If you are visually impaired and are having difficulty navigating this site, please call our Customer Support line via our toll free number (800) 390-1119.

Newegg.com - A great place to buy computers, computer parts, electronics, software, accessories, and DVDs online. With great prices, fast shipping, and top-rated customer service - once you know, you Newegg.

If you are reading this message, Please click this link to reload this page.(Do not use your browser's "Refresh" button). Please email us if you're running the latest version of your browser and you still see this message.

Newegg.com - Computers, Computer Parts and Electronics

My Account

MyNeweggReviewsHelp & Info  
topNavRowBottom  
Creative Labs 70SB109000000 Sound Cards
Customer Reviews for Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 SB1090 5.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz USB Interface Sound Card - Retail
Newegg.com's Product Ratings and Reviews feature enables Newegg.com customers to help each other make informed buying decisions. Learn More

Price: $59.99
Add item to Cart
Add item to Wish List

Review Summary (76 Reviews): Rating + 4
OverallLast 2 WeeksLast 6 Months
Excellent Rating + 5 42ReviewsExcellent
newegg
55%
Good Rating + 4 14ReviewsGood
newegg
18%
Average Rating + 3 5ReviewsAverage
newegg
7%
Poor Rating + 2 2ReviewsPoor
newegg
3%
Very Poor Rating + 1 13ReviewsVery Poor
newegg
17%
Filter Results     apply changes
     
Reviewer Product Review
Coda
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/21/2010 10:52:35 AM

Rating + 4 Great for music listeners or gamers, no good for anything more demanding


Pros: It's a nice looking external card, the sound quality is good, it is true 5.1 audio surround (with the provided drivers), external (no interference), usb powered.

Cons: The drivers are annoying, when I turn the dial on the device this huge notification shows up on my screen telling me what my new volume percentage is. This notification will minimize games if you turn the dial which turns out to be not very convenient when you're about to shoot at the enemy.
When you turn up the "bass effect" the sound quality gets very muttled, and sounds bad.
The device is unfortunately underpowered. Meaning that sometimes, during loud sounds or songs, it compensates by quieting everything. Makes some stuff sound weird.
No good for fruity loops! Don't buy this if you plan to use fruity loops, adobe audition, or anything audio intensive. The card will begin to clip. USB 2.0 simply doesn't have enough bandwidth to support such functions.
There is a delay in this card, but it's not even noticeable unless you pay very close attention. The delay is tiny, and barely even worth mentioning.

Other Thoughts: If you're a general user looking for good sound quality at a decent price, and aren't afraid of a little annoying driver then this is for you. If I didn't use fruity loops, I would for sure keep this device. It functions well, sounds good, and looks good. But unfortunately, it just doesn't have the power that a non-average user like me demands out of his system.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

ryanc
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/19/2010 6:06:46 PM

Rating + 1 This product line has problems


Pros: USB interface, optical out, volume control knob

Cons: Cracking, popping, fading in and out.

Other Thoughts: I bought this card to replace another card I was dissatisfied with, decided to go brand name this time. Seconds after installing, I hear popping and crackling in my music. Same with movies. Watching youtube is hit or miss, sometimes its super quiet and washed out or it cuts in and out, fades in and out, sometimes it all works fine. I've plugged the same SPDIF cable into my PS3 and everything sounds great. I'm using Win7Ultx64 on a Dell Insp546, pretty generic. I've tried 3 official drivers and 1 beta driver, posted on their forums and nothing has helped. Worst of all, these problems are so well documented across the line, that the Wiki page has its own section dedicated to it; the fixes are crazy too (overclock pci bus, replace capacitors, deactivate plug n play, are you kidding me?!). This thing is junk, too bad too because the sound is great when it actually works. I couldn't wait for any more patches or worthless fixes. I want my money back. AVOID.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

nOrma
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/19/2010 12:55:42 PM

Rating + 5 Does it job right.


Pros: Easy installation, great sound quality and durable design.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: If you want an external sound card that simply kicks a_ss for a good price... This is for you.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/19/2010 12:30:15 PM

Rating + 5


Pros: Good clear sound. My headphone port on my laptop was degrading so I got this product to replace my headphone port. I only tried the headphone port, I have yet to say about the TOSLINK or the RCA ports.

Cons: It robs system memory, so if you have several programs running on a moderately weak computer, the sound will cut in and out spontaneously.

Other Thoughts: Overall, I like it since it replaces the headphone port and brings more clarity to my music using my MDR-V6 headphones (had them for 5 years and still love them!)

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

Jrod3391
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/15/2010 9:57:51 AM

Rating + 5 Great sound!!


Pros: Easy setup. Small package. Sounds really great.

Cons: None yet

Other Thoughts: I just got new Logitech X540 speakers and my internal sound card was not working properly as one of the speakers was not working. So I got this and instantly fixed my speaker problems and my sound is much richer. Software has some nice sound customization. I'm very happy so far with this Sound Blaster device

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

Recneps
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/12/2010 10:50:17 PM

Rating + 3 Decent but...


Pros: Clean look, easy setup, 5.1 audio out.

Cons: I just got this today, and despite some negative reviews, decided to try it out. The setup went smoothly, but the software would stop opening if you unplugged the USB cable, you'd have to reboot or re-login to your windows account for the software to work again. I was also getting clipping and popping during music, particularly regarding drum sounds, and the sound quality was about the same as my laptops on-board audio. I tested the sound through my headphones on my iPod and then through the sound card, and the iPod sounded much better. Cool product cuz it can output 5.1, but other than that, it's just a software pack with a large volume nob+more inputs.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/12/2010 5:53:42 AM

Rating + 5


Pros: Sounds great.
Easy to hook up.
Comes with R/L Audio to Aux Y cable.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: Just make sure you actually install the disk.
It still allows the sound to pass through if you don't, its just not 5.1.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

vtmemo
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/10/2010 12:31:20 PM

Rating + 5 Great cost-friendly external sound


Pros: Great sound via the RCA jacks, volume adjustment knob is discretized, turns smoothly and mutes cleanly. Runs on USB power, making it great for portable apps. Headphone connection is firm and clean, superb sound. Nice software features, and 24-bit sound @ 96 kHz make this card a penny-pinching audiophile's best laptop buddy.

Cons: Delay between input- and output- for live pass-through is not severe, but on the order of several milliseconds: significant if you're doing DJ / syncing. PLEASE NOTE, apparently the "Karaoke Driver" from Creative fixes this bug.

