Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card

Pros: Has 64-bit drivers! A lot of games take advantage of the EAX features. Battlefield 2 takes advantage of the onboard RAM of this card. Lot of great features.

Cons: Has been known to conflict with some onboard RAID cards, like the Sil-3114. You can Google this and find more info. Sound will start getting choppy because of IRQ conflicts.

Overall Review: I'm not a recording artist, so can't judge it that way, although I have hooked up a digital keyboard to it, and the custom sound fonts make it a great experience to use. Great for playing games as well, makes you feel like you're in the action.

Pros: Great PC sound, easy install.

Cons: Volume control does not work with Creative's Gigaworks/Megaworks speakers. Dolby Digital/DTS decoding lags a lot! Expensive for the features it provides. Very poor customer service.

Overall Review: I typically do a lot of research before I buy components and I did before I bought this sound card, however, there were several things I didn't even think about asking. I assumed that because this was top-of-the-line, it would be stable and well supported. I was wrong. I read the entire manual before installing this and followed it to the T. I hooked up my PS3 via the optical input and fired it up. What I got was great 5.1 sound with a lag of about a half second. This may seem un-noticable, but believe me it is ANNOYING! I then attempted to hook up my HDTV via the same optical input with the same result. I contacted customer service via email, and received various responses as to how I could connect devices via optical input. They have still not addressed my issue. I posted a reply to a few topics in Creative's discussion forum, with no avail. Many people have the same lag issue. Feel free to search the forums. This product should only be bought if you plan on recording!