Creative Labs Sound Blaster ZX PCIe Soundcard

Gamers serious about their game audio should consider lining up the Creative Sound Blaster Z and Zx sound cards on their list of upgrades.

My background: I've had an Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 for the longest time. Being a legacy PCI card, I was stuck using my GPU in the 2nd PCI-E slot which lead to degraded performance (albeith very little), but more importantly higher temps.

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  -Works as intended, -Has DTS encoding which I wanted, -Uses PCI-express, -External module for Headphones

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  -Expensive, -External module loss of quality (apparently)

I do recommend this card, but only if you are prepared to handle driver issues. If you aren't going to use a headset, then just opt for the sound card alone instead of the one with the control module.

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  Sound is amazing. Works really well.

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  A driver issue causes shutdown trouble in Windows 10 on Asus motherboards. What will happen is Windows will shutdown, but the hardware will still have power going to it unless you turn it off at the power supply. It will happen about 50% of the time at shutdown or restart.

By vulcz Loving this sound card. Recently upgraded my computer, and sadly wasn't able to use my old sound card (X-Fi Fatal1ty Professional PCI) because my new motherboard (ASRock z97 Extreme6) doesn't have any PCI slots.

Great upgrade from my x-fi fatality, require soundcard if you have high end headphones

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  -Capable to drive high end headphone, -perfect sound quality with HD558 headphones, -Great stable drivers, -good build quality

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  -Red led lighting not perfect with my blue lightning

I have an

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  - Sound quality is amazing.

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  Can't really think of anything negative to say about it.

Would buy again. I wish the LED could change colors or be turned off.

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  Sounds great. Was an upgrade from my audigy fatal1ty. Has separate port for headphones and speakers.. nice.. no more Y connector.

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  Comes out of the box with an over abundance of high frequency. Once I used the eq to make it "warmer" it sounds amazing. Bloated / unnecessary software is always Creative's issue. This one is no exception. - 1 egg off for poor software.

Not recommended for those who are purchasing this card for a home theater system setup Recommended for those who simply wanna adjust their 2.1 (computer speakers) for better sound quality

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  It has its equalizer and other tools to use to optimize your sound

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  5.1 Channel has a half second audio delay and theres no fix to it!!!

I will probably never get the headphone breakout jacks out of the box. The ZX is not the same card as the Z. I think its worth the extra cash for the high end caps alone. Plus you get all the cords and other extras that you may need someday.

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  Well built and sounds great. The capacitors used in the ZX seem to be a step above what is used in the Z. FAR better than the on board Recon 3Di in my Area 51 R2. The software is great with a nice 10 band equalizer and other odds and ends.

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  Drivers and configuration issues. Some crashing. Might need to fiddle with it and try some slot swapping to get going. Not worth an egg though. Its so worth it if you love HiFi music. Can't put it in a laptop.

11/10 card. You would never know you wanted one until you had it. And now that i have a good sound card, it leaves on board audio in the dust. A must have for audiophiles.

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  Im useing the ILive IHB23B model desktop speakers and its a vast improvement. Where i was once useing the on-board sound, which pushed them halfway decent, these added clarity and depth that left me at a loss for words.

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  I only wish they could incorporate a hot keys switch for speaker to headphones, or add a manual switch on the separate component