X-Fi I/O drive

[Livzz]

i'm looking at the X-Fi platinum, which comes with the I/O drive to go on the front of the computer. The thing is, its going to be a home theatre PC, and i dont want that on the front.... so i've got a couple questions:

will the sound card work fine without the I/O drive?
and can i use the I/O drive on any other sound cards? I'd love to use it on the family PC, with an Audygy 4, but i dont know if it will be compatible...

or perhaps the shop i buy it from will be nice, and give me the external console instead of the internal drive, without spending a fortune on the elite pro...

 

[Geoff]

Yes the card will run fine without the I/O drive, since it's the same thing as the XtremeMusic, minus the I/O drive.

AFAIK it's not possible to use the drive bay from another model card.

The Elite Pro seems to be the only option for you, but I dont see why the store would give you that instead because thats the whole reason for the price increase on the Elite Pro over the Fatal1ty.