Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card (70SB073A00000)
by Creative
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List Price: Our Price: $84.99 You Save: $14.91 (15%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $34.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card (70SB073A00000)
Customer Review: amazing sound, but only install the driver
Summary: 5 Stars
This card produces rather amazing sound quality, especially compared to on-board sound (e.g. Asus MB). The clarity of sound is startling. You'll hear your ripped CDs with a quality you never heard before (assuming you didn't dumb down the sound by using MP3).
For optimal music sound, without junking up your system with Creative's software junk, just install the drivers, choosing Entertainment mode during install. Very simple.
I've got the computer sound output to a Yamaha MCR-E810 2-speaker stereo system (around $400). Best sound I've ever had, and I'm a geezer, so have been through a lot of sound systems in my day. I listen to a mixture of music, including much classical along with popular & jazz.
I'm using Zune software, with CDs ripped to lossless quality. Quite satisfied with the setup, other than nitpicks about the Zune software (which is still better than iTunes).
Customer Review: Worthwhile Upgrade
Summary: 5 Stars
My original sound blaster audigy had served me well over the years but after a recent upgrade of my computer speakers, I decided to upgrade my sound card. I'm not an audiophile, so I did not expect to hear a big upgrade in sound quality but I was pleasantly surprised. Music, movies, etc, sounded much clearer. I understand this is in part due to my upgraded speaker system ( logitech Z-5500s ) but I tested the card with my original speakers and I could hear a difference rite away. Be sure to avoid the cheaper xtreme audio variant as that does not have the true x-fi hardware. I did have some initial random rebooting with the vista 32 bit drivers but everything is working fine now after I cleared all remnants of the old audigy software. This card is a worthwhile upgrade for those who are using older sound cards or onboard audio. I purchased this OEM ; drivers were available for free download from creative labs.Customer Review: Problems wirh Windows XP SP3 and latest (June 2008) Drivers
Summary: 4 Stars
If you are using an analog microphone with this soundcard and are using Windows XP with service pack 3 you will not be able to use your microphone plugged into the back of this card. However, the front panel microphone connection will work (if you have it hooked up to your case).
The microphone connection on the back of this card is the white top-most connector (not the pink connector, which is usually the standard). This white jack is called a "flexijack" by Creative, and it is supposed to sense what type of device you have plugged into it and allow you to use it as a microphone jack. It doubles as a "Digital I/O" or "Mic in / Line in" jack.
The current drivers for Windows XP from creative (as of June '08) do not work properly and you will not be able to configure the "flexijack" as a microphone connection.
Aside from the microphone issue the soundcard works fine.
Customer Review: Great Card for the $
Summary: 5 Stars
First and foremost do not follow the installation instructions!
I installed this card into a custom built PC (Asus MB, 512MB Corsair RAM, PNY 7600GS AGP Intel 2.8Ghz), following the instructions to cancel the MS found new hardware installation process. I then loaded the CD with drivers, hit the continue anyway button on the not certified screen, then downloaded the latest drives from Creative.
Everything looked good until the next day, when the PC would just lock up after about 30 seconds. I removed the card, and the PC worked fine. I put the X-Fi in a factory built Dell, and this time let XP finish the find and install process. The Dell ran fine for over a week. So, I put it back in the Asus, and no worries since. I use this in conjunction with a 52 inch Pansonic plasma and the optic audio out to 5.1 surround for games, dvd, and TV rewinds.
Customer Review: Great sound card, software mostly great
Summary: 4 Stars
The card rocks on Windows Vista. The new software really brings out sounds and makes GREAT use of the subwoofer for video games as well as for listening to music. Two gripes. First, the legacy Creative Media Source 5 Player does not work correctly with Windows Vista, it was designed for XP. There is a separate X-Fi volume control that does work with Vista. They should have one integrated panel that is fully functional with Vista. Second gripe, unless you buy an add-on, you can only burn/rip WMA format, you can't burn MP-3s or any other sound format to disk, portable player or to your computer. You are stuck with WMA unless you buy the $10 recording pack. Granted, not big bucks, but should be part of the package, not an add-on. Bottom line, great card, some software is great, other parts are either outdated or missing, worth the upgrade if you have Windows Vista.