Creative Technology Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Fatal1ty™

Pros: Purdy I/O Drive, breath-taking gaming, gorgeous music, exciting movies, stunning headphone quality

Cons: BIG software, ugly I/O data cable, no application detection for automatically switching listening modes

The Bottom Line: If you've got the money for this card plus a set of quality speakers, this is going to be the best thing your ears have heard at home.

Review: Most of my life, I have been primarily a notebook computer user. Being a laptop user, I had grown extremely accustomed to the sound quality of an integrated sound processor. So when I finally decided to take the plunge and build a gaming desktop ...

Pros: Rich sound quality.. Tech support.. dedicated built-in 64mgs memory. Quality, Quality,. Quality

Cons: none

The Bottom Line: This is not a part of your system you want to cheat yourself; even if you cannot spend on the models of X-Fi with the memory.

Review: When you want the best sound quality there is simply nothing to compare this card to. Quality of the card and software update support is second to none. I have made the mistake of buying other manufacturer cards before only to throw them in the trash ...

Pros: Many features that work as advertised, hardware acceleration, sounds great

Cons: Problems with certain games, skeptical 24-bit Crystallizer effect, requires install of applications

The Bottom Line: Until Creative resolve issues, jumping on the X-Fi bandwagon can be a risky proposition.

Review: Creative Labs is the defacto standard for PC audio since the early 90s. Even when competitors came, Creative Lab's Sound Blaster line of sound cards wins by default because most games will work predictably with them. Thanks to Windows 95, that changed. ...