Advantages: Crystal clear sound with a comprehensive software package
Disadvantages: Features can be a bit daunting for the novice

...in and drivers installed, I also managed to increase my 3Dmark2003 scores by over 1000, showing that it does release a large amount of system resources for other devices. Software as usual with creative packages will leave you wanting for nothing. The entertainment centre allows fine tuning sound for music/DVD or games independantly. Creative mediasource player is the best player/MP3 decoder I've used, and with the ability to plug in any musical instrument (I've plugged in my base and had a play with the recorder and audio creation packages), and tweak till you're hearts content. Short of full on proffesional suite from the likes of Yamaha, or spending another £150 on the X-Fi platinum, you won't get a better package... Read review

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Advantages: Awesome Sound Quality, Easy to install, Drivers easy to get, good support
Disadvantages: Clicks in Entertainment Mode

...I managed to pick up an OEM Version of the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music from eBay for around £30 around 3 months ago. It is very easy to install, simply slot it into an empty slot and install the drivers and software. Wow! What a difference! I upgraded from onboard sound and the quality difference is unbelievable. I have the card paired with Logitech z-640 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers and a Medusa Speedlink 5.1 Surround headset. Not only does the card come packed with features for example the 24-bit crystaliser, but it is easy to use and configure with the Creative Audio Console. The card make sounds in games beautiful and music is perfect. However. I had a lot of teething problem with the card. At first, whenever I reset my PC, the card settings were defaulted to headphones, when my speakers were plugged in, muting... Read review

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Advantages: Amazing sound quality, great for gaming, looks cool, less lag/stuttering in games, transforms music
Disadvantages: Still driver issues and some problems in games, price may still be too steep for some

...your audio devices to the back of it. The only problems with 'installation' you might have is some of the drivers are fairly unstable, so get the newest ones out direct from Creative to be sure you experiance as little of this as possible. I have been using P5800's and a Plantronics Gamecom1 headset and both had the sound sound increased greatly on products that were already of high standard (search them for reviews). All in all its the perfect soundcard for anyone other then extreme autophiles, once the driver issues are sorted out there is nothing to worry about at all, you can even grab it at a decent price now aswell. I woudent say quite exellent value for money, because for some people its still way too much to spend on a soundcard, and there are very good options for cheaper.. the older audigy and soundblaster ranges are both great... Read review

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Advantages: Amazing sound, excellent upmixing
Disadvantages: Software can be a pain.

....1, stunning, somehow, the Creative X-Fi had pulled out every instrument and given them an appropriate speaker!? I don't know how it did it but it was pretty amazing, vocals in the centre, beats on all channels, other instruments on the left, background vocals on the rear speakers. Sensational. After this I turned on Creative's fabled 24 Bit crystalizer, theoretically this improves the 16Bit MP3 to a CD level 24Bit sound quality. Once again the quality of the track had been further improved. Everything sounded sharper, and in particular the bass had become more powerful (but not to powerful to my taste). The EAX effects we're nice to, but not very appropraite for rap metal. I always considered EAX a novelty, unless your listening to classic music you don't really want echos and things like that. SOFTWARE: The Creative software comes in lots... Read review

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Advantages: High quality sound, excellent features set
Disadvantages: Driver software on CD differs from the Auto-update

...I bought the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music to complement my Grado SR325 + Creek OBH-1 Headphone Amplifier system, so I could enjoy the music at the best possible quality without having to endure the on-board sound card (although the nForce 680i HD Azalia sound + Realtek chip are fairly good themselves). The card came with the standard installation CD and the card, installation is easy and there are a whole lot of connecting options, if you want to upgrade to 7.1 at some stage (haven't got the floor space at the moment). Installation is easy and although Creative drivers on Windows Vista are still under development, I haven't been experiencing any problems under Windows XP. The chip on the X-fi is the same as the one used on the high-end models, with the lack of more memory (64 MB for the Fatl1ty version) and the front panel... Read review

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Advantages: its just so damn good.
Disadvantages: pricey for a sound card

...Ive been building my own PCs for a number of years and been using them since the early 90s. In all this time ive not really bothered too much with sound cards, more the usually CPU, GFX etc. But this card is a breakthrough for me, its excellent. My previous card was a creative also, a basic soundblaster live card, the x-fi improves the quality of sound sooo much. Ive used it with online gaming, mp3s & dvds and have noticed a vast improvement in all areas. The main use for me is with online gaming. The biggest issue with these games is squeezing frames per second -FPS - out of the machine. Remarkably this sound card gave me an instant boost of about 20fps, which was about 30% for me. The immersion factor also increased. I dont know if the competitors can do this, but any card that can give me surround sound from a basic 2.1 speaker... Read review

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Advantages: Great Dolby/DTS decoder, excellent sound quality and gaming audio
Disadvantages: expensive

...This is the X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS endorsed by professional gamer Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel. X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS also features a glowing Fatal1ty logo on the soundcard and drive bay(!!!!!!).Err, ok, moving on.... First up, whats included in the package. You get the card, a 5.25 inch drive bay with various audio inputs and outputs which I wil detail later, and a remote that can be used to make changes to volume and other functions, also mentioned later. The installation CD contains drivers and also the following: Doom3 EAX patch, Audio Console, Creative MediaSource & DVD-Audio Player, DTS Neo:6, Karaoke Player, Smart Recorder, SoundFont Bank Manager, THX Setup Console, Vienna SoundFont Studio, Console Launcher, Volume Panel, WaveStudio, Creative Media Toolbox, Creative Diagnostics. Drivers and software can be autoupdated via the creative... Read review

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Advantages: Amazing value for money, true surround sound, Creative have good drivers/support
Disadvantages: Volume control a bit 'flimsy', there is much better quality out there, wiring up isent fun

...Ive had these speakers since just before buying my X-fi Music a few months ago, and they have been great! For the money they are very good quality, the best by far for the price. They make films and music sound great and can go louder then you could possibly want, with plenty of bass also. They support EAX and are very good for gaming due to being surround sound, they will immerse you as much as is possible in a game and make the experiance much greater. The speakers have a fairly nice look about them with the see-thru fronts to protect the speaker itself and the Creative badge along the bottom of each speaker. They take quite along time to install and tidy the cables, although this is the same for all wired 5.1 systems and i cant see many ways Creative could have fixed this. There are a few downsides to spending so little... Read review

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Advantages: Great quality sound, cheap
Disadvantages: None whatsoever

...I was in the hunt for a new sound card and picked up this Sound blaster 'Live' by Creative from PC world for just £35. The sound blaster Live is powered by the EMU10K1 digital signal processor which means you get very high sound quality without losing any of the power of your PC which other sound cards and onboard sound chips may take away as they require your PC's processor to power the sound, this ofcourse is great news for gamers who need all the spare power they can get in order to obtain maximum framerates. The Creative sound blaster Live 5.1 has the ability to connect to dolby digital and multi-channel digital speaker systems and provides an awesome quality of surround sound in all its glory through 5.1 (providing you have surround sound speakers ofcourse) so you can experience movies via your PC as tho you were in a cinema... Read review

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Advantages: Features, gaming extras
Disadvantages: None

...Time began with the old creative soundcard, which I remember and at that point in time they where the best around. This card has the original features with a hell of a lot of upgrades to it. The added feature with this card is that you have a firewire port on the main part of the card and the extra feature of the normal game port on a separate slot which can be attached to the card. The card is excellent for any use. I have one of these and use it for music and gaming. If you have the right speakers attached, you will have full use of the card. I would reccomnd either: Creative Labs Inspire 5.1 6pc 5700 Speakers Creative Labs Inspire 5.1 6pc P580 5 speaker system or Creative Labs Megaworks 5.1 6pc THX 550 These are the best speaker and are excellent for gaming and music. The software/feature from the old cards (ie 5.1, 1024... Read review

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