Symbol LS 1203

Advantages: Cheap and a great difference in clarity compared to the onboard sound with a motherboard.
Disadvantages: Not for the professional musician

...Great value with the Sound Blaster Audig LS. It delivers high quality 24-bit 5.1 surround which immerses you in all the latest PC games. Compatible with both digital and analogue speaker systems, it offers Dolby Digital and EAX Advanced HD support for high-quality surround in movies and games. It supports recording and playback up to 24-bit. The Creative Media Source Software which is packaged with it is adequate but i personally prefer my windows media player. This is the ideal card for desktop PC users wanting a bit more than the sloppy sound you get from onboard. I personally dont think the sound can get much better than this especially when hooked up to some creative 5.1 surround sound speakers. The Inspire set i own give a great sound out for DVD's with the audigy so would highly recommend for the home user.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: ummmmm
Disadvantages: Doesn't work very well, slow, intermitently recognises disks, poor back up service, need I go on?

...I ordered my Freecom DVD Recorder LS USB 2.0 after my CD/DVD drive packed up on my 15 month old HP Desktop. I wanted it mainly to load CD ROM and burn DVD's from movies already converted to DVD format on my hard drive. Being that my PC had no disk drive I relied upon this external drive to load the bundled DVD burning software (Roxio 9). This took several days and many attempts. Then I tried burning my first DVD. After taking 3 hours to do a task that previously took about 30 minutes, this recorder produced a disc that no dvd player in my home recognised (and I have 4). I found the user interface very unfriendly and it simply didn't work. Needles to say, I'll be getting a refund!... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Supports.... Everything!
Disadvantages: As with all boards, difficult to set up!

...even a novice could set this up in a few hours with that instruction manual. It includes a huge fold out real size photo of the motherboard with every bit labeled and instructions on what to do. ------------------------- Quick complaint ------------------------- They've attached a little "MSI" symbol on a plate resing in the north bridge heat sink. This is loose and will rattle when the computer is on. Also note that screws for most northbridge fans are too small to screw any fans to it. So, if you get a rattling sound, you'll have to super glue the little plate to the heat sink. This is perfectly safe and perfectly doable. It wont stop you being able to remove the heat sink at all. It's just one of those annoying little things. ---------------------------- The Bios ---------------------------- Oh how I wish you could just turn... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful