Audio = Creative X-FI Fatal1ty
Speakers = Logitech z5500 5.1
The first thing i noticed right away is that the 24bit Crystalizer is no freakin' joke. MP3's sound absolutely incredible. More crisp & clean, tighter highs and deeper lows... Even if the MP3 files are crappy... It does an amazing job at making them sound much, much better.
DVD Movies (THX) Starwars... WOW only word to describe it.
Front Panel Drive is really nice also. Lot's of plug and play, nicer then going to the back side of the PC.
So far the only (2) games that i've played with X-FI installed are HL2 & Battlefield 2. "BF2 with X-FI Audio enabled in the Audio settings does provide a noticable difference is sound." There seems to be far more sounds with X-FI then the Audigy 2 ZS & others. Also each sound is very, very distinct. You can basically hear every sound, regardless of the difference in volume of each. So, if you are crawling in prone through grass, you can clearly hear the grass rustle while artillery is being dropped near by...
As far as X-FI taking the load off of the CPU during gaming.... I can't really comment on this. I haven't ran benchmarks or anything to confirm or deny it. I didn't notice any framerate difference will running "FRAPS".
It's possible that games will need to be written to take advantage or X-FI (Supported) in order to lighten CPU load? Kinda like (Dual Core's) and gaming....
Regardless of everything... This Card is incredible and is worth the purchase.