Headset/Sound Card combo

[Brian]

Hi everyone, been a while since I've been on here....mostly because my parts are still in for the RMA! Sent them in Dec. 11 my birthday and now we wait. Hope everyone's doing swell here at HWC, and as soon as I get my parts back I'll be back on here as much as I can!
Anyways, I received a USB headset for Christmas and I don't know weather or not to open it and use it. It would kind of make me feel bad to tell my mother I don't want her gift...because she said she paid a fair bit for them. Logitech Clear Chat Pro USB. http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/we.../3622&cl=US,EN
They're not really for gaming so...might not do well for me.
I was thinking one option could be to return the headphones and use the money I have saved and the money of the return towards new phones and a card.

So here's my thought....the Sennheiser HD555s (can get them for $115 on newegg right now) and the Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium FATAL1TY card. Is that a good combo? It's REALLY hard to make a choice because of all the conflicting experiences and reviews on things like this card vs. the Prelude and the different operating systems and such.

I'll be using Vista 64bit and gaming mostly in FPS games. Positional audio is what I need, I used to have great audio from cheap speakers and headphones but now I need something that will work really well.
I was hoping to spend roughly $100 on each phones and sound card so around $200 or slightly over with the final 2 products together.

Would that be a good choice in headphones/sound card?

Also what's the difference between this:
Buy.com - Canada - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Sound Card - PCI Express x1 The Internet Superstore
as well as:
Creative Labs SB X-FI Titanium PCIe Sound Card 70SB088000004 in Canada at TigerDirect.ca
SKU#: 70SB088000004

and

NCIX.com - Buy Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium FATAL1TY PCI-E 1X 24BIT Sound Card 7.1 Optical IN/OUT - 70SB088600003 In Canada.
SKU#: 70SB088600003

Are they not the same card? Or is NCIX using a different one so you can't price match and make it that much cheaper? Just curious if I should try to PM on NCIX or buy it from buy.com

[Generic User #2]

from what i've heard, EAX DOES NOT work properly in vista. x-fi cards are forced to use openAL, which is a pretty crappy workaround apparently.

when it comes to the prelude, people are recommending the d2x instead. i can't see in anyway how any creative card is better than the prelude, so i think the adivce still spplies; go with the xonar d2x.

[Brian]

As I mentioned above, I'm looking for something good in the $100 range. So let's say from $100-$120 or 30. The d2x isn't available for anything under $170.