Very confused with SoundBlaster cards...

[Psylocke]

There are soo many different types of creative lab's sb cards. i read most of the user reviews on the site and now i dont know which one to pick.
initially i was going to get an SB Live or SB Live Value (if there is a difference) but the cards got some real bad reviews and some real good ones.

some one help me...

i dont want the card for midis. mp3/cd/gaming and that is it and i dont want any junk on my HDD.

[NDC]

Look here to find out the difference between the two cards, live & value.
http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/007809.html

If you aren't going to do much with Your sound card , just get soundblaster value. If you don't do recordings from external devices frequently, I don't think you will need the 5.25" bay module that Live comes with for easy accessibilty and the extra input interface. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif


[This message has been edited by NDC (edited 09-22-2000).]

[Warthog]

I have the SB Live. I heard MANY good things about it from Sysopt members before I got it. The card kicks buthole http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif.

Warthog

[SuperHappyFunMan]

The Sb Live is the best card(well pretty much the only card) on the market, whoever gave it a bad review must be the one who liked Daikatana!

[Gutter Ball]

Yep, can't go wrong with the SB Live Value! I like it plenty and just bought one for my gf's computer too!

[Speed]

Sound Blaster Value is what I have, and I have no complaints whatsoever, with gaming it kicks ***, and with MP3 it sounds great. What could you have heard that is so bad about this card?

[Psylocke]

From the user reviews on this site some people complained about the garbage software that comes with the hardware and how it ate up the resources. also some other complained about their registries being packed with sb's useless errrr stuff. i had to consider these bad reviews because it wasn't just 1 person, it was a couple.

ummm what do you mean external recording??

how much is the live?? w/o the value.

and there are a whole lot of other sb cards. like sb pci1058 (whatever it is) and sbpci510. blah blah blah

btw is sb live and sb live value a pci card??

[This message has been edited by Psylocke (edited 09-23-2000).]

[SirFrank]

Heres some info that might help.
http://www.bway.net/~rongon/home_rec/soundcard.html http://www.digitalexperience.com/cards.html

SirFrank

[Ygor]

Yes, they are both pci cards. The top-end sb-live cards may still come with a daughter card but that doesn't appear to be your interest.
As for prices, I use www.pricewatch.com. (http://www.pricewatch.com.) You can link back to Creative from there to see what they say the differences are.

[Psylocke]

i just dont want to spend money on stuff that i dont want, such as the software.
i will most likely buy an OEM version of the card because i dont like paying for software heh.

what i would like to know is...
what exactly do those SP DIF connectors do and are daughter cards really necessary in my case?

[Psylocke]

How about the diamond mx300 or 400??

[Win_98]

The oem version usually much cheaper by at least 40-50 percent so you save BIG without the fancy boxes and extra software.

[Psylocke]

i was going to buy the OEM version of sb live value and mx300 in the first place.

i dont want to pay for all that junk.

do the oem versions come with that connector?
noone has told me what it is for yet.

[canit]

I have a Diamond mx400, sounds good, works with all my software and other hardware. The soundblaster is probably the most compatable souncard made, I just wanted to have a coaxial digital conection to connect to my pre/pro(reciever etc) for multi-channel(DD,DTS etc)sound. The digital output also allows you a direct connection without any D/A then A/D conversion.

[Undertow]

If it's not a SBLive, it's out of date. SBLive is still Creative's latest and greatest. As far as the difference with Value, it's only software/accessories. SBLive, Value, X-Gamer, and Platinum all have the EXACT same card, the only difference is the accessories and software (such as the LiveDrive). I have a SBLive Value with Altec Lansing 5 piece surround sound speaker system and am extremely happy with it.

-Undertow

[Ygor]

The spdif connector is for straight digital input from your cdrom.
Yes, it is on all versions of the sb live.
You'll need to look for a cable to connect to your cdrom as that won't come with the card.The cable should be about $1.00, maybe less.
OEM versions have a much shorter warranty, but that should not be a problem.