The sound from the card is just fine. I don't really see much of a difference between this card and my original onboard AC97 engine but I spent the money so I'll keep it. Maybe a new set of speaks will help.

An effective basic soundcard (Rating: 5.00)
Review : I keep a lot of computer equipment at home, due to the fact that I am an A+ technician working to complete my MCSE (microsoft certified systems engineer) credentials. I bought a pre-owned computer from ebay last month in order to practice setting up computer networks at home. This particular computer is a business-class desktop, designed more for the office environment rather than the typical entertainment PC that we would normally have at home. I decided to add DVD capability to this system, in order to enjoy a movie at my work desk whenever the mood strikes me to take a break from work (which happens quite frequently). I added a Sony DVD player, this particular Soundblaster soundcard, and a pair of Cambridge Soundworks speakers. Within thirty minutes, I was watching The Lord of Rings.

Now, about the Soundblaster. This is a very good Soundcard for its intended purpose. Which is to provide basic sound functionality to a desktop computer. The sound quality is good enough to enjoy listening to stereo sounds from music CDs and DVDs. But please, do not expect this card to provide you with theatre-like surround sound quality. This is definitely the wrong price range if you need that kind of quality.

I compared the sound quality of this office system to my primary home system. My home system is a Dell Dimension 8200, with a Turtle Beach Soundcard and the Altec Lansing surround system. I switched the mode of operation of the Altec Lansings from surround to stereo for comparison purposes between the two systems. Subjectively, you can definitely tell the difference between the two.

I can recommend this Soundblaster to anyone who is simply looking to add stereo sound to his or her desktop computer. It is inexpensive and easy to install. It will require the use of one of your PCI slots. For your information, I installed this card on an IBM 300PL desktop PC. The system has a Pentium III processor and 128 MB of RAM. It is running an evaluation copy of Windows 2000 Advanced Server. The DVD player is a Sony DDU1621 and the Monitor is a KDS 17 inch flat screen CRT. If you are interested, I wrote reviews on the KDS monitor and the Sony DVD player, here at Amazon.

Easy to Use, Almost everything you could want (Rating: 5.00)
Review : This sound card doesn't reproduce MP3 or WAV files any differently than a more expensive card would. Creative Labs has always made great cards and drivers. The only thing this card doesn't give you that the more expensive card do is the 3d sound effects when playing video games, and true Dolby 5.1 for DVD playback. However, I doubt many people are setup for this situation, and many people do not watch DVD's or play games. If this is you, this card is perfect for you. If you are a gamer then this card will work perfectly fine. I personally find the 3d effects annoying, and prefer to play on a card like this. I highly recomend this card.

Drivers are unreliable (Rating: 2.00)
Review : I installed this card in a new home built computer. When I got Windows XP installed the sound came on and sounded fine with the generic drivers provided by Windows XP. I then proceeded to install the drivers that came with the sound card. After installing the Creative drivers I discovered the sound on some of my games was distorted. I rolled back the drivers to the generic XP drivers and the sounds returned to normal. The only problem is I have no access to the advanced features in the audio control panel. I can adjust volume control but I have no way to adjust the treble or bass or other effects. If I reinstall the Creative drivers those functions return but then so does the distortion.

Terrible performance! No way to uninstall! (Rating: 1.00)
Review : Even though this is a very low end card, I expected performance at least on par with the integrated sound. Unfortunately, I was disappointed to find that the sound stuttered badly, especially in games and during playback with Windows Media Player. I wasn't upset, however, until I tried to uninstall the drivers (for the purpose of installing my higher end sound card), when I discovered that all uninstall efforts crashed my computer. I have tried to uninstall several different ways (with the help of 2 different Creative technical support folks and the Creative knowledge base), and the drivers are STILL installed! Needless to say, if I ever get these drivers off, I will be purchasing a sound card from a different manufacturer.

not bad (Rating: 3.00)
Review : basic entry level card. has mic/line-in ...and sterio out. good value if you ask me...