Other Thoughts: Make sure your drivers are Creative's official-latest copy. Windows 7 installs "default" drivers, but you'll lose any of Creative's patchwork on bugfixes.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

prashu
Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
1/7/2010 12:48:35 PM

Rating + 5 Gread Product


Pros: *USB - Perfect for laptops and netbooks
*Optical Output
*Fast Installation. No driver installation required in Vista/Windows 7
*Reliable. I've been using it for more than an year. Not even a single breakdown so far

Cons: *Requires tweaking to get virtual 5.1 from stereo sources. It's not a con but a big pain to get it working
*Glossy surface attracts a ton of dust. Gets dirty easily.
*No Remote Control

Other Thoughts: Love this sound card. I was a little thoughtful before I bought it as it has a USB interface. They're known to have delays during playback compared to a PCI or PCI express cards. But I never faced such problem with this. Perfect for netbook/laptop owners who might need 5.1 support when using the laptop/netbook at home with surround speakers

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
1/6/2010 4:39:25 PM

Rating + 5 Impressed


Pros: Great way to add surround sound capability to a laptop, or desktop. X-Fi Crystalizer works well on lower bit-rate mp3 files. Even my lossless audio files sound slightly better (leave Crystalizer off for those though).

Cons: No 5.1 output through optical out (but I think that's an issue with my speakers, not the sound card.) Device requires significant cpu power. X-Fi Crystalizer over enhances losless audio files.

Other Thoughts: I bought this to resolve some issues I had while playing games. Some newer games that use large amounts of cpu power would cause my on board audio to crackle and pop whenever the cpu was under heavy use. I had heard that this device required some cpu overhead, but thought I would be fine. I'm running an E8500 core 2 duo (@ stock clocks). The crackle/pop noises did decrease, but I still get occasional audio distortion when the cpu is under heavy use. (I did make sure to use proper usb speed in settings). Overall, the product is great and it did slightly improve the sound quality across the board (haven't tested a movie yet though). Games and music do sound better, but it didn't blow me away or anything. Was disappointing that I couldn't get true 5.1 audio through the optical out port. Pretty sure that's my speaker's fault though (z-5500). Overall I'm impressed. Makes low quality mp3s sound better, but if you have a lot of higher quality recordings, you may not notice a big difference.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

ronelee
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
12/23/2009 1:11:24 PM

Rating + 5 Great USB external card!


Pros: Lets see..

• Great HD Sound
• Micphone input on the card is great quality
• Easy Access Volume Knob
• Black
• Beautiful, sleek and sexy

what more could you ask for?

Cons: None at all

Other Thoughts: I didn't buy it from newegg, i bought this from a local electronic store for 49.99. I just thought i'd give an input on it. Glad i bought, i would recommend anyone looking for an external easy-to-go sound card!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
12/9/2009 11:58:08 PM

Rating + 5 It Works!


Pros: Its great once you get it working.

Cons: I am running xp sp 2 and at first just using xp drivers it worked but would have a pause every other min. After installing the beta driver on creative website everything worked fine.

Other Thoughts: Did not use creative app, just driver. hear the app is trash.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
11/25/2009 10:44:59 AM

Rating + 5 Works great. Clean Audio


Pros: Plug-n-Play. Worked immediately.

Cons: None yet.

Other Thoughts: I do some intense video editing on my computer and I was getting crackling and interference from my on-board audio card. It was recommended to me that I should buy one of the more expensive external sound cards, but I decided to drop $60 on this one to see if the usb-powered card would do the trick. I couldn't believe my ears... I thought I had gone deaf. There was no noticeable noise coming from my speakers, even when I had it cranked up all the way. PLEASE NOTE: I did NOT install any of the software included. Some people have complained about the included software. I am running Vista Business 64 and it found all the necessary drivers. I didn't even have to reboot. I plugged it in, opened my video editing program and it worked like a champ. I was really impressed with how well it worked right away. I am only using the RCA output (with RCA to Stereo plug adapter) to my two Altec Lansing computer speakers (no digital or headphone out), but the difference is incredible.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Hr
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
11/20/2009 1:19:37 PM

Rating + 5 Great Sound


Pros: Easy Setup and install - Installed on windows 7 pro. Just threw the cd in and set my logtech speakers to 6 ch direct. The sound is really very good and it sounds great playing games or watching movies even if they are not in 5.1

Cons: Seems sort of expensive - comes with some trial trah which is annoying although you have the option not to install it.

Other Thoughts: None

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

WIll
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
11/2/2009 8:54:25 AM

Rating + 5 Works with Win 7 64-bit!


Pros: Finding a quality sound card that supports Windows 7 64-bit is a real challenge. But this little fellow plugged right in with USB 2.0 and worked instantly, I didn't even need the driver cd (I didn't install any of the headphone software). This has a toslink out and several audio mini-pin jacks. That it's 1/3 the price of an internal sound card is a big bonus. It's marketed as a gamer's headphone controller, but I think it's more that that because it's so universal. I never give 5 stars out of principle but this one deserves it.

Cons: The volume know doesn't work on mine, I suspect I need to install the full software suite to enable it.

Other Thoughts: The THD is listed as .01 at 1khz. Is this for the headphone output or the overall quality of the digital section? I would like to Creative Labs make a direct comparison between this and their internal sound cards.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

joemaamah
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
11/1/2009 1:29:09 PM

Rating + 3 Caveat's galore


Pros: Cheap, good upgrade from on-board chips for audio sources, easy to set up, 5.1 analog, TOSlink out.

Cons: Flaky drivers, can't handle DVD movie audio streams reliably, USB doesn't have the bandwidth to handle heavy demands.

Other Thoughts: I've got mixed feelings about this purchase. Stereo TOSlink streams work great and sound excellent, unless trying to read MP3 audio data from a 2nd USB device; not enough USB band width to make that happen. It often locked up the PC while using WinAMP. I have spent months trying to get pass-through DVD and Blu-Ray 5.1 digital streams working reliably to my receiver from this card. I've tried several different DVD viewing softwares, with various low levels of success. I've suffered driver issues, serious lag between video and audio streams (mouth and voice not in sync), PC lock-up, and BSODs. I've come to judge Creative's drivers are flaky at best. I've been disappointed this product couldn't meet my expectations. If you only listen to MP3s from your laptop's hard drive, this USB device might be a decent upgrade solution. That's what it is designed for. Just don't expect it to do any heavy data lifting.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
10/22/2009 4:52:48 PM

Rating + 5


Pros: Works exactly like it's suppose to. I had everything connected to a USB hub (mouse, keyboard, external drives, etc.) So when I plugged in laptop on my desk, all I had to plug in was my power cable, one USB from the hub and speaker plug which was awkwardly on the side of my dell laptop. Now I have this, I can just leave it connected to the hub and just plug in the power and USB cable from the hub and I am all set. Sound quality is greatly improved which is mostly noticeable when watching movies. Now I am in the market for some nicely priced 5.1 speakers.

Cons: In Windows Vista, when I unplugged my USB sound card I would lose audio from any program that was open unless I closed the program and reloaded again, then it would play through my laptop speakers and vice versa when I plugged in the USB sound card. I recently upgraded to Windows 7 and now it automatically switches from laptop speakers to the USB sound card when I plug and unplug it.

