Pros: I hopefully can write this review to help those of you decided whether or not to upgrade. I have owned the Audigy 2, XtremeMusic, XtremeGamer Fatal1ty, and now the Titanium. If you own the first two, and you care about premium sound, UPGRADE! I upgraded for the separated mic port, the Digital Dolby Live, and the PCI-E. If you get the "crackle" from a crummy bus system (like the ASUS P5B Deluxe), UPGRADE. This card helps alot. However, PCI-E was an improvement for my system, IT MAY NOT BE FOR YOURS. If you like the idea of a Digital signal encoded in real time, DDL does that! I have a 25' optical cable and it works beautifully. I own the Z5500's and while I have a tuned ear, the average person would still be able to tell the better utilization of the center channel and the rest of the speakers. The software and drivers are better, but still room for improvement (see below). The Auto Mode Switcher is great! The Default mode changes based on your preferences to game or program.

Cons: I tried to strip the drivers before I installed the new card to get a fresh start, but I may have done it wrong, but the card’s software was not fully functional. I had to format:( As other reviews have stated, there is no mic boost yet, but I have only had problems with that off and on. I do voice chat with my friends on Xfire, and sometimes I am crystal clear, other times I am really soft. However, probably 80% of the time I have been fine. But creative….Get a driver for a mic boost:) Lastly, with battlefield 2142, the sound card is not recognized right away. I have to redo the sound settings every time I run the game. When I do that, it says that I don’t have the hardware for the settings. However, to get around it, I still program the settings that I want, then I find a full server, try to enter it, when I get the “full” screen, the sound comes back. I have tried in both Entertainment and Game Mode, yet it still doesn’t comply. If there weren’t any cons, it’d be 5 eggs.

Overall Review: Hopefully this review helps you; I may post a video review to do an in-depth look at the card. I think the card is great. Like I said above, anyone will hear a drastic improvement from the Audigy or XtremeMusic, but the other cards not as much. If you want the DDL, a separated mic port, Optical In and Out, Front Audio and Mic capabilities, improved (but not perfect) drivers, the auto mode switchers, a 4th input for your 7.1 speakers (yep it has another line for that), and you think its worth the extra money. DO IT! I demand premium sound and I will pay the price for it. It makes you feel like you are more in the game. However, I want to emphasize that this card has THE EXACT SAME technology in it as the Fatal1ty Xtreme Gamer (except for the DDL). If you don’t’ believe me, go to creative site and pull up the specs of both cards on two separate tabs and see for yourself. Newegg’s specs are a bit skewed. So the other factors have to persuade you.

Pros: Very nice sounding card. Beautifully put together. Nice bling in lit X-Fi logo. Saved a x16 PCIe slot since the card works in a X1 PCI slot.

Cons: Installation instructions need some work since it appears that many of us had problems installing the drivers in Vista 64 machines. Here's how I got it to work - finally...

Overall Review: Don't use the included disk unless you've never had a sound card before this one installed in your machine. Go to Creative.com to download latest drivers and application files. Uninstall all previous sound drivers from your computer, especially if you had a previous Creative card. I had to use PC Tools to get rid of a particularly troublesome Creative tools file. Go into bios and DISABLE the Microsoft default sound drivers. Don't uninstall because those drivers will reinstall themselves as the default sound controller before you can install the X-Fi drivers. You need three files - The driver, the console launcher, and probably the Alchemy file for full functionality. As of 8 September they are named (in order) Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Pack 2.17.0004, Creative Console Launcher 2.60.29, and Creative ALchemy 1.20.04.Install them in that order and you won't have to install them twice like others have had to do. Good listening...kris

Pros: I've been using a Sound Blaster Audigy II Platinum for years now, and it is still going strong. However, having built a new system with PCI-X in it, I was forced to part with my old card. I was happy to see that the new card is much smaller and more attractively packaged. I'm using Vista 64-bit, so I was afraid there would be driver issues, but Creative seems to have finally resolved that situation. Installation of both hardware and drivers was a breeze, and although it wasn't explicit in the sound card documentation, I was able to easily connect the front panel audio on my case to the card. I'm not an audiophile, so I can't dissect the sound performance, except to say that it sounds great in games and when playing music, and I really have no complaints.

Cons: The card is quite pricey, but given the longevity of my last sound blaster card I just try to consider it a long-term investment that should last through any sound system and computer upgrades that I might do.

Pros: It works well once you get the drivers installed. Sound quality is good, the analog-out connector (which is really intended for Creative's own front-panel device) seems to work fine with a standard Azalia connector (see "other thoughts), and performance is good. I haven't tried it with Vista/Server 2008, but it works well with XP x64 once you get it installed.

