Rating: 
Summary: This card sucks
Review: Don't waste your money, this card sucks no matter what angle you look at it from. My major problem was...well lets see it's probably the fact that after a week of usage i baught a new mother board cause my other one was broken. And low and behold with my luck I transfer the sound card and i start up the computer install windows and it don't work. It tells me it's not there even though it is, i've tried it in all my PCI slots and even in some other computers and it's just broken. So i turned to the tech support and they didn't help one bit, they gave me stupid reasons and obvious things that I already did and checked. It's like they know absoloutly nothing about computers over there. They tell me to change slots and make sure it's plugged in all the way, things any computer user would check and do first. I mean tech support is supposed to help you with things that are really messed up, not give you easy answers anyone would have tried right away. So in conclusion I say this card is poor quality and the sound ain't that great in the first place, SAVE YOUR MONEY!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Card
Review: Excellent Card-In response to the noise problem with SB! Live Cards in my experience I've found it to be related to video cards... but that could just be coincidence. It could be any random thing I guess.... My card works fine no crackles..
Rating:
Summary: No 5.1
Review: Horrible card. Standard drivers either have horrible static or only work in 2 of my 6 speakers. Horrible, horrible, horrible experience overall.
Rating: 
Summary: its working
Review: I bought one to just see if it would sound better than the standard mac sound. It seems to be, from what ive done with it so far. I also wanted to have an extra input to record with but I havent tried using that yet.
I gave it two stars because its been crashing pretty often. Maybe more so after I updated the driver. Nothing for os x. Anyway its about as good as can be expected for the price.
Rating: 
Summary: No troubles
Review: I brought this card last year when I was setting up my new system to run Linux, and so far I haven't had a bit of trouble from this baby. Great sound, no complaints.
Rating:
Summary: game sound good, the rest is bad
Review: i got this card because my game sounds were lacking. the computer somehow fixed the problem by itself, but the card was on its way so when it came, i put it in anyway. the game sound was pretty much the same, but every time i listen to a song, regardless of how many patches and updates i pump into this stupid thing, the song skips, not only once but many times, and for prolonged amounts of time. this really gets on your nerves if you like hearing sound out of your computer. im pulling this thing out of my computer and going back to the onboard sound chip. this thing was junk.
Rating:
Summary: Grat all-around card
Review: I got this card to go with my Creative 5.1 speaker system (5200). This card is great! I can hear no crackles or extra noise. If you are going to use yours with DVD's than this is the card for you. It takes you right into the action especialy with movies that are 5.1 compatible. Games sound great. I especily like playing around with the included software. It comes with Creative play center but you don't have to use it (I use WMP). The only thing i don't like about the SB Live! 5.1 is I can't get the center channal to work, mabey i just don't have it set-up right. If you have the $ You should upgrade to the Audigy series. but the SB is still good all-around.
Rating:
Summary: Great Card
Review: I have had this card for 5 months and the sound is great. i use it with the logitech z560 4.1 speakers and Windows Xp. it has not crashed once and it did not give me trouble installing it. for you people who says it keep crashing, that is what you get for buying a mac.
Rating:
Summary: I let my daughter install the card.
Review: I've read the poor reviews for this soundcard. However, I thought for the price of this card (30 bucks), I'd give it a try.
In other Amazon posts I've said, "When all else fails read the directions," and this installation is no different. I went through the installation procedure with my 12-year-old daughter. I did help her with lining up the card on the board, but after that we turned on the machine and booted into XP (we put the Sound Blaster installation CD into the CD drive before Windows fully loaded). The system found the card immediately and pulled the driver from the CD.
She said, "Is that it?" I said, "I believe so," and yep it sure was. Now we have pure, crystal clear surround sound from a thirty dollar card!! I also do not have any hissing or cracking noises out of the speakers others mentioned.
The Sound Blaster Live! CD also lets you install apps that work with the card and they were just as easy to install, but I did not install all of the apps.
Now I am not saying you will not have any problem (how would I know that?) as I have had some Creative issues with some other products, but I have always gotten around them.
Some tips:
1. If you are going to purchase this card online goto the Creative website and do some research. (e.g. is the card compatible with your Operating System? do you have any available PCI slots, how much memory does it require? THE BASICS!). Otherwise, just goto your friendly neighborhood office supply store and read the specs there (and be careful when the friendly clerk wants to give you a lesson in sound cards, you'll pay more in the end).
2. Consider which other devices you may wish to connect to the soundcard e.g. a mini disc player, microphone, etc.
3. Consider whether you need a full or half-duplex card. Full-duplex cards can record and play back sounds, while half-duplex cards can do one or the other, but not at the same time.
4. If you have onboard sound on your current computer, don't forget to disable that before you go installing this card or for that matter, any sound card.
Hopefully, if you do choose this card, it will work as seamlessly as it did for my daughter. Maybe she'll turn into a computer geek yet.
Rating:
Summary: Problems with motherboards with VIA chipset
Review: It seems that this is a real problem. This card doesn't work with most VIA chipsets (that means AMD processors). My computer freeze often and only the reset button is available :).
I tryed all the drivers found on Internet. The results are negative. So, there is anybody who wants to buy a lazy soundblaster? I think this is the worst soundblaster I had.
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