Creative Labs SB Live! Player 5.1 Sound Card

Amazon Customer Reviews

(2 out of 5)

I heard it was OK but...............

With motherboards that have the VIA chipsets it can be, and was in my case, an absolute nightmare. I have an Abit K7A-Raid mobo with a AMD 1.2 GHz processor and a ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon graphics card. The 5.1 Player caused the system to be completely unstable. It could be because of a conflict with the graphics card or, more likely, with the VIA chipset(s). Basically without the right equipment it's almost impossible to be certain. I get the impression that the problems don't apply to Pentium systems. So this seems to indicate that the motherboard (which uses VIA chips) was the cause of the problem. To cut this boring story short, buy this soundcard at your own risk if you have a AMD based PC. You could be buying a lemon. I did because I'm now looking for another soundcard as I had to remove the 5.1 Player to get my PC to work!

(1 out of 5)

AMD system? Don't bother with this then...

If you have VIA chipset motherboard In my case a K7S5A then these things are a nightmare to install, it destabilised my entire system and caused numerous crashes at most inconvenient moments. So if you have an AMD system I would suggest looking elsewhere for your sounds.

(5 out of 5)

Great sound at great price

This is a must buy for music lovers or gamers at a great affordable price. The Digital surround sound is superube if you go the extra mile and get a surround sound speakers. Immersing your self in music listening or editing or hearing foot steps from behind while playing half life. playing quake with this real sound is not for the faint hearted.

(3 out of 5)

Fantastic

This card is the most amazing peice of kit you can get for the money. If running Windows 98 or "Me" you cannot go wrong. If you are building a new system or upgrading your sound setup this is the card for you. The 4 speaker setup is brilliant for games and the onboard sound processor generates amazing effects. Fantasic value for money. (If running Win2K check compatiblity, I did have a few problems)

(5 out of 5)

Excellent sound card and compatibility.

I have been using this sound card, originally on a Pentium PC running Windows ME, then on an AMD machine I built, using the K7S5A motherboard with VIA chipset, and have NEVER suffered ANY compatability issues. Creative's web-site support section is 100% helpful and once, when I had to return a faulty component (a graphics card) under the 2 year warranty, the replacement arrived before I'd even posted the faulty part. Aftersales service is unbeatable, sound card is excellent.