The title pretty much says it all. I'm an amateur songwriter who is looking for a new sound card to put into my system. Basically, I'm looking with something that produces great quality, has good features but comes at an okay price. Also, one of the criterion has been to have an external input box (which both of these sound cards come with). I do play games, so that is a factor. But the bigger factor is sound quality and processing power of the sound card. Please let me know the pros and cons of both of these cards for my purposes. Thanks a lot guys!

X-Fi Elite Pro has the same DACs as E-MU 1820m. So, the sound quality *should be* pretty much the same. Besides X-fi supports any games, E-MU doesn't, so if I were you I'd go for Elite Pro. And it is cheaper as well.

What do you mean the E-MU doesn't support any games?

No experience with X-Fi, but I would recommend getting something different than the 1820 coz its drivers are an abomination (bloated & buggy), well crappy at least . I had it on test for a week and they have certainly put me off from buying any of the e-mu cards. Two other friends of mine came to the same conclusion independently - one of them is unfortunately stuck with the 1820 and is considering selling it, coz of the drivers induced headaches. The other friend got an m-audio card, me an RME one and we're both happy. 1820 hardware is nice though, so if by some miracle some of the more recent driver updates changed everything, or you're not bothered by this issue than go ahead
Since X-Fi is from the same stable though, it wouldn't surprise me if its drivers weren't exactly topnotch either.

edit: i think he wants to say that you won't get any special effects in games with the e-mu or any of the more specifically music related sound cards for that matter. no spatial sound, eax, sound acceleration (you can gain some frames with it) and similar stuff. basic stereo sound shouldn't be a prob though.

It doesn't support EAX, sorry

Sounds like I'll go with the X-Fi. It seems like a more universal card...Excellent with gaming and music listening, and good enough for music creation. That sound about right?

What sort of recording are you looking to do? (Is that what you mean by "music creation"?) What inputs do you need? Will you be using direce microphone connection? Or balanced line level inputs? You have given very little information.

I've been using a 1212m for a year and I havent had any major problems.
A driver update was released recently that solved all my initial issues, which never where major. If there are any problems with the driver it's probably due to the user.
I wish this board had an TOS #8 for topics like this, if someone said that say a codec 'sucked' they'd be banned right away.

Very intelligent reply . Because as it's generally known a user has a lot to do with the driver besides installing it, right. Silly me I thought a driver is used by the OS to work with the hardware. Also one positive experience (yours, with a different although in fact very similar card) clearly outweighs three negative ones and I'm sure many 1820 users will confirm that drivers are its weakest link. You're happy with them? Fine, I'm happy for you, many others have problems though. I've had my fair share of luck with some products (hardware & software) too, but that doesn't mean all the users that didn't are to blame.

PS. do you often loose your time blind testing drivers? Please indulge in it some more and just maybe you won't have time to post such useless replies then.