best sound card?

[Lawther]

im building my own system and looking for a decent sound card, i was looking at a sould blaster live! or a sound blaster x-gamer, or a sound blaster platinum, and i am wondering is it worth all that much to go for the gamer or platinum?

[RJ]

Hello Lawther,

the SBLive! series are all the same cards (sound chip EMU10K1).
The X-Games has a few games bundled, and the Platinum comes with LiveDrive, that's extra hardware with many audio connections.

The only thing I don't know if there's a hardware difference between the old SBLive! Player 1024 and the new SBLive! Player 5.1 (which supports Dolby Digital 5.1). Since it's the same price I'd get the 5.1.

RJ

[Xayd]

They all use the same processor, just different extras and software bundles. The X Gamer 5.1 has a few enhancements here and there to positional surround sound, the platinum has that cool drive bay thing, etc. So would an X Gamer sound better than a Live Value with 3D surround turned on in a game? Yes, slightly, if you have very very good speakers and very very trained ears.

The Live Value is a great card, though, I run one now and have great sound from it.

Xayd

[Lawther]

thanks that x-gamer crap was confusing me.... what exactly is this 'drive' you all talk about?

[RJ]

It's a device which is installed in a normal 5 1/4 bay, together with cdrom/dvd drives. Right, just in front of the case.
It's connected to the SBLive! (to every sb live, just with the platinum one it's bundled), offering you different audio outputs.

Just look here:
http://www.soundblaster.com/accessories/livedrive/

RJ

[Floppyman]

I guess the original SB Live Platinum came with the original live drive, but the newer Platinum 5.1 comes with the new Live Drive II which has a couple new features. I'm looking on getting one this summer, definetely not a bad deal nowadays. Last I checked they ran around $160.