Product Description

There's so much focus on video and graphics when it comes to games. But that's only part of the experience. What if you couldn't hear the blasts, bombs, explosions, tackles, and grunts? That's why your available PCI slot in your desktop needs this Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme sound card for PCI. The Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card delivers faster audio performance and intense, realistic sound in all your games. Headphone surround sound is better too?so good, you'll swear you're listening to multichannel speakers?and your games will sound richer as you hear all of the crisp, clear highs and bone-crushing lows you've been missing. Revitalize your compressed game sounds with X-Fi Crystalizer and hear crisp, sharp gunshots and deep, booming explosions for the most intense gaming experience ever X-Fi Crystalizer repairs the damage that MP3 and WMA compression causes and intelligently enhances high and low frequencies for cleaner music playback and more realistic movie sound Delivers THX certified surround sound and includes Cyberlink PowerDVD software with DTS and Dolby Digital-EX decoding via free download for an unbeatable DVD movie watching experience X-Fi CMSS-3D matches the sound to your headphones or multichannel speakers and positions specific audio elements?such as voice in the center and ambient sounds in surrounding channels, so your music and movies sound more alive A dedicated audio creation mode supports near transparent conversion between any resolutions, digital-matched recording, low-latency ASIO support and more

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1975 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Creative Labs
• Model: 70SB073A00000
• Dimensions: 7.00" h x 4.00" w x 10.00" l, 2.00 pounds

Features

• Device Type - Sound card
• Interface Type - PCI
• Localization - English
• Sound Output Mode - 7.1

From the Manufacturer

Features

Turbo charge your gaming experience with Xtreme Fidelity audio!
The Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer sound card delivers faster audio performance and intense, realistic sound in all your games. Headphone surround sound is better too--so good, you'll swear you're listening to multichannel speakers--and your games will sound richer as you hear all of the crisp, clear highs and bone-crushing lows you've been missing. It's Sound Blaster...on steroids!

Xtreme Fidelity Gaming

Get the speed you need when every second counts
Win big with a powerful, completely new audio processing engine that boosts real game performance by up to 15% over motherboard audio and still gives you the fullest audio effects possible!

Hear your enemies before they find you X-Fi CMSS®-3D Headphone creates nine virtual speakers over stereo headphones for positional audio that's so accurate you can actually locate enemies by sound. Multichannel speakers are even better with audio cues that let you hear exactly where they are--even between speakers.

	Immerse yourself in a new dimension of sound Bullets whiz past your head. Explosions shake the room. Take reality to the next level with EAX® ADVANCED HD™ sound effects in games.
	Get lost in the details Revitalize your compressed game sounds with X-Fi Crystalizer™ and hear crisp, sharp gunshots and deep, booming explosions for the most intense gaming experience ever.

Xtreme Fidelity Entertainment

	Restore the details and vibrance to your music and movies X-Fi Crystalizer technology restores the detail and vibrance to your compressed music and movies. All the highs and lows are intelligently enhanced so you'll hear everything in crystal clarity.
	X-Fi CMSS-3D technology expands your stereo MP3s and digital movies into surround sound over multichannel speakers, stereo speakers or even headphones. Voices are centered in front of you and ambient sounds are moved all around you.

Enjoy truly cinematic movie sound
The Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card delivers THX® certified surround sound and includes Cyberlink's PowerDVD software with DTS™ and Dolby Digital®-EX decoding via free download for an unbeatable DVD movie watching experience. (Internet connection is required)

Xtreme Fidelity Audio Creation

Get the most advanced features and effects for music and audio creation available in a consumer solution.

• Near transparent conversion to and from any resolution
• Digital-matched recording capabilities in resolutions from 44.1kHz to 96kHz
• ASIO support with as low as one millisecond latency
• Up to eight different hardware effects
• 24-bit SoundFont® sampling, and 3D MIDI

Customer Reviews

Great card, good software, annoying installation
The sound from this card blows onboard audio away. I couldn't believe the difference when I first tried it. Music is clearer, video game sounds are crisper, and overall everything just sounds a hundred times better. There's no way to describe it in words; you really just need to listen for yourself. I've also found that my games run about 10 to 20 fps higher now that I'm not using onboard audio.

I've watched a few DVDs with the included PowerDVD program, and they sound just as good as games. The same thing happens with music, it's just better!

This card features an Intel HD Audio front panel connector (not compatible with the AC'97 audio connector) which is nice. It seems like very few cards offer it.

On the downside, installing the drivers and software is like pulling teeth. The software installation alone took longer on my computer than installing Supreme Commander (an 8 gig game), and required 3 reboots. Plus there's a driver updating utility that needs to be dealt with, and the ever-present "Register Me" notice.

The Creative software itself is a little bit unnecessary and the interface can be confusing. Instead of having all audio options built into one single program, Creative broke it up into many programs. To change options for Game Mode is one program, to change options for Entertainment Mode is another, to change general options is yet another program. The programs link to each other, but its still annoying.

Overall, I highly recommend this card. Games, movies, and music all sound fantastic on it.

(Side note: when installing the software, choose "Minimum Installation". The full install includes tons of stuff that you don't need.)

Works great with vista
Excellent sound, way better than my onboard sound card which i was using before. Works great with vista, just make sure you use the drivers online.

High ROI
For such a reasonable price, and ease of installation (to Vista-32, no less), this sound card is sensational. This is the best ROI I have ever experienced in a hardware product. Intuitive directions and the software installation wizard made the entire process clock in at about 30 minutes.

The sound improvement from motherboard to 5.1 is absolutely astounding!