Cons: As others have noted, the black cover that surrounds the card doesn't play nicely with the card retainers in some screwless cases. Of course, since the PCIe slot is so short and tends to fit pretty loosely anyway, it's better to screw this card in. The drivers work, but installation is flaky. On my Windows XP x64 system, I had to manually run the driver installer from the CD; re-running the main installer for all the software didn't really work. The driver CD comes with too much stuff, and the default driver installation is huge. However, the minimal driver install isn't so bad. At the time of this writing, drivers are not available through Creative's web site, so you'd better hope you never lose the disc. The indicators on the back of the card should be a little clearer with regard to which connector goes to which set of speakers. It took me a while to figure out which mini-plug needed to go into which jack for my 4.1 setup.

Overall Review: The front panel connector also works with the standard Azalia plug that most cases these days use. There are two connectors--one digital and one analog. The analog connector is twice the width of the Azalia plug. The right side of the analog connector (that is, the side closest to the motherboard) will accept the Azalia connector, and headphone detection seems to work just fine that way.

Pros: * Great sound quality. Tested it against realtek AC888's digital audio and this is better, but not by a lot. You can hear things you wouldn't hear with onboard. Things like auto-CMSS (upmixes only when needed I think), the crystalizer, and EAX 5 (although almost defunct in Vista without ALchemy) make it even better although the above are just post-processes. If you have a 5.1 or 7.1 with optical out and a Dolby Digital decoder, this card might be a good card to consider. * PCI express. * Small compared to your other PCI express cards!

Cons: * What U Hear and Stereo Mix do not exist on this card. No, you can't "show hidden/disabled devices", It's just not supported. Do NOT get this card if you want to record sound coming from your computer. Whenever I need to record from my computer I need to plug in to my motherboard's AC888 sound. You have been warned. * Windows and anything not coming from DirectSound is often screechy and sounds horrid. * Absolutely terrible support. If your card doesn't work or breaks, just try to get a refund from newegg as you will never get it resolved. * The resources saved by off-loading sound to this card are completely unnoticeable. Maybe years and years ago when we all had Pentium 2's and 3's would it be noticeable. If you plan on getting this card to make your computer run faster, you are going to be sadly disappointed.

Overall Review: Creative, this is the last sound card I get from you. Disabling What U Hear is a down-right STUPID move and severely cripples innocent people. If you are a gamer, don't mind Windows sounding like a screeching monkey, and you don't mind never being able to record anything properly with FRAPS, ZD Soft, gamecam, etc., you can go ahead and try your luck with this card.

Pros: * Better than on-board audio. * Allowed enabling of sound in City of Heroes without FPS reduction. * Does not require external power like the PCI versions of X-Fi cards.

Cons: * Little adoption of X-RAM support. * Hefty price for few extras. * No bundled game to show off X-RAM's usefullness. * Creative ALchemy tends to crash games on exit instead of normal closing. * Driver structure for Vista does not allow for 3D/surround sound. * Bundled software includes few utilities that normal users will find useful.

Overall Review: Really, there are limited options for people that want better than on-board audio. Creative has written horrible drivers for Vista since launch were interferance in the form of crackling seeped through. Creative removed 3D/Surround support for X-Fi in Vista. When someone modified the release drivers to fix the issues a cease and desist was issued instead of hiring him. I should have spoken with my money and not purchased this, but my on-board audio was sub-par and I was tired of my PCI X-Fi board crackling with every application. This still occurs with the PCI-Express card, but switching audio modes fixes it temporarily.

Pros: "What U Hear" works with beta drivers.

Cons: "What U Hear" only works with beta drivers. Creative is needlessly making tons of people mad.

Overall Review: This was a follow up to my previous review. If you can't see What U Hear in your recording devices, get the beta driver from the Creative website. Hopefully in the near-future they will fix the stuttering / skipping problem on sound not coming from DirectSound (usually the Windows OS). There is a work around for this but involves changing your PCI latency.

Pros: I am running Logitech Z-5300 speakers which sounded great with my onboard audio. But I always had trouble great a crisp clarity out of them. The bass would always seem to drown out everything else in bass-heavy audio. Now with this awesome sound card everything sounds absolutely clear, and I can find a great balance between the bass and everything else. I feel very satisfied with this purchase

Cons: Included software needs to be refined!

Overall Review: The design is sleek, so if you're one of those that loves for the inside of their system to look stylish, this card will definitely satisfy you. It seems to me that the main concern with a getting a sound card is hardware compatibility and driver issues. So I'll confirm that it works on Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit with no installation issues.