Other Thoughts: The nob on the sound card can turn it off and on when pushed down and it adjusts the sound level through the computer. So I mounted the sound card behind my desk so its doesn't take up space and you probably would never need to touch it ever again once you have everything connected. Some people had audio sync issues when watching movies but I don't know if that is because they were using old software but I didn't bother using the CD it came with and just downloaded the drivers on Creative's website and everything works 100% perfect.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

MJBG666
Tech Level: high
Ownership: less than 1 day
10/22/2009 12:04:08 PM

Rating + 1 BUYER BEWARE


Pros: Great specs

Cons: Absolutely, positively did not work

Other Thoughts: I know SB is the most touted sound software out there. But, I bought this for my HP Vista computer which had not more internal slots for upgrades. This device destroyed my computer. It caused me to lose ALL my music files - I think because loading the Creative Music Manager crashed while it was indexing my music folder. I got a BSOD, rebooted, and my music folder was no longer recognized by either Itunes or WMP. I was so angry and crushed, I'm talking about a lifetime's collection here folks, gone. Only after a long and expensive recovery procedure was I able to restore my music files. This device should be banned.

0 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

DRam
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
10/20/2009 8:32:52 PM

Rating + 5 This thing rocks!


Pros: Super easy to install, just plug the cord into a USB port and the sound card. Done. Worked great without any of the extra software. Listened to a couple pieces stored on my Toshiba LS350 laptop (just about their cheapest model) and was amazed at the sound. I heard things in the music I didn't know were there before. It drives my Phillips active sound canceling earphones to pain level with no trouble, and no distortion. This sounds as good as or better than my component stereo system. In fact, I'm going to take a shot at running music off the laptop through my stereo system with it. Plugged my turntable into the line-in port and recorded a bit of Bach. It did a beautiful job. As said in the title: This thing rocks!

In short: easy to install. Runs with no glitches. Great music reproduction. I'm very pleased with this sound card.

Cons: None. Absolutely none.

Other Thoughts: A caveat: I'm not a gamer. This was purchased only to provide a line-in for recording vinyl. The above comments apply to that use. But I've seen none of the problems mentioned by other reviewers.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Eolis
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
10/17/2009 10:22:02 PM

Rating + 1 Skip this one.


Pros: Good looking unit.

Cons: I get a lot of static sometimes, which means i have to unplug and plug it in again to make it to go away.
Its a waste of my money if this unit actually makes the sound worse than the speakers on my laptop.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

rydo88
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
10/15/2009 2:19:09 PM

Rating + 1 NOT WHAT IT SAYS


Pros: -none

Cons: -DOES NOT DO TRUE 5.1 (it will not output dolby digital (or any other 5.1 codec)
-Awful support, took me over a month of dealing with Creative's worthless support to find out that it doesn't support 5.1 from a source (like a blu ray or dvd), it just takes the stereo signal and "recreates 5.1" (which is not actually surround sound)
So the long and short is, if you want surround sound, this doesn't do it.

2 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: more than 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
9/29/2009 6:58:11 AM

Rating + 5 Works Great


Pros: USB, Dolby 5.1 from the laptop

Cons: none

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
8/23/2009 7:08:23 AM

Rating + 5 Works as advertised


Pros: Works great

Cons: none

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

Phyrearms
Tech Level: high
Ownership: less than 1 day
7/28/2009 4:07:20 PM

Rating + 4 It's alright


Pros: Better 3D positional audio than my old ALC660 Realtek "HD" integrated audio. Much better bass and treble as well. Did NOT negatively impact my framerate in games compared to onboard sound -- that's because they're both software synthesized.

Cons: Took some toying with drivers to get it to work. On the desktop, every 10 seconds you can hear a little crackling or popping noise on the headphones or speakers. Music with heavy bass, such as bass drums or whatever distorts and clips the audio if the sound is up over halfway and just doesn't sound very X-Fi like at all.

Other Thoughts: The driver I ended up using was the Beta Driver 1.01.0091 dated near the beginning of 2009, which got everything working properly. No sound delay in games or anything like that. Couldn't use a PCI card because of my Mini-ITX motherboard and case, and while I did get some better positional audio in games and more bass/treble, I can't say this was a very impressive upgrade over the onboard sound.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Smartkid
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
7/13/2009 7:36:43 PM

Rating + 5 My black box :D


Pros: - Great sound quality
- Great looking box, all nice (not cheap looking) materials
Fair amount of I/O

Cons: - This sound card will use some of your CPU, deal with it
- The software isn't the greatest but then again, what sound driver based software is?

Other Thoughts: I'm a professional DJ, I use this to interface Virtual DJ to a 3000 Watt amp. Overall I am impressed just as I have been with ALL Creative products.

Great product for it's purpose - 5 eggs

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

Tom
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
7/9/2009 3:44:08 PM

Rating + 1 Don't buy this junk


Pros: This sound card SHOULD work great... BUT

Cons: Creative's terrible drivers make this the most annoying card on the planet. Every minute or so, at random, a crackle, a blip, a click... little noises due to the incompatibility of this sound card with other hardware components (NVidia Cards?). I can't stand it anymore I'm going to find another company to get a card from.

Other Thoughts: what a waste of money

1 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

tice33rd
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/7/2009 12:49:30 AM

Rating + 5 pretty and can cook.


Pros: works well for hooking up a 360 for headset use. All features worked as advertised.

Cons: zero cons. usb powered baby!

Other Thoughts: Didn't work well with old surround sound reciever/amp. Digital decoding has gone further than what I had. This sound card/device is pretty far ahead in terms of sound processing. I used to think DTS was far out...not anymore.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Ickythekid
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/3/2009 6:04:21 AM

Rating + 5 Great Solution...


Pros: Great solution for external 5.1 sound. Works right out of the box.

Cons: In my opinion, Creative will give you the option to do a custom install of software and drivers, but doesn't really explain to you what you're installing so you can make selections based upon what you want/need.

Other Thoughts: This is the perfect solution for someone like me with a business laptop that sits in a docking station and want better than just stereo sound.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

halflifed
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/23/2009 9:32:10 PM

Rating + 5 NICE!


Pros: Great solution if you dont want to add a card inside case, I needed the room for 3 video cards and couldnt afford to lose the space, the software and hardware ran right out of the box for me,
i just need to switch from real tech hi def to creative in ctrl panel, but other then that a breeze

Cons: NONE

Other Thoughts: New eggs the best I love the
egg

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

TravTech
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/19/2009 3:47:46 PM

Rating + 5 This thing ROCKS!


Pros: Works great, easy to install, true 5.1 surround sound.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I use it on a pretty high end laptop. I've had no issues with lag, performance, or being a CPU hog as some have stated.

