Is this the same sound card but £20 dressed up? Creative sound blaster Z

My current Creative X-FI extreme Music card keeps crashing my PC, so am looking at replacing it with a creative sound blaster Z card.
I see that there are 2 types though, all that i can see that is different is the red PCI board cover a and external Mic on the more expensive one.

Am i right or am i missing something?

Cheers :mrgreen:
Product comparison Link
http://www.dabs.com/Product/Compare?...tegoryId=11140

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...fL._SX385_.jpg
http://www.dabs.com/images/product/u...0BC0_large.jpg

AFAICT you're quite right, one's the retail version, the other is the OEM (i.e. system builder) version. The retail one is clearly dressed up smart for the retail market, but it looks like they're exactly the same card, in terms of technology.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scaryjim

AFAICT you're quite right, one's the retail version, the other is the OEM (i.e. system builder) version. The retail one is clearly dressed up smart for the retail market, but it looks like they're exactly the same card, in terms of technology.

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Cheers that's what i thought but just wanted to check as thought i must have missed something obvious :P

Thanks for pointing that out, looking at different components and wouldnt want to spend an extra 20 for no reason!

Also replacing my X-Fi extreme gamer with the OEM Z card. Nothing wrong with my X-Fi just that i need a PCI-e card when i get a second GTX670. The OEM version is just the card, no mike or shroud and hopefully doesn't have the two bright red led's either.