Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Platinum FATAL1TY Champion Series (eng/fr)

Amazon was great about getting the sound card to me pretty soon after I ordered it. It didn't take very much work to get it up and running at all. I'm running windows XP, so that might have something to do with the ease of installation and use. I'm absolutely loving the sound that I'm getting out of my PC now!

This product is garbage. Bought it because the specs looked awesome, but there is a HUGE catch: there is a well known issue that some of these cards (if not all) will introduce a popping noise into your audio. Creative acknowledges the snap-crackle-pop issue, but does nothing to remedy the problem. No patch, no replacements, nothing. This leads me to believe they have faulty hardware. They blamed certain motherboard manufacturers, but other people with other motherboards have experienced the exact same issues.

I wouldn't recommend creative products to my worst enemy after buying this card.

The quality of sound coming thru my computer speakers is critical to me. The sound that comes from the "built in" sound devices on most mother boards today may provide the latest in 7.1 technology, but if you listen to music critcally as I do, there's just too much inherent noise. The answer is an add-on sound card. I prefer the ease of connection from the front bay interface that the Creative card provides. All the connections for audio are there, digital and analog, except the XLR type. If you need those, other external devices can provide that. Now, I'm not a gamer, so you may ask "why did you purchase a 'gamer' sound card?" Well, the quality afforded this card is not lost on me. My studio is capable of producing 5.1 surround mixes of the music I record. To mix them down I need an exacting device with stellar specs. My choices were few in the price range I wanted. The front access drive bay was the deciding factor.
This sound card connected to my Logitech Z-5500 speakers brings my listening experience to new heights of clarity. The built-in "Crystalizer" adds impact and clarity and has a wide range of adjustment.
Of course it can be shut off too, but once you hear the difference, you'll probably choose to have at least some level of enhancement. This is the best sound card I've ever purchased, and as long as motherboards provide a PCI slot, any upgrades I make, I'll be swapping this sound card over. Amazon.com's price with the free shipping was my deciding factor where to purchase. My local stores wanted 199.99 for the card. Amazon beat that by 25.00.

at first this might sound like a lot of negative, but there is positive in the end, trust me.

after coming home late one night after a long day of work my roommate informs me that i have a package from amazon. i do my happy dance and open the package, and in it is my new mouse and sound card.
right away i tare into my computer and do some re-arranging of my custom built "Green Machine". i place the 5.25" slot face panel in my lowest of 5 slots, then my all in 1 card reader, then my DVD drive(soon to be re-placed by Blu-Ray), and lastly at the top, my DVD reader/burner. i open my side panel and slide in the PCI slot card attach the cable to connect the Front Panel unit and the card, boot my computer up install the drivers and....music for 1 second and then silence, then music for another second then silence...

after about 5 mins of this, i get upset and turn off my computer to deal with it in the morning after some much needed rest.

i uninstall, and re-install, nothing different.
i go to creative's website and download both new versions of drivers, nothing different.
so i try and contact customer service, and what a joke that is.
to even try and get to the e-mail form you have to go through about 6 screens of "did you try this?" yes, i did, i'm not an idiot.
so after e-mailing them and hearing back with only "go to this site and try what it says, then tell me exactly you tried to do and i'll tell you what you're doing wrong..." is it so hard to give out a tech support phone number?

anyway. the only useful information they gave me was "try updating your BIOS"
so i did, and nothing.

then i realized that i still have my on-board sound "working". so in BIOS i disabled it. (i had already uninstalled the drivers for it), still the same problem.

then the next day (three days with out sound on my computer so far) i start it up, play with it some more, and finally it works.

and it works beautifully.

that's why i still give it 5 stars. once i got it up and running, it works great!
i can't wait to try out the digital features on it. and being a recording guy for some local musicians i can't wait to hook up my sound desk to the RCA input on the front panel.

Yes, this sound board is "all that and a bag of chips!!" It lives up to and performs, AS PROMISED, in the features and specifications, and provides several "perks," often seemingly found by accident.

In addition to the outstanding x-fi clarity and sound-enhancing capabilities (all of which are phenomenal), the board has "side-benefits."

Having the ability to choose from 3 different "listening modes" and by using its OWN power connection to the computer power source the board fully utilizes its independent processing power (and ram memory!) FOR sound production, without slowing down or impeding the computer's other tasks. This means that it truly compliments and supports listening to cds, dvds, internet-radio, streaming-videos, sound effects, EVERYTHING, in a full and concentrated way that enhances sound in ways I never knew were possible outside a professional sound studio.

One untouted but truly amazing feature is its ability to calibrate and recall one's accustomed volume levels associated with headphones, computer background sounds, and music-based sounds (cds, radio, dvds) SEPARATELY. I can be listening to a cd at a good volume through my speakers. When I decide to plug in my headphones into the i/o interface in the front, my PREVIOUS headphone volume level is RECALLED, so that the louder volume I was listenting to on the speakers is NOT carried over to the headphones. But rather, the lower volume I had PREVIOUSLY used for the headphones is remembered and stored! WOW!!

I know that in and of itself, this is not a "deal breaker" but it is an example of how sophisticated this board is, and that there are "additional treasures" I find, due to its technology.

I can program the computer alarm sounds at a certain level INDEPENDENT from the volume level of music. The music can be loud, the alarms and the sound soft; amazing!

And the remote control's functionality is just the icing on the cake. Sitting at the computer, listening through headphones, and adjusting their volume is a breeze. Right, you say, so what? Well, if you decide to take your headphones ACROSS THE ROOM (either hard-wired or infra-red) and you suddenly want to ADJUST the volume for a new song, or a new track, with the remote control, you just stay where you are and "push the button" on the remote. NO NEED to walk back over to the computer to adjust the sound. Or more simply, if you use your computer sound system as an entertainment center for your room/house, then the remote can control almost EVERYTHING, as it would for a TV, DVD player, VHS, normally would: from your chair and not from the computer.

This board, even at nearly $200 was "a bargain at twice the price." Now, at less than $140, I can only RECOMMEND IT HIGHLY.

If sound is important to you (games, musical-voicing, instrumental clarity, vocal purity) then THIS is the board for you. If you're not an aural afficianado but just enjoy good sound then THIS is the board for you, too! You'll get to hear all that you never knew you were missing.