Be sure to get the latest software and drivers. Especially under Vista.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
4/28/2009 11:03:28 AM

Rating + 5


Pros: Worked great! I was skeptical after reading some mixed reviews about it, but it worked without any issues or hitches. Music, movies, and games sounded great.

Cons: Refused to install itself even after much yelling on my part.

Other Thoughts: Windows 7 Compatible

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

knowbody
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
4/24/2009 8:19:22 AM

Rating + 5 $ well spend!


Pros: Sounds much better, even with my setup. & I'll be able to upgrade when I am ready. Doesn't use a PCIe slot.

Cons: Driver on Vista, and unnecessary software.

Other Thoughts: I needed this kind of Xfi connection all my PCIe slots are used.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
4/17/2009 2:10:04 PM

Rating + 5 GREAT!


Pros: great card, for just music, movie, and gaming. not hardcore gaming that is. very good music quality. and great and easy software to use.!

Cons: the sound delay is fixed with the latest driver. u can download it at creative's site.

Other Thoughts: got mine for $35!

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

Mr_Scary
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
4/5/2009 9:55:36 PM

Rating + 5 Great Alternative for 3-Way SLI


Pros: USB Connection, X58 in TRI-SLI, no where for PCI X-FI, Small, Plenty of inputs, My X-Fi platinum remote works with this, has volume knob on the device, 5.1 surround, Mic/Headphones, Line in...

Cons: I can't think of 1

Other Thoughts: I have this on my X58 Tri-SLI PC, and works great, not sure why people have trouble with delay, mine is right on time, I play guitar/keyboard through this no problem. gunfire sound is instant no delay. Sounds just as good as my X-FI platinum fatal1ty champion series PCI card. I give it 5 eggs, even it was just almost as good, it gives me great sound so I can run 3 GTX285 F T W in 3-Way SLI

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
3/30/2009 7:44:31 PM

Rating + 5 Excelent Buy


Pros: Plug and play beauty. Instantly i could feel an AMAZING difference in the bass and the surround. When listening i feel like sound it flowing around me. It sounds like a lie, i know, but if you have a good set of 5.1 speakers, you will feel it too. It's small, simple to set up, and doesn't use massive amounts of processor like some of the other reviews say. Personally i think they need the latest drivers or a new computer.

Cons: It doesn't directly control the volume of the speakers. If you have a sound system with a nob to control it your now stuck with two that each affect the volume.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

apeiron
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
3/24/2009 10:08:05 AM

Rating + 1 Seems to be the winmodem of soundcards.


Pros: USB plug and play.

Cons: Everything else. Reading reviews that describe high CPU usage and lack of Linux support lead me to believe that this card is rather like the all-too-common "winmodems"--modems that are primarily implemented in software. As such, of course, it provides practically zero functionality under anything but Windows. I bought this product under the assumption that, like everything else marketed today, the "requires Windows" bit was absolutely incorrect. Turns out that, for this product, it's spot-on. The open source drivers are nice, but don't build on recent kernels. While I'm not afraid to hack C in order to get things to work, the point of purchasing this USB card was to benefit from the plug and play that USB affords. Don't buy unless you've got a Windows machine for it to run on.

Other Thoughts: Fast shipping and easy RMA process. Newegg rocks.

2 out of 13 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Res
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
3/12/2009 4:34:55 PM

Rating + 4 Sounds great, problematic drivers on some systems


Pros: * Sound is crystal clear,
* Volume knob is surprisingly useful
* Headphone output is very strong
* Bass management for the analog outputs

Cons: Mainly drivers, I get mixed results across various systems, works flawlessly on the HTPC I got it for, picked another one up for work/travel and the driver slowly eats up kernel paged pool memory until the system starts failing (windows with empty borders, can't start new apps, etc...), occasionally causes blue screens (rare though). Beta drivers on the problem system are instant blue screens of death. Havn't tried it on my travel laptop yet, hoping for the best.

Would have been nice to have RCA outs for the other channels as well (No that I can see where they would have fit them on it.)

Other Thoughts: SPDIF will only output stereo (sounds real nice) or pass through streams from videos (well, I assume it does, haven't tried it.) So if you were hoping to hook your PC up to the SPDIF connection on your receive and play glorious surround sound video games, it's a no go. If you have a 6 channel analog input then you're in business.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

Bry
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
3/3/2009 12:03:29 AM

Rating + 1 Miserable Fail...


Pros: Does everything it claims. My 5.1 system worked.

Cons: There is approximately 3/4 to 1 second of lag on everything it processes.

Other Thoughts: This will indeed get your 5.1 running, however, the lag defeats it's purpose. Music is only stereophonic, so that doesn't matter. Movies have a sync problem on any media player, lip movements don't match up to speech. Games are awful, you fire a gun for example... muzzle flash, brief silence, *BANG*. I could only see this being useful to someone who cares enough to possibly fix the movie sync error and use it for a computer theater system, nothing else.

2 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
2/27/2009 6:06:15 AM

Rating + 5 Excellent sound and performance


Pros: I agree with one of the reviews below me, that this card does in fact put out the sound quality intended by artists and producers. For those of you that have problems, its only a driver and update issue. The latest drivers and updates will take away the lag and and any other issues. I'm using this card with the Dell XPS Gen. 2 Laptop, and with the G51 5.1 speakers by Logitech.

Cons: There was lag and performance issues at first after inital install, but after downloading the updates I no longer suffered any issues. Works like a charm now!!

Other Thoughts: Being stationed overseas, I was suprised the speedy process and shipment by newegg. As always they had the best service for me. Thanks Newegg!! I get all my products shipped to me in 5 days from ordering.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Mgboy
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
2/23/2009 1:23:33 PM

Rating + 4


Pros: Sounds good, measures pretty good, has a lot of good features, looks really good, compliments a piano black monitor and keyboard.

Cons: Lag. Due to the USB, it's only good for listening to music. Playing games, or watching movies/music video's are hard to do because of the half second to 3/4 second delay. Everything seems to be dubbed - this was whether it was in high or full speed USB mode.

Other Thoughts: If you're only going to be listening to music, whether on a laptop or desktop and want something that looks good, and is external this is the card to get - if you want more, spend more.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
2/18/2009 6:31:51 PM

Rating + 5 Great product and service


Pros: This sound card does put out the sound quality music and movies were made to be heard. Once installed with the latest drivers and updates, product runs smoothly. The software is nice to have as you can tune the sound to your own personal liking. newegg also had great service as I am stationed over seas, the product got here in 1 week.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: Again, great product, and awesome service as usual from Newegg.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

SnB
Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
2/17/2009 6:01:06 PM

Rating + 1 BSOD & BSOD & BSOD


Pros: Portable, decent sound quality

Cons: Drivers are messed up, I get random bluescreens of death ever since I bought it. Downloading drivers should have fixed it but once I added ram it randomly BSOD again. When it works, it uses usb cable, no internal ram so it takes up quite a lot of CPU.

