| Product: |
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum eX |
| Date: |
09/12/05 (495 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: great featues, can pick one up very cheap
Disadvantages: complicated installation, rubbish for recording
I bought the sound card about a year ago for £120, although now these things are pennies, with all the improved versions being released.
Minimum specs are:
· Processor: Genuine Intel® Pentium® II, Celeron 350MHZ, AMD-K6® 450MHz or faster
· Motherboard: Intel®, AMD® or 100% compatible
· System RAM: 64MB for Windows® 98SE and Me, 128MB for Windows 2000 SP2 and XP
· Hard Disk: 600MB free space
· Operating System: Windows 98SE, Me, 2000 SP2 or XP
· Available PCI 2.1 or higher compliant slot
· Available adjacent slot for Joystick/MIDI bracket (optional)
· Headphones or amplified speakers (available separately)
· CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive required for software installation
I will list the specs of the card:
Internal Soundcard:
· Line level out (Front / Rear / Centre / Subwoofer /Rear Centre)
· AD_LINK 1 and AD_LINK 2 connectors
· Power connector
· 15-pin MIDI / Joystick port extension header
External box:
· Line In 2 (1/4" Stereo Jack)
· Line In 3 (2xRCA Jack)
· Optical SPDIF In/Out
· Coaxial SPDIF In/Out
· Digital Out for 5.1 support (6-channel SPDIF Output to Creative digital speakers)
· 2xSB1394 / FireWire ports
· MIDI In / Out
It comes with a wireless remote control and a huge software bundle including music-making software such as Sonic Foundry Acid DJ 2.0, Steinberg Cubasis VST, and Image-Line Fruity Loops.
Ok, so when it came i opened the instruction manual where it told me how to install and set up the device. Now i am no computer expert, but i am not exactly clueless, i have done things like this before. But the instalation was very complicated, and took a lot of time to do. The internal sound card goes in a available PCI slot, and the external is connected to the internal and can go anywhere you want (providing the cable stretches that far!!)
After finally installing the device, i logged on the normal message
''Windows has found new hardware'' came up and i was prompted to insert the driver CD. After finishing the installation i started using it. The first thing i noticed was the sound quality was slightly buzzy at first i thought this was a speaker problem, but the speakers i have are new and when i tested them on another computer there was no problem.
This annoyed me, but i soon got over it by increasing the volume (which seemed to lower the buzzing sound). I don't know if this is a problem with my computer, or one which comes with all the cards. I doubt it would be with the soundcard, or they would have taken it off the shelves by now!
I tried recording guitar through the line in, but the latency was terrible and to be honest it sounded crap, so i gave up with that!
The midi connections worked fine when i hooked up our keyboard, and this was also helped by the external box being in a convinient place (as opposed to having to crawl under my desk and fiddle around with the internal soundcard!!)
The headphone socket worked find, and the volume control on the external box came in handy, as my headphones don't have inline volume control!!
I also connected our video camera up, and this worked very well, as i have had difficulty doing it before, and finally i was able to upload all the movies we have taken on holidays!!
The remote is also very handy, the only problem i would say is the battery life is VERY short for a remote, after a week of having new batteries inserted they would run out. Remotes i have had have always lasted months without needing new batteries, and this was very strange for one to be needing new batteries every week or two!!
I never tried out much of the included music making software, but the software that allows you to control the sound card itself was very easy to use and layed out excellently, so nothing worng there.
I never had chance to use the other features, but i have no reason to suspect they would not work.
Overall, this is an excellent card, and as you can pick up these for next to nothing now (try eBay) i would reccomend it to anyone looking for a cheap upgrade to their existing soundcard.
It has great features, and lots of useful bundled software, it is also very easy to use (once you are past the installation that is!!), and the external box is very handy for connecting all your devices.
However, if you are after something to record music, then stay clear, this is not designed for music recording, and you would be much better off with a sound card specifically designed for recording.
If you have no computer experience, i would also recommend getting someone who knows what they are doing to install it for you, as it can be quite tricky and complicated, especially if you already have a soundcard in a PCI sockets, as this adds the hassle of uninstalling that one.
Summary: Excellent soundcard if your after a cheap upgrade, not for recording
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