Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum eX Soundcard

I got this to replace my onboard sound, and i love it!! The external panel is a major plus. When i have my 5.1 surround sound hooked up, you can tell when sounds are coming behind you. Well worth the money!

I did a great amount of research on sound and video cards, be-
fore I purchased this product at compUSA. I did not immediately
open it, as it was factory sealed, and I did not intend to install it for a while, because I was going to use it with the
computer I was building. Imagine my surprise whe I did open it
and discovered that the "external drive" advertised on the box
was missing. CompUSA refuses to issue a refund or exchange, and
I have contacted creative labs to see if I can get the drive,
but they have not responded as yet. Will contact them by phone next. I plan on posting my results with creative labs by the end
of July.

With the newest audio processor since the days of the Live, Creative has once again outdone itself. With all the power of professional souind boards at hundreds of dollars less. There is no background fuzz while recording from a MIDI input (unlike SBLive!), and the ability to record dual tracks simultaneously makes this board the music creators paradise.

It also sounds remarkable. I hooked up my DVD player, XBox, and even a simple portable discman to the external drive and enjoyed the quality of sound. The DTS decoder works well too. I noticed no distortion after hooking up my Klipsch Pro-Media 5.1 (6 piece) surround speaker set, despite the sound information running from my DVD player to PC, then from PC to Speaker system.

Gaming sound effects are awesome as well. Previous games like McGee's Alice and Deus Ex being high up on the list of games that sound totally awesome. Unfortunately there aren't many games that can fully utilize the new EAX HD capabilities, but the standard regime of FPS games sound great.

This card is by far the best thing to happen to sound cards since the first release of SBLive! Great for making your PC the new household hub for entertainment centers.

Yes, the card doesn't work with XP when you install it. It's not brain surgery; In fact, it's rather easy, and you will be up and running in no time. Also the second card isn't supposed to fit into the PCI slot the same way the other cards there do since it does not have a PCI connector! Unlike the main card it does not actually go in the PCI slot.

I bought this card in November because I recently purchased the Klipsch Promedia 5.1 speaker system. At first I was kind of intimidated with all the cables and connections for this card, but after reading the instruction's manual it was pretty straight foward. I was also confused about the PCI connection for this card since it has three slots instead of two, like a typical PCI card, but it fits fine. When the card was perfectly setup inside my PC I proceeded to install the software and drivers provided on a Cd-Rom by Creative. I installed the full version with all the add-ons provided. Then I proceeded to download the Windows XP drivers from the Soundblaster's website. When I was all done I decided to try my speakers with this top of the line card, but my PC froze every time after just a few seconds I started playing a track. Afters many hours of rebooting and brainstorming this problem, I arrived to the conclusion that it was the Creative Playcenter that wasn't holding up on Windows XP. So a word to the wise those who have XP do not install Creative Playcenter or you will suffer the consequences.

Besides this problem, the card works perfectly. The external drive fulfills every music lovers delight. Wether its karaoke or hooking up your TV to your card, it is make this card worthy of its price. My pleasure was hooking up my Playstation 2 with a Toslink fiber optic cable to my pc speakers. Fiber Optics is the way to go, its the neatest sound you will ever experience. The only problem is that my center speaker is not working during DVD play with my PS2, thus the 5.1 experience is ruined. In conclusion, the audigy platinum Ex card is simply for hardcore musicians that use their PC's has home studios or just hi-tech lovers that simply want the best.