Other Thoughts: Had to remove parts one by one to identify this culprit for BSOD

0 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Selroth
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/29/2009 11:31:02 AM

Rating + 5


Pros: This guy's nifty. I've been an X-Fi fan for quite some time, and I'll never settle for less. And, I've been a headphone audiophile some too - always paired these with the Sennheiser HD 280's.

Now my laptop can have X-Fi sound too! Oh how I missed the crystalizer, CMSS-3d, and just quality sound while I was stuck with my laptop for 4 months with no X-Fi. It really does make a difference.

Cons: It doesn't do the Game / Entertainment / Music Creation modes like other X-Fi cards. But seems all the features are there. Or maybe I haven't played around with it enough yet.

Other Thoughts: Install the drivers from the site. Creative throws in a lot of other stuff on the install CD, and the driver's auto-update feature will wanna download new drivers anyway.

5 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Bryansuavo
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/11/2009 11:04:18 AM

Rating + 5 Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 SB1090 5.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz USB Interface Sound Card - Retail


Pros: Makes my Z-5500 come to live ! for the price i highly recommend if you need to improve your sound quality, especially if you want 5.1!

Cons: don't see a need for the Volume knob, it goes back to default everytime i turn on the computer (75), so i have to remind myself to turn it up, since i control the volume thru my Z-5500. other than that, no compains.

Other Thoughts: get it, only 55 bucks, can connect to any computer that has a USB slot lol. does make you music experience worth it. i hear people complain about slowing your comp down, not me, altho i have a 4GB ram and 2.0 Ghz comp but i def recommend!

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/10/2009 1:59:07 AM

Rating + 4 In the end it was all good; until then it was a headache


Pros: If you can get this thing to work properly, everything is good--the sound, the fact that you can output optically to a receiver, and the crystalizer sound effect that is available with the unit. But until then it was pretty tough to get everything working as it should. The first time I installed the software it went without a hitch and I got the unit to work fine. I then did notice that the CPU usage was at 5-50% when I wasn't playing any audio or video files; that and the fact that the unit's lights were still on were enough for me to want to be able to turn off the unit when I wished. But without a power button that isn't possible. Plus, I wanted to still have the onboard sound to work when the SB unit is turned off. So, with no options as to how to turn off the unit, I proceeded to unplug the USB cable connected to it. After that was when my troubles started. I was able to regain the onboard sound's functionality back, but when I went to reconnect the USB cable to the SB

Cons: it would no longer work. After many hours of uninstalling and reinstalling, I've come to the following steps to get the darn thing back into operation. With a 3rd party software (U..SafelyRe....) and finally figuring out the steps to reinstall what I really need, the unit works fine. The steps I took in the way of software installation was:
Used the included SBcd to Remove all previous installations, restart the computer, Install the console and audio drivers from the same SB cd and restart again. Upon restart, the Autoupdate of SB would run, but I would get an error message and the process is unable to proceed. But it doesn't matter since the unit worked for me from that point on. Since it did work, I did not try to install any updates (even those I had downloaded from SB.com; and it is not likely that they'll help since I tried them with no luck) So with the unit working fine, when I now want to turn off the unit, I would "stop" the device using the already mentioned UsbSafely

Other Thoughts: Re... software whiich would actually turn off the SB unit and it's lights. I could then use the freed up USB cable to connect my external HD if I choose. The thing I'm glad about when having the SB "stopped" is that my onboard sound works again. And to get the SB back and running, replugging the same usb cable brings it back just fine. So, all it all if it were not for my finding the usbSafe..Re... software to used as a virtual power switch for the SB unit, I probably would not have been satisfied with it enough to keep it. But the combination of the two has made the unit do just what I want, and so it's a keeper! Another note is the optical output doesn't work when the 96khz option is selected; just with the default 48khz. If you get this and can put up with a little or maybe a lot of tinkering before getting it to work, I would recommend it. If not, it's probably not for you. But of course the process might not be all that bad if some of the things I mentioned are considered.

10 out of 18 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

mistakes
Tech Level: average
Ownership: less than 1 day
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/8/2009 3:36:34 PM

Rating + 4 Pretty good


Pros: The sound manipulators are pretty good once you adjust them. I have 5.1 speakers and it really lets me emphasize the surround sound.

Cons: nothing really.

Other Thoughts: its really worth the 55 bucks

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Spineless
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/5/2009 10:04:25 AM

Rating + 2 Convenient, but thin sounding


Pros: Nice collection of features in a small package. Easy setup. Alot less noise than onboard sound.

Cons: The sound is thin and lifeless. The sound is very tinny and there is little bass.

Does not have enough power to drive a set of real headphones, Sony MDR-V6 in my case, or regular el cheapo budget headphones. Also, the lineout is better equipped to drive headphones louder than the headphone out jack, but the sound quality is still poor.

Other Thoughts: I was expecting more from this device than I found it to have. In addition, by default, the software has the sound manipulation features (X-Fi CMSS-3D & X-Fi Crystallizer) enabled. I disabled both because in my opinion they frankly don't sound good enabled. My comments regarding the sound quality were based on these features being disabled.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
1/3/2009 5:58:06 PM

Rating + 1


Pros: Looks nice, sounds nice when it works.

Cons: I installed a computer inside a car and the computer only had 1 audio output so I had to get an external sound card. I installed the drivers and then installed winamp. Winamp seems to have issues with this card so I uninstalled winamp. I cannot go more then 15 minutes without this thing giving me a blue screen. I tried updating the drivers but that just makes things worse! Now any time there is any cpu load I get static in my sound. When I try to uninstall the software I get a blue screen so I have to unplug the sound card just to uninstall the software! I installed the latest drivers but things only got worse! 100% cpu load all the time, static in the audio any time the cpu is put under any load.
I tried the card with a fresh install of windows with nothing but the sound card and essential hardware drivers, BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!! ARGH!!! After a solid 3 days of trouble shooting I am fed up. Item returned.

Other Thoughts: The software cd that comes with the sound card has a lot of software; some look like they may be useful but most seems like bloatware. After doing some research on the manufacturer "creative" I found out that they are notorious for bad drivers and bad software. BUYER BEWARE. Hopefully I will save some poor audio enthusiast from the headache that is Creative Sound Blaster X-FI.

1 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Jon
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
12/25/2008 6:05:46 PM

Rating + 5


Pros: Easy to hook up, sounds great on my Logitech Z-2300 system hooked up to my laptop.

Cons: Install is a bit long. Takes some tweaking to get it to perform optimally.

