Creative Labs SB1090 USB Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1

Other products by Creative Labs

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 2.4 x 6.3 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0017QQQAE
• Item model number: 70SB10900000
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,081 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

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  Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Internal Desktop Components > Sound Cards

• Date first available at Amazon.com: December 19, 2005

Product Description

Product Description
Adding the USB Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 sound card is the easiest way to make your music and movies sound their best. X-Fi Technology restores details and vibrance your music and movies lost during compression, making them richer and fuller, and expands stereo into surround sound with headphones or speakers. Plus it includes PowerDVD software via free download for the ultimate PC movie entertainment experience.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of money if youre running Vista 32 or 64 bit!!, September 17, 2008

By	Homepro (Moose Lake, MN) - See all my reviews

I purchased this Creative Labs X-Fi 5.1 external sound card to watch movies on my new laptop based on Creatives reputation, past creative products and the reviews that I read here.

The good:
Playing music is awesome. Mp3 files trully do sound great.

The bad:
The previous reviewers must not have been running Windows Vista. (I'm running the 64 bit version). After plugging the card into my USB port, installing the the software, and plugging in my Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speaker system, I sat down to watch a movie. There is a terrible sound lag that makes watching a movie seem like you're watching a baddly dubbed foriegn film. The actors speak and the action happens before you hear the sound. I have tried to reinstall the software and drivers numerous times and the only way to correct the sound lag is uninstall the Creative software and drivers and go back to the Vista drivers. Unfortunately without Creatives drivers you loose the mp3 fuctions that make the music sound so good. Also, when using creatives software / sound card my cpu is really being worked hard sometimes up to 100% cpu usage when watching a dvd (it averages about 30 - 40% with music and nothing else running). I'm running a 2.0 ghz dual core processor with 4 gigs of ram???

I contacted Creative support over a week ago and have yet to get a reply. I am very unhappy with this sound card and with Creatives customer service. If you want to read more about the sound lag just check out creatives public forum, theres over 9 pages about this issue.

I've heard that if youre running Windows XP there is no lag. So if you are running XP or just want to listen to music this might be right for you. If your running Vista don't waste your money. Creative should not advertise that this is Vista compatable until they figure out this lag issue!!!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent purchase that saved the day, August 15, 2008

By	Wayne Cox - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had the unfortunate experience of frying the sound on not one but two Dell Inspiron 5100 laptops, and was faced with the dilemma of either replacing both motherboards or both laptops, as the sound chipset is obviously built right onto the motherboard. How fortunate I was to buy Creative Labs USB Sound Blaster X-Fi for a little over $36! The sound is excellent, the product superior, and truly saved the day for me! Hats off to Creative Labs for a job well done!

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Decent -- but slows your PC down, September 8, 2008

By	Subrahmanyam Kalyanasundaram (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I purchased this creative x-fi more than a month back. The installations went smooth and it started working well on my Laptop, which is nearly 4 years old. My laptop runs on Windows XP and has 1 GB ram on it.

First, the pros. The sound is much better than the in built sound card. The x-fi now drives my 5.1 speakers, and the effects are amazing. Even for mp3 songs, the sound quality has a marked improvement. The sound feels much more rich and full. The volume dial and quick mute are quite handy as well.

The main problem that I am facing with this is that whenever I am seeing a DVD, or streaming from a website which has high quality sound, my PC gives up after around an hour. The whole PC goes unbelievably slow, and I have to stop watching the DVD. I cannot understand why a separate sound processor should slow my PC sound. Isn't the whole point to take the sound processing load away from my PC? The PC needs a restart, preferably after unhooking the x-fi from the USB port.

This might also be because my laptop is kind of old, so people with old machines -- think twice before purchasing the x-fi. Basically, when the sound is too rich, especially from a DVD, there is too much load on the PC and it goes slow. The sound is awesome while it lasts. So people, weigh your priorities and make your choice.