I don't think I have to introduce the X-fi soundcard series from Creative, most of us know that it's an extremely powerful soundcard in whatever form or shape it comes in. The main problem with the cards have been the price as the cheapest card even has gone for over 120$.

Of all the sound cards on the market, one of the most popular ones is the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer . There are hundreds of user reviews on it and the vast majority of them are very positive.

This card has API support for both gaming and home theaters

The XtremeGamer only has 3.5mm I/O ports; which limits potential

I have used creative sound cards many times before and they have never let me down. I was pleased to see that it was more geared for music / media. I did not need all the extras included for gaming.

Very easy to install; update process went smoothly

None so far

Bargain? So would I buy an X-Fi Xtreme Gamer? You might be surprised to hear that I wouldn't. I've been thoroughly impressed with the sound quality from the card and the performance in games but this isn't the card for me. One of the drawbacks of the Xtreme Gamer card is a lack of connectivity.

Creative's Xtreme Audio Notebook is a reworked version of the audio company's entry-level Xtreme Audio PCI card, only for notebooks, as its name suggests. The card is the first product from Creative to make use of the Express card slot form factor, so only works with newer notebooks; it won't fit...

Creative's high-end audio hardware gets resized to notebook level in this iteration of the company's X-Fi family, which is welcome news for those disappointed with their lappy's onboard audio (which, to be fair, is rarely up to snuff).

Will enhance your laptops inbuilt audio with ease

More expensive upgrades could be better

Buying a sound card for a new PC isn't something many of us have thought about doing for many years. After all, motherboards have built-in audio that does the job just fine, right? Well, that's true to a point.

Excellent sound quality; intuitive mixer interface and equaliser settings

Some games may not run properly under Windows Vista; so it's best to check Creative's Web site for the games compatibility list

What they did with this card was get a lower quality, and poorly supported chip and stick the X-Fi label on it. It's not a good card. Drivers are dodgy and completely non existent for Linux. The sound is OK, but not noticeably better than what you would get from an Audigy SE or something.

PCI-E

Deceptive name; bad drivers

When compared to the graphics market, audio technology has been crawling along at a snail's pace. However, PC-based entertainment is under more intense competition thanks to next generation consoles and home theater systems.

I bought this sound card around Dec. 2008 to replace my SoundBlaster Live! 24 Bit basic card (an okay sound card), because I wanted just a little more sparkle in my games, DVDs & mp3s. It gave me that, and a whole lot more. I bought the card for $69.95 USD at BestBuy.