Other Thoughts: I'm running on Vista with a mid-range laptop at best. The real bottleneck in my system is my processor, so I can't just run program with this set-up and have zero lag. On certain movies there was lag, especially when viewing .mkv files through WMP. But by using VLC instead there is no lag whatsoever, and the movies, as well as my music, both work flawlessly. There will be some lag if you use the most resource-heavy programs to use files on non-high end computers, but if you search around for the best programs you shouldn't have a problem.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
12/13/2008 7:03:46 AM

Rating + 4 Works in linux (but not supported)


Pros: Nice and inexpensive way to improve the sound output on an older notebook. I am running Ubuntu 8.10 and was able to get this up and running using a driver someone made (look in various linux support forums). Also, it appears that this soundcard will work under PulseAudio, but not ALSA.

Cons: No official linux support, but I think SB should get some kudos for inviting open source development of drivers for its products...

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

Topgun6521
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
12/4/2008 9:34:34 AM

Rating + 5 AMAZING


Pros: Impressive sound quality and volume. Use it with an Optical cable with my logitech z 5500 and cant ask for more. Great product!

Cons: CD installation takes too long for a complete installation (20-30mins). Suggest you just install the driver and device monitor.

Other Thoughts: Recommend it to anybody with laptop, and desktop users that don't want to spend $100+ on a sound card. Good investment.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
11/19/2008 5:03:52 AM

Rating + 5 One powerful little box


Pros: Multipule hookups for other non computer applications. Delivers superb sound and is loaded with software that lets you tweak everything.

Cons: Did not come with a 3.5mm cable for speaker hookup.

Other Thoughts: Overall, this is the best external sound card i've used. When compared to the usb cards, this bad boy shines.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

Dj hotsauce
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
11/12/2008 2:54:12 PM

Rating + 4 great sound card


Pros: Great sound quality... Very loud when hooked up with optical

Cons: doesn't work too well with sonar 7.... don't know if its sonar or if its the sound card

Other Thoughts: almost too loud with headphones at 5 percent volume

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: average
Ownership: less than 1 day
This user purchased this item from Newegg
11/11/2008 11:58:37 AM

Rating + 3 Not Giving Up Yet...


Pros: Install is easy. Stereo output to Home Theater Receiver with red/white RCA x-cable works okay.

Cons: Install is slow. Dolby/Surround output to Home Theater Receiver with toslink optical cable hasn't worked yet.

Other Thoughts: I'm hoping it's just a matter of tweaking to get this to work. I have a laptop with BD-Rom and I'm trying to get decent surround sound out of it. I don't know if it's on the sound card end or the receiver end, as both are brand new (probably a mistake on my part to try to do it all at once). But I can't get the receiver to recognize a signal from the Toslink Optical cable.
I have uninstalled all software and will re-try tonight.
Windows Vista 32...
HP QuickPlay to play Blu-Ray movie...
3G RAM...
AMD Turion Dual-Core...
I will follow up if my opinion changes. I really believe my setup should work.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
11/7/2008 12:34:55 PM

Rating + 5 At work, for Music


Pros: Easy to install, easy to use. Plain and simple and does the job I want it to do. I use it at work, because the built in card in my work PC stinks, this makes the sound quality excellent. Sit and listen to slacker.com while programming.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I use the red and white connections, work PC doesn't have anything else. I also have one at home, for my laptop which has blueray, and the sound pipes through this straight into the TV and works great.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

f1rebrand
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
11/6/2008 4:42:23 PM

Rating + 5 Excellent investment. Creative wins again.


Pros: Great add on for laptops.

Great software.

Versatile; support goes beyond computer sound systems.

Software supports a wide variety of sound systems, i.e. has 2.1, 4.1, 5.1 and headphones settings.

The equilizer and surround sound settings work very well, and are easily adjusted.

Cons: Had slight difficulties setting up/installing software.

I have to turn on the software every time I boot up.

Would be nice to be able to shift focus to one side/speaker, i.e. have more sound/music come from the rear left speaker to balance everything out.

Other Thoughts: While I have to turn on the software when I boot up, it launched with the system for a while. Strange.

While I had a slight problem installing the software, it was easily fixed by reinstalling said software.

As said before, the support for the different sound systems is amazing. The features it comes with just have to be seen/heard for yourself. While most are minor adjustments, when you actually take the time to listen, you can hear the minute changes. For example, you can set it so there is an echo to your music, or you can give it a flatter tone.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
11/4/2008 7:34:35 AM

Rating + 1 Worst product ever


Pros: Easy to install. USB good for carPC applications.

Cons: Poor software that does not operate as advertised. This sound card actually blew my 400w sub when it made the pop during start up. DO NOT USE for carPC.

Other Thoughts: Could have been an awesome product.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Scot
Tech Level: high
Ownership: more than 1 year
11/2/2008 7:42:39 PM

Rating + 1 LAG BOMB


Pros: USB, good connectivity.

Cons: This thing will lag the *** out of your system if you play any games at all.

Dropped my frame rates by 20-30fps. I can only imagine it's because it's using your CPU's processing power? The minute I unplugged it the frames shot back up again.

Other Thoughts: Yes, I had the most updated drivers. Returned next day.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
10/21/2008 6:11:23 AM

Rating + 3 not bad but not for me


Pros: runs off usb with no power needed. very good sound quality.

Cons: read below

Other Thoughts: I wanted to use this in my car to have a media center in the car (auto PC!! :-) I have a large system with many amps etc. the main problem was that this unit makes a HUGE pop in the speakers when it turns on and off. nothing I did fixed this. main problem is that its powered by the usb (which would be great for any other use) but this makes it uncontrollable in the car (cant time the turn on and off) It also DOES NOT do 4.1 it only does 2 or 4 or 5.1 but in 2 or 4 channel mode the sub out is disabled (bummer) I settled with an extigy I got off e-bay, much better for autopc.
other than that it seems to be a great sound card.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

DcGoD
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
10/3/2008 11:14:00 AM

Rating + 5 *NO LAG* Works fine


Pros: I really do not understand why so many people complain about this product. Perhaps the older drivers were causing problems with people machines? I just bought this sound card for my Dell E1705 laptop(1.86gz) to replace the onboard sigmatel and so I could have SPDIF optical/digital out and I have to admit this thing performs WAY better than people on here are saying. I see no lag when playing blue-ray disc or games. I do not get a delay when watching movies as many people have complained about. I have this hooked to my Logitech Z-5500's digital 5.1 speakers and it sounds AWESOME!. It blows away the Sigmatel onboard by FAR(and gives SPDIF output). BUY IT! For 60$ you can not go wrong. I see about a 10% cpu usage increase with this card so I can't figure out why so many people claim this uses all the USB 2.0 bandwidth, perhaps they don't have the creative driver set to USB HIGH(USB 2.0) speed instead of the Full speed(1.1 USB). 5.1 works perfect and I havent had a proble yet...

