Should I upgrade to SB Live 5.1?

I have the SB Live Value card, but wondered if there is a noticible difference between the 2? If Tom would do a review on sound cards it would be GREAT! Anyone have the 5.1 card (any of them)

I agree. I hope Tom does do a review as I believe he gives some of the best advice for products on the net. Since I am going to be getting the Midiland S4 8200 speakers, I can't have anything less than 5.1 technology.

Too many things to buy, not enough money...

It really depends on your speakers. If you have normal surround sound 4.1 speakers then stick with your SBLive Value. If you upgrade your speakers to 5.1 digital then it makes sense to drive them with the 5.1 SBLive digital card.

My speakers right now don't justify buying a new card, but I am just about ready to buy the Midiland S4 8200 speaker system. If you need speakers definately check them out.

except...it's not exactly expensive at £49 is it....

what exactly are the 5 channels again? is it front left, front right, rear left, rear right, and subwoofer? sounds right, but i could be wrong

TBird 800 - Asus A7V 1004d
256 PC133 - WD 10BG ATA66
Voodoo3 2000 - SB PCI 128

No sense in getting the newer version since all it has is different packaged software.

Hey,

I have an x gamer 5.1. What equipment do I need to get to have 5.1 surround? I already have 4 speakers. Do I need to get another one and then a digital receiver, or do I need to get special speakers. (The speakers that I have are not computer speakers they are the ones that just have a thing of wire at the end. I have 2 of them plugged into a subwoofer, and the sub is plugged into one of the regular speaker outlets in my SBLive! The other 2 are just sitting around)

Thanks

Welcome to a new year.
I recently installed the DE 5.1 sound card. Very impressed. 3 days ago I added an analogue 5.1 speaker system, and have now realised that a 4.1 setup would have been okay. The sound card is basically a 6 channel sound card. One port for front satellites, one port for rear satellites and one port for centre speaker and subwoofer(with it's own bass control knob on the DTT2200). The first thing I noticed is that the centre channel does all sound, no matter what channel should be voicing the sound(tested this in Deus Ex, maybe other programs will take into account the 5.1 setup and shut centre up) this means that sounds coming from behind also come through the front speaker. Bad for Thief gamers.
The digital DTTD3500 speaker system plugs into only 1 port on the card(same port as the Centre/Subwoofer). The decoder then sends to each individual channel. I think it comes with 18" tripods for the rear speakers too. The DTT2200 doco says you can order these through creative.com, but I just wasted an hour or 2 on that site and found nowhere to buy them. Gunna get the Kiosk stand anyway.
Conclusion: 5.1 is great for movies, but unecessary for surround sound gaming. Oh, and beer is good!

The only stupid questions are the unasked questions.

So how about Phillips's new Acoustic Edge!!! Sounds great.

Anything else in the works?

<b> Fragg at will!!! </b>