi Titanium, or X-Fi Titanium Champion
If you're using an inexpensive pair of headphones or 2.1 speakers, the built-in sound system on the Ion is probably sufficient, although in some games, like Bioshock, there are so many sounds happening simultaneously that you'll end up missing some of them without a dedicated sound card.

The X-Fi XtremeGamer is our entry-level X-Fi sound card. X-Fi is the current industry leading audio processor, developed by Creative. The XtremeGamer is an excellent choice for serious gamers who don't necessarily need the highest sound quality available, but want the richness and depth of games with complex audio. The XtremeGamer can deliver 7.1 and 5.1 sound in addition to stereo, and with an adapter (sold separately), can deliver stereo over an optical jack.

The X-Fi Titanium is a generation newer than the XtremeGamer, and offers not only higher quality sound, but can deliver 7.1 sound over optical, and accepts audio in over optical (no adapters necessary.) It also offers 64MB of onboard X-RAM, which can increase the performance of games specifically written to use it, like Doom 3 and Unreal Tournament: Quake Wars. (X-Ram-enabled games are still uncoommon).

The X-Fi Titanium Champion is the same as the X-Fi Titanium, but includes a front panel bay device which provides in-out jacks and volume control knobs. It's worth noting that using this front panel device would produce superior headphone sound over using the PC case's built-in headphone jack, since there would be less interference along the path of the internal audio cabling.

We'd like to take this opportunity to vent about our feelings on a marketing department that comes up with a product called the "Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty Titanium Champion Series sound card". (And just FYI, almost every part of that name has its own logo.) But we won't.

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