Cons: I do wish the x-fi processing was done in the chip but with only a 10% cpu usage increase on my Centrino Duo(not core 2 duo) and a 60$ price tag I see no reason why any laptop user should NOT buy this card. It works perfect.

Other Thoughts: Buy this card if you want SPDIF or 5.1 on your laptop. It barely uses any cpu and it sounds terrific. I do believe most people that write reviews only write them because they are having problems so I felt the need to praise this product as I have not had any of the problems other people have complained. Download the most recent drivers from Creative and make sure the USB speed is set to HIGH speed(Not full speed).

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Aaron
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
9/28/2008 9:25:02 PM

Rating + 4 Great for the money


Pros: Beats Realtek. Probably no better than Sigmatel HD or C-Media, but it is portable, works on my desktop and my laptop PCs. Also supports EAX in games, which is nice.

Cons: Isn't really an X-Fi processor, and thus lacks some of the benefits. EQ clips when certain frequencies are set to higher values, which leads me to believe the EQ is processed in software.

Other Thoughts: Doesn't have support for DVD-Audio format playback. 3D audio enhancement, EQ and crystalizer are probably processed in software, but I haven't noticed a CPU hit because of it on my desktop or my laptop.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

Ken
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
9/25/2008 8:52:11 PM

Rating + 5


Pros: Easy to install, great sound, just works the way I need it to.

Cons: No toslink input but not much of a con.

Other Thoughts: Awesome sound card, use the optical out on it to my home theater receiver, sounds great, works great, looks great. Can't argue with that.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
9/18/2008 8:45:59 AM

Rating + 3 music only


Pros: has good sound, is not big and bolky like i thought it might be, looks pretty sexy.

Cons: really really bad lag. i have a blue ray reading on my lap top and a grafics card that will put out a pretty good pic with it but basic sound so i got this sound card so i could send an optical signal to a dolby 5.1 recever but the lag was so bad that i put it right back in the box and sent it back. i finaly found the express card type so im gana try that

Other Thoughts: MUSIC ONLY!!! listen to me im not a idiot. this is a music only card

0 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Josh
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
9/9/2008 7:16:33 AM

Rating + 4 USB?


Pros: great sound quality and RCA connection, decent equalizer settings and high sampling rate. Volume control on card. So far no notice of audio and video being outta sync.

Cons: Higher CPU usage then i'm use to. For some reason when using the volume control knob on the sound card the cpu usage shoots way up, no big deal though.

Other Thoughts: great deal for $60, I bought this to use with my laptop after my audigy 2Zs Notebook died. I used to play games and such so having a Express card was important because of the latency, but now i use my laptop for dj'ing small events and sound quality is the only important thing. The RCAs are big since i can connect directly to my amplifier with no preamp. As a gamer i would buy the Express card Xfi instead of this, but for the price this one works for me. By the way i'm using this to replace built in AC97 on board sound, this is a huge boost in quality, i've also compared it to my friends HD intel onboard audio, if though the hd intel is not a bad chipset, the xfi is defiantly a step up.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

Wojo
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
9/8/2008 1:58:52 PM

Rating + 5 Gets the Job Done


Pros: This sound card is simple to use and easy to install. The software doesn't take up a ton of space. I bought it to use a 5.1 speaker system that I have, to replace a PCMIA soundcard. It has done exactly what I need it to do so far.

Cons: The optical output is good, but in my situation I could use an optical input as well. I have a configuration with a laptop, monitor, and PS3. So in essence I have an optical output outputting to another output, and it doesn't work...

Other Thoughts: Great price, simple to install and perfect for any set of 5.1 speakers. I have a set of Logitech 5.1 speakers attached.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

Usually Dead
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
9/1/2008 1:59:45 PM

Rating + 4 Pretty Good


Pros: Most noteworthy of this device's many superlatives is its aesthetics. It's sleek and black and pretty. It perfectly matches the design of all my other computer parts, with the black casing and blue LED. Sound quality is acceptable, no less than I expect from Creative. The volume knob is excellent and wonderful and pretty much the whole reason I bought this thing. I also got some unexpected features. This card has not only line-in and microphone jacks (which I don't expect of a USB sound card), but its driver has an updated version of Creative's "what u hear" software recording device, which sounds very good.

Cons: Cons are as follows. It's a bit bulky compared to other USB sound cards, but not horribly so. The software CD comes with a lot of useless junk, so it takes some knowhow to pick and choose which of the installable components you actually want. Also, at least one other reviewer has complained of problems hooking this thing up to a powered USB hub. I had problems as well. During movie playback, the audio and video were badly off sync. Plugging the card into a direct USB port on my computer fixed this. Lastly, I have to assume cellular frequencies cause interference with this device. When I've had my cell phone on or near this sound card, I'll occasionally get pops, clicks and static in audio playback. This does not occur when my cell phone is nowhere near the card.

Other Thoughts: I purchased this thing because I wanted a simple desktop USB sound adapter with a hardware volume control. I didn't plan on using all the features, such as surround sound our the digital output. All I cared about was a device that I could plug my headphones into while reading, web browsing, watching videos or playing games, and I wanted to be able to adjust the volume without opening any OS applets or mucking with application settings. This device does give me that, and more. It was a good buy.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
7/28/2008 8:42:23 AM

Rating + 5


Pros: Excellent sound. Low CPU usuage. Ease of installation.
What more can I say?
I'm using this as a intermediary between my Creative 4.1 System. It has crisper/better sound now than with my onboard sound.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: FYI. My Specs are:
Amd Athlon 64 5000+ 2.6Ghz x 2
4gb of PC 6400 RAM
WD 160 SATA HDD
(It shows 0-2% CPU usage at IDLE)

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

oncuedj.com
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/30/2008 8:47:12 PM

Rating + 5 Works great!


Pros: Plug and play.... No problems. Sounds great! Good price.

Cons: None!

Other Thoughts: I'm a professional DJ and bought two of these for my rig. I bought one, tried it out.... and bought a second one.

I'm using them with VirtalDJ and they work perfectly. I can play one tune and cue the next with the headphones. As for the sound they kick "you know what". If you want quality sound go for them without hesitation.

