Creative Sound Blaster Live!

Advantages Great quality sound, cheap
Disadvantages None whatsoever

...I was in the hunt for a new sound card and picked up this Sound blaster 'Live' by Creative from PC world for just £35. The sound blaster Live is powered by the EMU10K1 digital signal processor which means you get very high sound quality without losing any of the power of your PC which other sound cards and onboard sound chips may take away as they require your PC's processor to power the sound, this ofcourse is great news for gamers who need all the spare power they can get in order to obtain maximum framerates. The Creative sound blaster Live 5.1 has the ability to connect to dolby digital and multi-channel digital speaker systems and provides an awesome quality of surround sound in all its glory through 5.1 (providing you have surround sound speakers ofcourse) so you can experience movies via your PC as tho you were in a cinema... Read review

Advantages does the job, if you can get replacement drivers
Disadvantages Chances of getting model number sb0220 too great

...I have this card, and to be honest it works, just. However, getting it to work at all after having lost the driver CD is a nightmare. You see, I have a Sound Blaster 5.1 Live! that has the model number sb0220 - the model number designated to OEM versions of the card. Having this model number, I was able to experience the complete lack of support (documentation, drivers, the lot) from creative labs for this card. It is the first time that I have ever experienced a company's total disregard for one of its products. Since my OEM card came from Eclipse Computers, I can't download any replacements. Also, I suffer the (common) problem with this card of the rear speakers not working particularly well with this card. Having bodged the drivers into working by taking a file from one download of Creative drivers and a file from a different... Read review

Advantages Superb value for money, easy to fit. Awesome sound quality. Great , plentiful software.
Disadvantages None whatsoever.

...Recently, after the success of the Creative Audigy card I bought little over a month ago, decided to buy another card for a friends computer, after boasting the brilliant improvement in sound quality and the myriad of features that ship with the Creative family of sound cards. Intro I bought the card at a computer fair for 17.99 it was the Sound Blaster Live! 24 Bit model, its box was much similar to my other soundcard, the Audigy, bright orange, black, with a picture of the soundcard next to its respective logo. It looked pretty cool, if a little smaller than the Audigy model. So it was settled, I took it to my friends and swiftly began installing it inside his PC. Before we began, we went to the BIOS menu and set the motherboards automatic audio as : Disabled instead of Auto. (This prevents any mix up between the mobo... Read review