Creative 30SB10420000 Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI-E OEM Sound Card

Title : Creative 30SB10420000 Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI-E OEM Sound Card
ASIN : B001UJM5FI
Description : - Full height Windows Vista compliant PCI Express card for the latest desktop PCs. - X-Fi 24-bit Crystalizer restores the details and vibrancy lost during audio compression, enhancing MP3/WMA music, DivX movies, TV and radio. - X-Fi CMSS-3D Surround up-mixes MP3 audio to 5.1 or 7.1 surround. X-Fi CMSS-3D Headphone delivers incredible surround sound for movies and music over stereo headphones. - Free download of Cyberlink's PowerDVD software with DTS® and Dolby Digital®-EX decoding for the ultimate in DVD movies. Enjoy immersive gaming over headphones with OpenAL and EAX 4.0 support. - Entertainment Console gives easy setup and control. - Comprehensive connectivity includes an integrated digital optical input and output.
Features :

• 1 year warranty

List Price : £44.99
Price : £36.11
Saved Price : £8.88

category: Internal Sound Cards
brand: Creative Labs
Item Page Detail URL : link
Rating : 3.8
Review : Bug ridden mess
I bought this as I needed better sound than my on board sound from my new motherboard.
Modern boards seem to have adopted PCI- express as their main method of adding sound, graphics and wireless cards.

Sadly PCI-ex seems ridden with bugs.
Search the net on this card and you will see reports of pops, bangs and poor sound .
I couldnt get it to work with my CD/DVD player at all , the sound being worse than an old 78 record.
I did eventually get it to play mp3`s, but the minute you did anything else such as click a web page when mp3`s were playing, it started to pop and bang.
Uninstalling drivers , and reinstalling made no difference.
It seems my mobo is one of the many modern boards that just dont work with this card.

In the end I freed up the one PCI slot and inserted my near decade old Audigy S2 card [liberated from the loft]
You know what?

It sounded fantastic and worked perfectly with no issues.

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