22 out of 22 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Sonicxtacy02
Tech Level: high
Ownership: less than 1 day
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/19/2008 6:05:39 AM

Rating + 1 CPU Blaster.. x-fi edition


Pros: -Bus powered. No external power needed
-Simple setup. Plug in and Go
-Slightly improved sound quality from previous usb models
-Size and appearance

Cons: -HUGE CPU hog. Minimum requirements not nearly enough on lowest setting
-Not hibernation friendly in windows XP
-line-in/mic-in share the same line. Cant have both hooked up

Other Thoughts: I bought his item hoping to improve the sound quality from my usb live 24-bit card. This item does that... with more drawbacks than its worth. First, the cpu usage on this card is ridiculous. You would think the card is a full out DSP! CPU shot up to 98% once drivers were installed with no music playing. Even at the lowest settings 16bit and 48khz the cpu sat at 75%. Unacceptable. Next, the unit will not support hibernation. This BAFFLES me considering older model drivers work fine with hibernation. Lastly and pretty much the most frustrating aspect is the fact that there's not really 2 separate line-ins on this card, yes there's a line port and a mic port but u cannot have 2 things hooked up to them both as they both play through the same line on the mixer. That's pretty much a con in my eyes. I can justify the minimal expense with this many problems from the get go

4 out of 9 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Max
Tech Level: high
Ownership: less than 1 day
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/11/2008 5:02:26 PM

Rating + 4 Not bad, neither good.


Pros: It is a good step from an inboard 2.0 sound card. Since it is a X-fi card with many creative softwares and it is 5.1. Work as described and it looks nice too. The sound quality is good if you compare it to an inboard card, but it's not what I expected. It's great for 5.1 speakers on a laptop if you like movies and games. No problems with Vista so far.

Cons: It sound pretty much like my inboard card on my laptop using creative 2.0 speakers. Not a huge step in sound.

Other Thoughts: If you don't want to upgrade from 2.0 to 5.1 sound in your laptop save your money. Also if you have a desktop don't even think about this card, buy a pci card like the Xtreme Music or Xtreme gamer or other X-fi family.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

ek778
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/8/2008 8:15:21 AM

Rating + 1 A Poor Showing from Creative


Pros: Very easy setup, Just plug it into a USB port....and that's about it. Audio, when it works, is good.

Cons: High Power USB device, must be plugged directly into a USB port on the computer, NOT into a hub. Even if the hub is powered, it draws more current than it can support. Audio frequently crackles and pops, even during virtually no processor usage. Processor usage is typically around 25% (on an Intel Core 2 Duo T7250) just for playing music using this devce. Software is also fairly poor.

Other Thoughts: If you're a laptop user, get Creative's Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook. Much better performance all around. If you're a desktop user, use a PCI or PCI-X based card.

This is a really poor showing from Creative. It's as if they did not test it at all before shipping. I can't imagine I was the only one out there who would want to use this on a USB hub. Awful.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Josh
Tech Level: high
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
6/5/2008 5:27:52 PM

Rating + 4 Not for Vista


Pros: Sounds amazing! When you get this baby up and running correctly it will make your head explode! Offers a wide variety of X-fi technologies to make your music, movies, and games sound amazing. Definitally a huge step up from onboard sound. If you have a laptop or desktop with nice speakers/headphones, you owe it to your self to purchase this, or anything else in the X-fi lineup that suits your needs.

Cons: DOES NOT FUNCTION PROPERLY UNDER VISTA! I followed all of the instructions, updated all my drivers, and pluged this into a high speed USB port and I still had problems in vista. My music was always poping and crackling. But the worst problem I had was the sound would be slower that what was actually happening on my screen. I would be playing a game, and the sound would be a split second behind what I was seeing. I contacted Creative tech support and they fed me all this stuff about how it was my fault and my pc wasn't working proporly. But the real reason is that the current vista drivers are broken.

Other Thoughts: I bought this product so I could use it with both my desktop and laptop. I chose this over the xmod because it supports EAX Advanced HD for my games (gamers: this product only supports up to EAX Advanced HD 4.0, NOT 5.0). After I dual booted with win xp I had no problems. You may or may not have problems with this product if you are using vista. I might depend on your setup. But make sure you have xp just in case!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

N/A
Tech Level: average
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
5/30/2008 11:27:40 PM

Rating + 4


Pros: I have a Thinkpad T61p with Vmware running XP and Klipsch Ultra 5.1
In Windows Vista I hear a subtle "pop & cracks" in very short segments while I'm playing youtbe clips. Not a big issue.
Works great in my XP virtual machine. Clean sound with FLAC and mp3 formats. No hassle at all after a week playing movies and music..

Cons: A little of background noise in Vista.

Other Thoughts: I'm not an audiophile but I can say X-fi 5.1 USB has good quality sound. Not spectacular but decent.
I recently bought another external USB sound card and it was a big disappointment. Creative X-fi USB was my second chance for external sound cards and I think it's a cheap and decent solution..

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

joe3573
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: 1 day to 1 week
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/30/2008 8:56:26 AM

Rating + 5 Well not what I thought it was


Pros: Attractive. so easy to set up, a monkey could do it.
Inexpensive for sound card and there's where the problems begin.

Cons: All you get out of it, is sound in Vista 32bit.
Can't get any of the Enhancements to work.
Consoles don't work, says no sound card availible, or located. Removed and reinstalled software 3 times. No luck. Testing the speakers, only front left and right work in test. Run a video file they all work, but you can't tweak anything. Going to Dual Boot with XP and put in my old sound card, and run my games and movies in XP.
Can't even use the mixer. Not worth it till they fix something.

Other Thoughts: Just think I really wasted my money on this.
Not NewEggs fault, its Creatives fault.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Cabbagered
Tech Level: somewhat high
Ownership: less than 1 day
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/28/2008 1:50:43 PM

Rating + 2 Featureless


Pros: The unit is attractive and the volume/mute knob works well and a very convenient.

Cons: When something as standard as general SVM (smart volume management) is absent, things have clearly gone very wrong. Anyone who has played with a standard X-Fi will be appalled at how many features are missing (including existence of multiple modes). That my computer's built-in chip has software that offers more functionality than the X-Fi 5.1 speaks volumes about how bare-bones the piece of hardware is.

I am not sure who this product is made for, but unless Creative updates the 5.1's software to match the rest of the X-Fi line, I would strongly recomend looking for a different sound solution.

A huge dissapointment and money very poorly spent.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

PG13
Tech Level: high
Ownership: less than 1 day
This user purchased this item from Newegg
5/22/2008 11:02:57 PM

Rating + 5 Works Great


Pros: Works with VISTA!!!!! I had an older model that would not do anything with Vista. Was very easy to set up. Works great with my Logitech THX 5.1 speakers.

Cons: Well it didn't come out a few months ago when I needed it to?

Other Thoughts: Looks sleek blue light matchs rest of my system not that it would do most of you any good.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Filter Results     apply changes
     
NeweggBusiness
For Business Needs EggXpert.com
Newegg Community |NeweggMall.com
Shop Multiple Retailers 		Shop by Region: United States | Canada | China
VeriSignReseller RatingsReliability Seal1This site protected by Trustwave's Trusted Commerce programInc500
Policy & Agreement | Privacy Policy | NeweggBusiness | Newegg Canada  © 2000-2010 Newegg Inc.  All rights reserved.
If the Adobe Reader does not appear when you click on a link for a PDF file, you can download Adobe Reader from the Adobe web site. nassau